Building @ Coinbase
When I met the Coinbase team in 2014 I felt like I had just met 30 cofounders. Everyone was there to build.
Building the monorail, the exchange, the data pipeline, the banking integrations, the company and building a better financial system. After seeing so many others “playing startup” it was obvious after speaking with the people at Coinbase that they were the real deal.
It wasn’t however obvious the business would survive for long. Just that people were here to build. Together.
When we closed our $75m fundraise in early 2015 I thought we had made it. I quietly waited for the announcement and celebration to follow. Around 7pm some bottles of champagne emerged from the kitchen. It was close!
An hour later sans-announcement, I walked over to a table in front of the kitchen and found red plastic solo cups filled from a nearby bottle of cheap champagne.
A few others had grabbed a cup to take back to their desks. I don’t think Brian had even taken his headphones off. The fundraise would pay for more building — but was otherwise a distraction.
I went back to my desk to build, secure and ship our new infrastructure with some of the finest engineers & people I’ve ever worked with.
For today’s direct listing I’ll be celebrating with a red solo cup and the cheapest champagne I can find. Tonight I’ll be back to work on something I’ve never stopped believing in the importance of: building an open financial system for the world 🚀🚀🚀
