Prosecutor's Coinbase Fortune
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Shaan tells a story about the curious case of Katie Hahn, a former federal prosecutor who made an unexpected fortune.
"Katie Hahn spent a decade as a federal prosecutor for the DOJ, making $94,000 to $150,000 a year. She helped create the government's cryptocurrency task force and was involved with the Silk Road case.
Then in 2017, she was named to the board of Coinbase. On the day of Coinbase's IPO in April 2021, her shares were worth $73 million. She sold at pretty much the top when shares were around $300. She then joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner in 2018.
She later founded Haun Ventures with a $1.5 billion fund focused on web3, where she's apparently the only partner. At the typical 2% management fee, that's $30 million per year just in management fees.
What caught my attention was that she just purchased a $41 million home in Atherton. The interesting part isn't that she made money - it's the outsized amount she made as a board member. For context, another board member, Gokul Rajaram, had 600,000 shares while she had 5.9 million shares. That's 10 times more in her stock grant than this other board member got. I don't understand why this person got $100 million for sitting on the board - that's not standard for what board members make."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.