Silicon Valley Companies Can't Retain Skills: Employees Involved in the Crypto Industry

One of the main requirements of the crypto industry is its rapid recovery. In addition to the benefits for the newbie trader, some of the participants can sell the cryptocurrency company itself.

When Sandy Carter stepped down as vice president of Amazon Cloud Computing this month, she announced on LinkedIn that she would be joining the crypto technology company. It also has a link to this crypto recruiting site.

In two days, he said, more than 350 people clicked that link to apply to Unstoppable Domains, many of them from large internet companies. The startup sells addresses on the blockchain network.

"It's a wonderful storm." Carter said. "The energy that we have seen in this area is just amazing."

Carter is part of a wave of awareness among executives and engineers at Google, Amazon, Apple, and other tech companies.Some executives and professionals make millions of dollars a year, but have now quit their jobs to catch up with the gold rush they are seeing. They said the next most important thing is encryption. This is a hat that includes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and products like NFTs that are built on the blockchain.

Silicon Valley now has plenty of traveler stories about a life-changing journey thanks to investments like Fury (eg, Doge meme based on Dogecoin). Bitcoin has grown 60% this year, and the value of Ethereum has more than tripled.

But on top of that crazy thinking, more and more of the best and smartest people in the tech industry are seeing a period of change that happens every few years. Through cryptography, they see the parallels in the history of personal computers and the internet, where they are ridiculed, shattering the status quo and creating a new generation of billionaires..Investors have invested more than $ 28 billion in the global crypto and blockchain launch this year, quadrupling the total through 2020, according to data from PitchBook, which tracks private investment. NFT companies alone receive over $ 3 billion.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, former CEO of Google and CEO of search engine startup Neeva, said, “There is a huge swallow in the crypto space,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy. "It's like the vibe of the 90s and the birth of the Internet is over. It's too early, too stressful, there is enough time."

Neeva CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said, "There is a huge buzz in the cryptocurrency space," Neeva CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said outside the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. . Jessica Chu / New York Times

“Crypto” also changed its name to Web 3, and people don't believe it will be any different from the concept of the previous bubble (like subprime loans or the 17th century tulip craze). They say that interest is often driven by the desire to get rich quick in the real estate industry, which seems to follow jokes online.

But those who really believe in it say cryptocurrencies can change the world by creating more online businesses that aren't controlled by a handful of companies. This potential has been around since the advent of Bitcoin in 2009, but crypto products such as NFTs have by definition exploded this year. This caused the entry of big tech companies into the cryptocurrency world.

This month Lyft CFO Brian Roberts left the carsharing company to join the popular OpenSea cryptocurrency industry. “I've seen enough circles and changes,” said Lyft founder John Zimmer. He wants Roberts to be the best at his new business.

Last month, Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter and spent more time at another company, Square. Dorsey also changed the name "Square" to "Block" to pay homage to the blockchain. To cope with these changes, he also developed software tools to change the administrator image in pixel avatars and allow others to create similar pixel avatars.

In addition, David Marcus, head of cryptocurrency marketing at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also announced that he will be leaving before last year to follow his 'business DNA'. Two people familiar with the plan say Marcus, 48, is considering starting his cryptocurrency business.

David Marcus and the Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

The temptation of the crypto space has prompted some of the biggest tech companies to rush to keep their employees engaged.At Google, concerns about employee detention (like avoiding trading with cryptocurrency companies) are so rapid that information is now part of the process that the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, and his agent principal, meet every Monday, and I know them. noted.

People familiar with the matter have also reported that Google has started offering additional shares to some of the company's employees, which appears to be "pushing the corner." Google declined to comment.

Unlike Meta, which embraces encryption, Google has refused to commit to this model. But when company vice president Surojit Chatterjee left the head of product operations at Coinbase, one of the largest exchanges last year, Google employees found the bricks in the face of the cryptocurrency. first.

When Coinbase went public in April of this year, Chatterjee products raised over $ 600 million. At the time, it only worked for 14 months.

These huge crypto assets have raised fears of the demise of many professionals, especially those who bought Bitcoin a few years ago and now have large sums of money (FOMO).

Evan Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs, a startup focused on building blockchain infrastructure projects, said, “Around 2017, most people are looking for investment. Now it's the people who want to make something real. "

Evan Cheng, 50, resigned in September this year after working on Facebook for six years and previously working in Novi's Crypto Projects department. Mysten Labs has around 20 employees, mostly in San Francisco, London, New York, and elsewhere, of which around 80% are from tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Netflix.

A gauche, Sam Blackshear, Evan Cheng et Adiniyi Abiodun de Mysten Labs. Ian C. Bates / New York Times

There has been an increase in companies focusing on the blockchain space, including cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitpanda, Gemini, and CoinList, NFTs and art companies such as OpenSea and Dapper Labs, and corporations. design like Dfinity and Alchemy.

Concerns about the governance and independence of technology companies have also fueled this reflection. Many have joined Google, Facebook and other companies to develop new ones, but they have suffered from bureaucracy and are uncomfortable with how “big machines” work.

People who deposit money at large companies don't have to wait as long as they would with a normal business start-up.

While most employees receive lower salaries from tech startups and expect the costs of operating the business to rise someday, employees at crypto startups are more likely to be successful. 'access to "markets" or investment portfolios. Dan McCarthy, hired CEO of venture capital firm Paradigm, wrote an article on the benefits of working at cryptocurrency startups for tech professionals, said most companies can be traded in the form of cryptocurrencies.

Sometimes crypto startups can offer rewards similar to tech companies, as employees can redeem their corporate 'tokens' or those cryptocurrencies that support startups for cash. .

Evan Cheng said, “Now that many companies have invested, wages should no longer be reduced to one-third of the wages of large companies. "

Former Amazon vice president Sandy Carter said people work for cryptocurrency companies, not just money. Some are drawn to the spirit of Web3, which has been devoted to the distribution of power and influence. Compared to Google or Facebook as the Internet leader in collecting users' personal information and selling ad campaigns, this is another option.

Carter said Amazon liked Web3 but didn't hire it on Web3 because they promised not to "grab" their former colleagues.

So, will there be intellectual staff moving out into the next encryption space?

“The answer is yes,” he said. “Now is the time to join. "