How Gemini's Jared Shaw is Solving the Cryptocurrency Distribution Problem

The Modern CFO

Jared Shaw didn’t take the traditional path to the financial world. When his classmates were starting prestigious internships, he joined the military and gained valuable leadership skills. Today, Jared is focused on solving problems: specifically, solving the distribution problem in the world of cryptocurrency.

As the Head Of Finance at Gemini, Jared is deeply embedded in the frontier of crypto and digital assets. Gemini’s goal is simple yet ambitious: create a platform so secure and accessible that everyone will feel comfortable adopting it, no matter their age or background.

On this episode of The Modern CFO, Jared explains how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole, what’s so different about Gemini’s approach, and why every company needs a digital asset strategy.

Show Links

• Check out Gemini
• Connect with Jared Shaw on LinkedIn
• Check out Nth Round
• Connect with Andrew Seski on LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

2:57 - Jared’s path to crypto

When Jared joined Ernst and Young’s San Francisco Bay Area consulting division, he began to encounter startups who were disrupting the traditional financial services industry.

“I was helping financial services firms stay out of trouble. Banks, broker-dealers, insurance asset managers were all coming out of the financial crisis. Everyone was dealing with regulatory pressure, and so there was a lot of work helping them stay out of trouble. I started doing that in the San Francisco Bay Area, and shortly thereafter in the 2014-2015 timeframe FinTech really started to emerge. And being in the Bay Area, I was geographically fortunate to be able to focus on that sector and help EY build out its FinTech practice and approach. That was tremendous. Being able to just run around Silicon Valley and meet with all these great emerging startups that were really trying to disrupt the traditional financial services industry. And that's what got me first thinking about how can I work in a financial career, but maybe a little bit differently than the traditional path? And then that largely turned into cryptocurrency emerging in 2017. And in 2018, I did a large consulting engagement for a couple of crypto firms. And then, as everyone who gets involved in crypto, I fell down the rabbit hole and knew this is what I wanted to do with my career.”

8:00 - Learn to navigate ups and downs

Whether you work in a new environment like the crypto space, a startup, or a large company, you need to be prepared to ride the wave of disruptive technology.

“We've grown 2x in our headcount over the last year. And with that, we're still all wearing many hats. And so the day-to-day is just all over the place. What I think that means is an ability to be able to handle a volatile changing environment. Certainly working in cryptocurrency, all of the things happening in digital assets somewhat dulls one’s senses to massive amounts of change, or things being really great one quarter and not so good the next quarter. I think an ability to be able to navigate through those ups and downs is something that we learned really, really well at Gemini and in the crypto industry more broadly. And so having that mindset of focusing on being consistent, of looking towards the future in a measured way. Being able to stomach the ups and downs in the short term is something that's critical for anyone within a startup environment. And probably I would suspect important for someone who is the CFO of a large company or operating a large company, because innovative, disruptive technologies are only going to impact those industries more and more.”

10:10 - Taming the wild west of crypto

Gemini’s founders, the Winklevoss twins, are focused on a path that will make crypto accessible to and trusted by a mass audience.

“The genesis of the company was very focused on Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, our co-founders’, early experience investing in Bitcoin. Which was as they would put it the wild west, very uncertain, unsecure. Large hacks like Mt. Gox historically made the experience really difficult for the average person. Their vision was trying to make this experience much more approachable for the average consumer. That first started out with the institutions, obviously building weapons-grade security and safety of an environment for buying, selling, storing cryptocurrency. That is the core. And Cameron and Tyler had the vision that ultimately there needs to be regulation, there needs to be rules around this. Because that will bring broader mass adoption. It really focuses on security and trust, and that's something that Gemini has built its brand around, and we will continue to build a brand around.”

13:10 - Solving crypto’s distribution problem

The next frontier of crypto is taking it beyond the hands of users who are digitally native and placing it in the hands of older generations.

“I think cryptocurrency has a distribution problem. It is very accessible to individuals who are digital natives, who understand having value stored on the internet and who have grown up that way. But there is a vast amount of individuals and wealth out there that are not digital native, and individuals who hear about cryptocurrency but have never had the desire or trust that a digital native person has. So perfect example, you mentioned Andrew before we started that your dad was an RIA wealth manager. I'm sure your dad has a number of customers that ask him all the time ‘What about Bitcoin? What about Ether? Or my child tells me I should buy some Dogecoin.’ Your dad's customers are going to do whatever he tells them. They're not going to go outside for a Gemini account or some other platform and get involved in cryptocurrency. And so that distribution of being able to get folks like your dad’s customers into cryptocurrency is what we think is really the next frontier.”

14:37 - The genius of a crypto credit card

Gemini’s newest project is a credit card with crypto rewards, where users can instantly select tokens to collect.

“Everyone swipes a credit card. And if we can attach the experience of cryptocurrency to something that you do every day, that is a fascinating new entry point for individuals. Even if someone did sign up for a Gemini account, they still didn't have to think about, okay, which token do I want to buy? And now do I buy it today or do I buy it tomorrow? There's a lot of nervousness around that. But if you're just collecting or being awarded cryptocurrency every time you swipe a credit card, that's fantastic. The great thing about the card is it's instant. So you earn up to 3% on purchases. You can pick any of the tokens we offer on our platform. And once you swipe, the next minute that crypto hits your account and it's available for you. You don't have to wait for the end of the month for your statement period, or whatever. It's yours. So you really get a chance to interact with it right away, which is we think is a really compelling offer.”

20:50 - Don’t chase shiny objects

Gemini’s staying power comes from the fact that they are laser-focused on their vision of secure, accessible cryptocurrency.

“Gemini is very fortunate in the sense that we have founders who have a very long-term vision, and have invested in this sector not only person...