When DCM wrote the first institutional check into Figure Technologies, the Menlo Park-based venture firm was making a risky bet on both an unproven use of blockchain technology and a founder with a checkered past. Nearly eight years later, that decision is set to deliver one of DCM’s biggest wins: a stake worth nearly 60x its original value, based on the opening price for Figure’s NASDAQ debut.

DCM led Figure’s 2017 seed round with a $10 million check, ultimately becoming the company’s largest venture backer with 11.3% ownership, according to regulatory filings.

The company’s shares opened at $36 a share on Thursday, nearly 30% above the IPO price, continuing a streak of successful public listings. Based on Thursday’s share price, DCM’s stake is valued at $600 million.

After years of little to no IPO activity, the market finally roared back to life this summer, capped by a successful debut for Figma. This week, Klarna, which had been private for 20 years, went public at a $15.1 billion valuation. Meanwhile, StubHub launched its IPO roadshow Monday.

David Chao, DCM’s cofounder and general partner, first heard the pitch in 2017 for Figure from its founder, Michael Cagney, over his favorite meal at Balboa Cafe, one of San Francisco’s oldest restaurants.

“He loves eating hamburgers,” recalled Chao. “He’s always ordering burgers.”

Cagney quickly laid out the inefficiencies he had battled while building SoFi, the personal finance company he left that same year.

“He was hungry, he wanted to prove himself, and he wanted to change the industry again,” Chao said.

Cagney explained that every time SoFi originated a pool of loans, merchant banks had to verify and package them before they could be sold to institutions like Fidelity — a slow, paper-heavy process where middlemen skimmed fees while adding little value. Cagney’s solution was to use blockchain as a ledger that could replace costly intermediaries.

Chao was sold on Cagney’s vision on the spot.

“There are few geniuses in the world in every industry, and I think he’s one of them,” Chao said. “His brain moves 10 times as fast as all of us combined.”

Even though Chao was convinced, he still needed to sway his partners, who viewed anything related to blockchain as suspicious.

“It was a controversial deal even within DCM,” said Chao. “We didn’t have any proof points. We didn’t even know whether the banks would join the ecosystem because it was blockchain.”

Some also had doubts about Cagney himself, who had departed SoFi following reports of inappropriate relationships with employees and concerns about company culture.

“I had to be convinced that this is a different person,” Chao said.

Chao, who had served on SoFi’s board, said he eventually saw Cagney had learned from his mistakes.

“I spent six months with Mike after he left SoFi,” Chao said. “We talked very often about when he builds the next company, how he would do things differently.”

Chao said the differences at Figure were obvious from the beginning, as Chao built a different culture than SoFi, with stricter controls and governance.

“If I didn’t see a changed person, it wouldn’t have happened,” Chao said.

Chao says Cagney also learned how to be more capital efficient, which allowed Figure to stay lean as many other fintech companies raised too much money and were forced to raise down rounds when the market soured.

Chao also points to the company’s balance sheet, which showed a net profit of $29 million this year, reversing a $13 million loss from the same period last year.

“99% of the fintech companies that are not profitable when they go public,” Chao said. “We are the only company that is going to be profitable at IPO.”

Chao credits his longstanding relationship with Cagney, which began when they first met in 2012, when he invested in SoFi’s first VC-backed round, with helping him land the Figure seed investment in 2017.

“If there’s any story here, it’s that VC is still a relationship business,” Chao said. “Mike could have taken money from anybody, but he’s very loyal. He wants to work with people he’s worked with for a long time. Same with us.”