Michael Shaulov - Fireblocks' Journey from Inception to Present
Nov 30, 2023
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Michael Shaulov, co-founder of Fireblocks, discusses the early days of building the company, finding product market fit, and lessons learned on customer relationships and market expansion. Topics include decision-making in a growing business, the role of luck in success, company culture, and acquiring customers as an international founder.
Fireblocks' success was driven by identifying and solving customer pain points in the crypto market.
Fireblocks' strategic approach of forming close partnerships with early design partners helped them tailor their product to fit customer needs and gain credibility.
Theoretical knowledge gained from education in a specific field can greatly enhance understanding and organization of concepts, even if not directly related to job prospects.
Deep dives
Fireblocks: Providing Critical Elements for Businesses in Digital Assets
Fireblocks is a platform that offers essential services for businesses operating in digital assets. It provides wallet infrastructure, key management technology, and the Fireblocks network for secure settlement between participants in the crypto and digital asset space. Additionally, Fireblocks offers tokenization, a payment engine for stable coins, and integration with Web3 applications. The platform aims to be a cybersecurity and operational solution that allows businesses to securely interact with various blockchain protocols and streamline their operations.
Fireblocks' Journey: From Cybersecurity Expertise to Founding a Crypto Company
The founder of Fireblocks, Michael Shallow, came from a background in cybersecurity. After a sophisticated hack in South Korea caught his attention, he delved deeper into the crypto space and recognized its potential to revolutionize finance. With the goal of understanding customer needs, Fireblocks conducted extensive conversations with potential clients, including early design partners like Genesis and Galaxy. Together, they identified pain points and gaps in the market, leading to the development of a product that solved the challenges of moving assets among trading counter parties. Fireblocks' use of multi-party computation (MPC) for key management was a breakthrough innovation, which addressed security concerns associated with traditional wallet solutions.
Fireblocks: Navigating the Challenges of Commercializing MPC Technology
While several companies were exploring multi-party computation (MPC) as a solution for key management, Fireblocks took a distinct approach. Unlike others, Fireblocks focused on understanding a specific customer profile and their pain points. By forming close partnerships with early design partners, such as Genesis and Galaxy, Fireblocks honed in on the workflows and requirements of market makers and hedge funds. This deep collaboration enabled Fireblocks to mold their product to fit the customers' needs, while also gaining credibility and authenticity by letting the clients speak about the product's efficacy. Fireblocks strategically launched their product after achieving operational success with early partners, leveraging the value of customer testimonies to create market recognition and generate inbound interest.
The Importance of Theory and Education
The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a theoretical background and education in a specific field, even if it may not directly impact job prospects or offer new knowledge. They share their own experience of having a programming background and working as a software engineer before pursuing a computer science degree. They explain that although they already possessed the necessary skills for the job, the theoretical knowledge gained from their degree greatly improved their understanding and organization of concepts.
Building Authentic Relationships with Early Design Partners
The podcast episode discusses the significance of establishing authentic relationships with early design partners in product development. The speaker highlights the case of working with Genesis Trading and Galaxy Digital, stating that they were chosen because of their willingness to collaborate, provide feedback, and pay for a solution to their pain points. The speaker stresses the importance of understanding who the stakeholders are within an organization, mapping out relationships, and convincing each individual of the value of the product. They caution against relying solely on connections to CEOs or VCs and emphasize the need for buy-in across various roles and departments.
In this episode, we chat with Michael Shaulov, co-founder of Fireblocks. Michael revisits with us the early days of building Fireblocks and finding product market fit by solving customer pain points. We chat through both strategic and tactical approaches to building a B2B product in crypto, exploring lessons learned on early customer relationships and market expansion.
We then discuss broader topics like decision-making in a growing business, the role of luck in success, cementing core principles for company culture and acquiring customers as an international founder.
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