Coinbase plans to go public on Wednesday, and as there always is when a company gets valued at an incredible number, the stories shared by those involved are epic.
Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, who started the company with current CEO Brian Armstrong in 2012, stayed on as president until 2017 and is still on the board, shared a brief story on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
"When Brian Armstrong and I started Coinbase in 2012, a Bitcoin was worth $6 and only known by a few nerds on the internet. Bitcoin was the crazy idea that the world could have a digital money for everyone.
"Coinbase had one mission: to make crypto easy to use. Beginnings were not glamorous. Coinbase launched out of a two bedroom apartment we shared with another company. We were far from conventional.
"For our first hire, we selected a whip smart fanatical lumberjack over a Google manager. Over time, crypto grew, and so did the company. A simple Bitcoin wallet evolved into individual and institutional products to support a blossoming cryptoeconomy. (Two) nerds who met on the internet (yes, Brian Armstrong and I met on Reddit turned into a company of 1000+.
"There was serious hardship. In the 3 years between 2014 and 2017, the outside world thought crypto was dead. Over a third of employees left."
When trading opens on Wednesday afternoon, Ehrsam's shares will be worth more than $2 billion and Armstrong's will top $15 billion.
Answer those early calls and emails paid off in a big way for some, including Jonathan Golden.
I worked side by side with @brian_armstrong at @Airbnb before @coinbase. I asked him how I could buy #BTC. He said it was hard but that he was working on solving it… so instead I angel invested in @coinbase which was ironically easier at the time 😂. Thx Brian and congrats! 🚀
— Jonathan Golden (@jpgg) April 14, 2021
There are also stories of brutal near misses like Sahil Lavingia's story.
Lavingia, the CEO and founder of Gumroad, which sells products by creators directly to consumers, shared a story of Armstrong approaching him early on in the Coinbase process to discuss creating the company.
In 2011 with Bitcoin worth roughly a dollar, Lavingia passed on Armstrong's idea of starting a crypto company together.
Found the original email: “I'm coding on a project in digital currencies right now which I'll be applying to YC with in the next batch.” pic.twitter.com/84TlHKKJYS
— Sahil (@shl) April 14, 2021
Coinbase is expected to open on the Nasdaq at about $360 per share on Wednesday afternoon.
Fittingly, Ehrsam finished his thread with a note to the one who seemingly started it all.
"Thank you Satoshi, whoever you are."
