Homebrew Member Spotlight - Resolv CEO, Will Lawson
Will Lawson got drained in college. Now he’s making stolen crypto recoverable—meet the founder behind Resolv.
This week, we’re shining a light on Will Lawson, co-founder of Resolv, a protocol designed to recover stolen crypto and put it back in your wallet. Inspired by his own experience of getting drained in college, Will is on a mission to bring zero-liability fraud protection to Web3.
From brainstorming with fellow Homebrew members to gearing up for a mainnet launch soon, Will is proving that SF is still a hub for crypto builders. Check out his full story here! ⬇️
Will Lawson, Resolv Co-Founder and CEO
(Editor’s note: this interview has been slightly edited for clarity and length. Text formatting added for emphasis.)
Q: Can you describe your startup in a few sentences?
A: Resolv is building a protocol that puts stolen crypto back in your wallet. What we do is we create recoverable ERC-20 tokens or a recoverable twin to ERC-20 tokens that we call P-tokens. The “P” stands for protective. Now, if the P-tokens are stolen, we have a decentralized group of jurors that verifies your claim and gets them back.
Q: What inspired you to work on this?
A: Back in 2022, I got my wallet drained. It was everything I had—I was in college at the time, and they left me with nothing. And I thought to myself, crypto is supposed to be the modern alternative to traditional finance, yet I can just lose my life savings? That shouldn’t be the case.
I mean, look at the traditional banking system. They have zero liability fraud protection—for example, if you get your credit card stolen and someone runs up a bunch of charges, you can usually get the money back. But crypto has nothing like that. How can we become a global financial system without the right safeguards in place? That’s what Resolv is meant to be.
Q: Startups are hard. What keeps you motivated?
A: That’s a great question. I could lie to you and say, oh, it’s the grind, it’s the mission, it’s the impact we’re making. But honestly? It’s my co-founder. He’s a great support system.
Even when I feel like everything is going wrong—like we can’t get off the ground, or things just aren’t going right—he manages to say the right words and keeps me going.
Q: What’s his name?
A: Clark. Clark Jones.
Q: How did you two meet?
A: We met in college. Resolv actually started as a class project, and we met in that class. I pitched the idea to the class, Clark joined the team, and we saw that the idea had legs—so we just ran with it.
Q: Which class was that?
A: It was called TE 250: From Idea to Enterprise.
Q: Who or what has been a key influence or source of inspiration during this startup journey?
A: It might sound cliché at this point, but for us, it’s been a combination of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.
Jobs, of course, for the level of design and attention to detail. Elon for the work ethic. We look at people like that and say, if they were able to do what they did, at the level they did it, then who are we not to?
Q: What’s the most exciting milestone you’ve hit so far?
A: Actually, just yesterday, we hit $100 million in reservations. These are folks who have connected their wallets to our site. Another term for it is connected wallet value.
And something coming up—we’re launching onto mainnet next month. So we’re rapidly headed toward that and working around the clock to make it happen.
Q: That’s awesome! Is there an underrated tool, resource, or framework you can’t live without?
A: One that comes to mind is this time management hack I found.
Basically, it states that you have one big priority—one major project that you can do in a day. Then three smaller tasks, which may take 45 minutes to an hour each. And finally, five tiny tasks—little things like take the dog out for a walk, send some money to grandma, etc.
So: one major thing, three medium things, five small things. That’s how I break down my day.
Q: Does that framework have a name?
A: Yeah, it’s called the 1-3-5 Rule.
Q: How has being part of Homebrew influenced your work?
A: Honestly? The community here has been awesome.
A lot of crypto is moving to New York or the East Coast, and knowing that there are still crypto people here, specifically at Homebrew, is huge. It’s great to be able to bounce ideas off of people who actually understand the space.
Tyler has been a massive help. And Nori—she and I brainstormed for like two hours on a problem I was having. I don’t think I could have done that without someone with smart contract engineering experience.
Q: If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice at the start of your startup journey, what would it be?
A: Move faster.
I don’t know how to phrase it exactly, but it has to do with speed and focus. I used to try doing everything at once, even things that didn’t move the needle. Now, we set one clear goal and sprint towards it with full intensity.
It’s not about doing 1% every day—it’s about doing 10% every day for the next 10 days. It’s a sprint. That’s where the most impactful work happens.
Q: Any side projects or hobbies outside of your startup that inspire your creativity?
A: I’m learning French.
One of my goals is to become one of the greatest orators of all time. Learning another language expands your vocabulary, gives you new ways to express ideas, and improves communication.
I’m also doing improv, which helps with storytelling and public speaking. I know I may not be the best right now—but I will be.
Q: What’s something about your startup or the crypto industry that you think everyone should know?
A: Crypto is not just about scams.
It’s obvious to us in the space, but not to outsiders. Whenever there’s a monetary incentive, bad actors will exploit it—that happens in every industry. But crypto is so much more than that.
At Resolv, we’re working to remove that stigma by creating zero liability fraud protection. If we want mainstream adoption, we need trust—and that’s what we’re here to build.
Q: What’s a topic you could talk about for hours?
A: The idea that life is a game, and like any game, there are levels to it.
How do you level up? Through self-improvement, mindset, fitness, work, and contribution to society.
I can talk about that forever.
You can follow Will and Resolv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/king-lawson/