Billionaire Coinbase Cofounder with Brian Armstrong.
Early years
He was a professional video game player as a teen, focusing on World of Warcraft.
He graduated from Duke University with degrees in computer science and economics. Subsequently, Duke invested in Coinbase’s series C fund, and they have received a 100x return for their money.
During an interview he described attending his first Bitcoin meet up in San Francisco. “It was early 2012 and they were in a furniture showroom that opened up at night for extra cash… I think roughly a third of the people who showed up were homeless. They just wanted to the free food and booze.”
The start of Coinbase
Ehrsam met Brian Armstrong on a Bitcoin subreddit forum. They launched the company from a two-bedroom appointment, reportedly having employees working from the laundry room and the roof.
Apparently, Ehrsam is an extremely difficult person to interview with apparently. Coinbase’s very first employee, Carlson-Wee, related the story of a “really brutal mathematics problem,” that he was expected to solve during his interview.
“There are 100 lockers in a row. They are all closed. A kid goes by. He opens every single locker. A second kid goes by. Now he closes every other locker. Third kid comes by, and changes every third locker – if it’s open he closes it, if it’s closed he opens it. Then the fourth kid goes by. Every fourth locker he changes the state. Now 100 kids go by. What is the state of the lockers after 100 kids go by?” (Hint: The answer has to do with perfect squares.)
Cutting ties and making money
Ehrsam left Coinbase in 2017 to found Paradigm, a large crypto investment firm that manages over a billion dollars. He remained on the Coinbase board.
After the Coinbase IPO entry into the stock market in April 2021, Ehrsam was one of the main insiders to sell off his shares in the first six months, worth over 400 million dollars. He sold shares again early 2022 and made 500 million dollars.
Interestingly, he bought 75 million dollars worth of Coinbase stock in May 2022, via his investment company Paradigm.
