Topic
8 facts from 5 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2012
Coinbase was founded in June 2012 by former Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong and Goldman Sachs trader Fred Ehrsam.
“in june of 2012 two co-founders former airbnb engineer brian armstrong and goldman sachs trader fred ursom they're like we need to build an exchange”
2012
Rose met Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong at a Y Combinator Demo Day and told him he wanted to invest.
“And I saw him at Demo Day at YC. And I told him I wanted to invest.”
2012
Anu Hariharan said Brian Armstrong tried to raise $750,000 on Demo Day and only about 30% of the round was filled, since few understood Bitcoin at the time.
“He went out and said, I want to raise 750K. Only 30% of the round got filled.”
2012
At a 2012 Bitcoin conference in San Jose, Armstrong met Vitalik Buterin for the first time, before Buterin had invented Ethereum.
“Like the Winklevoss brothers showed up and I met Vitalik Buterin there for the first time. He had not invented Ethereum yet.”
2020
Armstrong said some advisors predicted half of Coinbase would quit over the mission-first policy, but about 5% left.
“some people said 50 % of the company will quit and all this. And it turned out to be 5%.”
Undated
A friend told Armstrong that building a cold-storage system would normally take a team of about ten people a couple of years, while Coinbase had about eight weeks.
“a team of like 10 people would take probably a couple of years to really validate it and everything”
Undated
After Armstrong demanded engineers onboard to AI coding tools within a week, some who had not done so were fired.
“some of them didn't and they got fired”
Undated
Lütke says Coinbase faced intense regulatory attack, and he praises CEO Brian Armstrong's handling of it.
“that's like, they went through like, the government wanted them dead.”
Episodes