Dan Romero

Be the nerd now: the classmate who joined Coinbase early

Sam recalls dismissing an over-eager classmate in his college 'Internet' course as a loser, only to realize that guy was Dan Romero, an early Coinbase employee who helped break it into Europe and likely made tens of millions when Coinbase went public at a $100B valuation.

“And at the time, my head labeled this guy as a loser. I was like, wow, this guy's like this overeager student dork who's like kind of a know-it-all and kind of sucking up to the teacher. And why is he so into this? Wow, what a loser. He spends his nights researching the pros and cons of net neutrality. Okay, now fast forward. Now that's me. I'm that loser. I was just late to the game. And that guy Dan ended up joining Coinbase as one of the early employees.”

Steal thisBe the obsessive nerd now; early genuine interest in an emerging space compounds into outsized outcomes later.