President and COO Coinbase, Emilie Choi: Rising Through the Crypto Ranks

"Crypto" is a term that has recently re-shaped the way the world thinks about money. For Emilie Choi, President and COO at Coinbase, it has been at the forefront of her work and mind for quite some time. Emilie is a true workplace warrior and that is reflected in her leadership at Coinbase as she has cultivated an ethos that endears her entire organization and those she works alongside.

In this episode, Emilie doesn’t pull the punches as she divulges her own strengths and weaknesses and how she strives to make them both equal assets. She also expounds on fostering connections in the workplace, her mission-oriented mindset, and how it is a mindset she likes to see in entrepreneurs. Emilie also offers essential insight into the current shape of cryptocurrency and the exciting direction that it is headed.      

In this episode, we cover:

• Emilie’s competitive advantage and how she transformed her weakness into an asset. (3:35)
• Sensitivity in the workplace: Emilie opens up about a time when she showed her vulnerability in her “top of mind” email to the organization and how that cultivated a connection across the teams. (7:34)
• Building out LinkedIn’s Corp Dev team in its early stages and how entrepreneurs successfully ran LinkedIn’s three business lines. (9:21)
• Missionary vs mercenary: Emilie shares why it’s refreshing to work with crypto entrepreneurs who are mission-oriented - and Joubin taps into his recent experience with hiring a candidate. (13:00)
• Why Emilie admires Amazon’s core business strategy - and her opinion on companies she would hypothetically buy. (17:36)
• How Emilie’s desire to continue learning led her to make a lateral move from LinkedIn to Coinbase - and how she navigated the recruitment process of her team. (22:10)
• An overview of Coinbase: assets, revenue, long-term trajectory, and their three main focuses - and Emilie breaks down Coinbase’s innovation by comparing it to the evolution of mobile phones. (31:10)
• ‘Volatility is a feature, not a bug’: What volatility means for Coinbase - and why Amazon and Adobe serve as an influence for Coinbase as they invest in their future acts. (38:38)
• Weathering the crypto winter: How Emilie frames investing in crypto to potential buyers - and how she integrates grit and resilience into her role and across the organization. (43:47)
• Emilie shares her thoughts on Coinbase’s %5 employee departure after their pledge to be apolitical - and what she admires about the Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong. (49:09)
• Emilie reflects on what she has learned as she grew into COO and President - and how Coinbase grew to be the number one regulated crypto custodian in the world. (56:22)

Links:

• Connect with Emilie
  • LinkedIn
  • Coinbase
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins