Misjudging Dan Romero

A story about how Shaan misjudged a classmate in college who later became an early Coinbase executive.

"When I was in college, I took this easy class called 'The Internet.' I was just there trying to coast to an A, sitting in the back eating Chick-fil-A, doing crossword puzzles, hoping the professor never called on me.

There was this one guy who was always talking, raising his hand first for every question. He had big opinions on all these topics about the internet. At the time, I labeled this guy as a loser - this overeager student who was super into internet topics like net neutrality.

Fast forward - that guy Dan ended up joining Coinbase as one of the early employees. When Coinbase went public at a $100 billion valuation, Brian Armstrong did this tweet storm about the journey. He mentioned how Dan Romero came on board and helped bring them into Europe, which was a pivotal moment where they became the only crypto company partnered with banks in Europe.

I was like 'Oh my god, it's that guy from my classroom!' He probably banked tens of millions, if not $100 million plus, just from Coinbase. And if he owned any Bitcoin along the way, which he probably did since he joined in 2014, he did even better.

The lesson is: if you're a college student listening to this now, just be the nerd. Trust me, you're going to want to be that nerd later. Really think through what you're optimizing for - ease or actually learning something interesting?"