While #Coinbase's #IPO yesterday had a serious impact in many countries, especially in the USA, 10-year Bitcoin and growth stories emerged.
Perhaps the most important and most interesting of these stories is the story of #Garry #Tan, the founder of Initialized Capital venture capital company and invested in Coinbase exactly 8 years ago.
Telling his story in a short video on his YouTube channel with Coinbase's public offering, Tan tells how he met CEO Brian Armstrong and saw the future with Bitcoin and Coinbase.
↘️Here is the story of Garry Tan, whose investment of 300 thousand dollars in 2012 reached a value of 2.4 billion dollars today:
“I met the founder of a company 8 years ago and I invested 300 thousand dollars in his company. Now that investment is worth 2.4 billion dollars ...
'I said' No 'to a $ 40 billion company'
This company is Coinbase and its current market cap is $ 100 billion. This was the best investment I've made in my life. Before that, of course, I made mistakes… I said 'No' to the proposal made from a 40 billion dollar company to be a founding partner and made a mistake that would cost me 200 million dollars. But don't worry about me! As a result, I managed to be one of the first investors of a $ 100 billion company.
↘️Silicon Valley was a crazy place and this is my $ 2 billion success story ...
'Brian Armstrong sent me 0.05 BTC'
In March 2012, Brian Armstrong sent me 0.05 Bitcoins through his then startup Bitbank. Actually, his idea was very simple. Creating a place where people can easily buy, sell and hold Bitcoins. We wanted to test this.
Later, the name of the company was changed to Coinbase. At that time, Bitcoin's market value was less than $ 1 billion. Now over $ 1 trillion ...
After getting the 0.05 bit Bitcoin from Brian, he told me, "Do you know an engineer who wants to be a co-founder?" said. Those who accepted this offer then would have a billion dollars today.
'Make others believe what you believe'
In the reply I wrote to him, I said:
'Maybe you know these right people right now, but they are doing other things. You need to show them that your proposal is much bigger, get them to believe it. You need to convey your belief in this sector, this product to them. '
At that time, nobody really believed in Bitcoin. Finding an investor was very difficult, let alone finding a founding partner. Many people said 'No' but I answered 'Yes'.
One of the main reasons why I responded positively to Brian was that I knew the problem. Buying and selling bitcoin was very difficult. Mt. We've all seen it at Gox. It was a horrible experience. Many things were very wrong.
'I knew the fiat money would collapse'
Secondly, his idea convinced me. I believed the fiat money would collapse. I was working in a hedge fund company and they recommended that we read the book called The Dollar Crisis. This book showed me what the madness of 1971 brought us and what it would bring.
In fact, as Louis Pasteur said, when the head is ready, luck appears to you. So when Brian came to me, my head was ready for this chance.
↘️'To be like the Special Forces…'
Brian was also fighting scams on Airbnb. That company was also a billion dollar venture. Fighting against fraud and hackers in the software world is to be like Special Forces in the real world. At that time, Brian was the target of hackers almost every day.
That's when Brian showed me where the future was at that time.
'If your crazy idea is full, then the day will come'
What I can teach you from my Coinbase story is always dissent, know how to oppose the truth, and stand by the truth. Find historical, psychological evidence that will defend your crazy ideas. Sooner or later, the day will come when your crazy idea will be accepted. But of course if it is a full idea ...
The second is build… Produce. As you produce good products, more people will want to benefit from your service and will invest in you.
Remember, when Brian sent me 0.05 Bitcoin, it was worth 23 cents. He sent me free money, but it also showed his seriousness. It caught my attention. He wanted to build something.
Of course, I was lucky to be the person who received this e-mail from him, to meet him and to have the opportunity to invest in this company.