Multicoin Capital cofounder Kyle Samani gives career advice

Multicoin Capital

• Kyle Samani, a cofounder and managing partner of the crypto
  fund Multicoin Capital who was recently named to Forbes’ “30
  Under 30” finance list, shared the story of his entrepreneurial
  journey and gave some advice to aspiring startup founders.
• “Find your passion, and figure out how to do that 20 hours
  per day,” he said.

Sometimes failure doesn’t have to be devastating — it might lead
to a breakthrough moment. That describes Kyle Samani’s journey to
becoming a technology entrepreneur.

Samani, 28, is a cofounder and managing partner of Multicoin
Capital, a fund based in Austin, Texas, that exclusively invests
in the crypto space. He was also recently
named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” finance list.

Samani started programming at age 11, but he didn’t think he was
born to be an entrepreneur. He went to New York University to
study finance and thought he would climb the corporate ladder on
Wall Street. But after college, he realized his passion was
really in high-growth technology businesses and startups.

In 2013, Samani cofounded his first company, Pristine, which
built Google Glass software for surgeons. Though Google Glass was
not a well-received consumer product, it was an interesting tool
for certain types of workers, Samani said.

Despite raising over $5 million in venture capital and hiring
about 30 employees, Samani ended up finding a new strategy for
Pristine after Google halted consumer sales of Google Glass in
2015.

In March 2016, Samani stumbled upon Ethereum, which opened the
next chapter in his life and eventually led him to the world of
crypto investment. Samani said he was drawn to Ethereum because
of its open-source platform.

“I felt the pain of platform risk when Google literally pulled
the rug out from under me,” he said. The idea of having an open
platform where this couldn’t happen was appealing to him.

He spent hours learning about cryptocurrency and launched
Multicoin Capital in August 2017.

“In our early days, we were really hustlers,” Samani said.

“When we were raising early capital, we had no brand, no track
record, and no operational infrastructure,” he added. “We reached
out to everyone in our networks, our friends, our families, our
friends’ friends, and the network of other entrepreneurs.”

Multicoin Capital has grown fast since then. The crypto fund now
has $75 million in assets under management
and is backed by mainstream investors like Marc Andreessen,
the Andreessen Horowitz partner, and David Sacks, the former
PayPal exec and Yammer CEO.

Here’s Samani’s best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

Find your passion and follow it.

To Samani, passion is the thread running through his
entrepreneurial journey and supporting his working 15 to 20 hours
a day.

“Follow your passions, even if starting a company is grueling and
hard,” he said. “There are going to be days that you feel
everything is going wrong. The way you will make it through this
is by fixating on what you are really, truly passionate about.
So, find your passion, and figure out how to do that 20 hours per
day.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

“People in the entrepreneur world come from all different majors.
If you need help with meeting investors, thinking about financial
modeling, and recruiting, just ask these people. Even if they are
not the right person to help you, they will probably know
somebody who is.”

Be thankful and gracious to the people around
you.

“The entrepreneur community today is so robust and helpful. Reach
out to make those people help you, and then return the favor as
hard as you can. Sometimes you won’t be able to return a favor,
but at the very least reach out and let them know you’re
grateful. I just considered it as my personal mandate to pay it
forward. I cannot repay a lot of help, so I pay it forward to the
next batch of entrepreneurs. Be thankful, and let them know you
are appreciative, and pass it forward.”