Ep. 72: 'Hell yes' hiring for Coinbase, building on decentralized protocols with John Yi, Group Product Manager

What’s different about the decentralized business model of a company like Coinbase? Why do they measure success based on customer experience? And how do they find the best talent with the right mindset to join the Coinbase team? John Yi is the Group Product Manager for Services at Coinbase, a digital currency platform where merchants and consumers can transact with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Based in San Francisco, Coinbase is on a mission to champion economic freedom through innovation in digital currency. John’s role is to manage the teams that build the infrastructure for consumer products. Today, John joins us to explain how a conversation at Occupy Wall Street sparked his interest in cryptocurrency. He shares Coinbase’s ‘hell yes’ hiring policy, describing the entrepreneurial mindset of the company’s team. John speaks to what’s different about a decentralized business model and the challenge of building interoperable products and scalable infrastructure. Listen in for John’s insight on the concept of non-fungible tokens and learn about Coinbase’s focus on customer experience! Topics Covered What sparked John’s interest in cryptocurrency 2011 at Occupy Wall Street rally in NYC Conversation on transcending centralized money Coinbase’s transparent hiring policy ‘If you’re not a hell yes, you’re a no’ Bias toward entrepreneurial mindset What’s different about the decentralized business model Build trust to keep people coming back (don’t hoard value) Products interoperable with any number of others How Coinbase employees get up to speed on the industry Bias toward raw intellect and curiosity Learn by nature of work, Coinbase University What has surprised John about the crypto industry Wrong about payments as main use case Concept of non-fungible tokens (NFT) John’s role at Coinbase Build infrastructure behind consumer products Work with consumer team on NPS John’s definition of success Work on stuff you enjoy with people you admire Connect with John Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/ Coinbase on Twitter https://twitter.com/coinbase Coinbase on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Coinbase/ John on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnyi/ John on Medium https://medium.com/@johnyi275 John on Twitter https://twitter.com/johnyi275 Resources ‘Bar Raisers at Coinbase: If You’re Not a Hell Yes, You’re a No’ on The Coinbase Blog https://blog.coinbase.com/bar-raisers-at-coinbase-if-youre-not-a-hell-yes-you-re-a-no-68145c6fbe60 Ethmoji https://ethmoji.io/ CryptoKitties https://www.cryptokitties.co/ True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer https://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-Thoughts-Movements-Perennial/dp/0060505915 Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/ Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/ Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC