I left Stanford in 2014 to co-found Sidewire, a platform for political experts to discuss news, aiming to create a focused conversation without the noise of social media.

Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase, faced skepticism from investors who viewed Bitcoin as a bubble and associated it with fraud, complicating his efforts to secure funding. Even in his Y Combinator application, he didn't fully believe in his own idea for Coinbase, which initially focused on peer-to-peer transfers rather than buying and holding Bitcoin.

My time at Stanford was pivotal; it was the first class to start with Facebook, which changed perceptions about young people being able to innovate and bring game-changing ideas to market.

When I left school in 2014, I was very interested in cryptocurrency but hesitant to engage due to uncertainty about its future.

The creation of Bitcoin was a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis, reflecting distrust in government and traditional banking systems.

I wanted to contribute to Bitcoin because I know how to build and scale software companies and corral capital to address succinct problems.

While at Stanford, I took a class called Startup Engineering, which emphasized practical skills needed to start a business, rather than just high-level theories.

I was the president of the Computer Science Undergraduate Association at UC Berkeley, and I loved inviting founders to speak to students to inspire them to start their own startups.

I decided to start an internet company in 1995 instead of pursuing a PhD at Stanford because I wanted to be part of the technological advancements happening at that time.