Thread by @mrjasonchoi

A thread on @theBlockcrunch's backstory.

Figured there may be a lesson for young people without highly differentiable skills trying to get their start in crypto.

For anyone interested...

1/ I grew up in local schools in Hong Kong - that means everyone wanted to be a doctor or lawyer.

There was 0 startup culture, no one talks about tech, no one's building the next unicorn.

2/ So when I got to the US for college, I was completely blown away by the startup fever.

Everyone was trying to become the next Zuck, and virtually everyone had a startup idea lol

3/ I wanted desperately to get into "startups" (whatever that meant), but there wasn't any defined path or coursework.

So I started cold emailing busy startup CEOs for "coffee chats". Obviously no one said yes...

4/ I realized I had to offer something before asking for someone's time.

I wasn't rich so couldn't offer capital. Wasn't connected so couldn't offer access. Didn't have a work visa so couldn't offer labor.

All I had was maybe being semi-literate...so I started a blog

5/ After googling "startup blog" I realized there's probably more blogs about startups than actual startups.

I had to differentiate...so I thought, "instead of starting my own thing, why don't I leverage someone else's platform?"

I decided to cold email every publication.

6/ To my surprise, a direct email to @ariannahuff (whose email I guessed lol) actually got a response.

I still cringe at this email, but Arianna was kind enough to offer me a spot as a columnist on the HuffPost blog.

7/ So armed with the "I can write about your startup on the HuffPost" card, I started interviewing all the interesting founders I come across.

Eventually, I bumped into @etarczynski. Eric was starting a Dorm Room Fund competitor (@contrarycapital), and needed partners.

8/ At that time, I was interning at Bridgewater, where I deepened my interest in a career in investing.

When Eric asked if I wanted to help start Contrary on the phone one night after work, I said yes on the spot

(I swear this is related to @theBlockcrunch, just hang on)

9/ The next year, I learnt the basics of venture investing, and fell in love with the idea of a career where you spend most of your time learning from people smarter than you.

To come full circle, we even invested in a company I first interviewed for HuffPost 😄

10/ Somewhere along the way, I discovered crypto and it had me hooked completely.

After reading @cburniske's book, and seeing my fellow Contrary partner @bennybitcoins yolo into crypto (and absolutely crushing it), I knew I had to get involved somehow.

11/ I went to every event I could on weekends, got to meet some interesting people in the NYC crypto scene, and almost everyone was welcoming.

But crypto can also be "clique-y". If you're not a dev nor an investor, people may not want to waste time speaking with you.

12/ So, I decided to do the same thing I did back in college - offer people a platform.

But around the same time, HuffPost rugged pulled all of its bloggers when rebranding the site, and I no longer had access to the platform as a columnist.

13/ Back then, I listened to @HarryStebbings's podcast a lot (one of the best shows on venture investing).

I realized there wasn't an investing focused show on crypto, and decided to start @theBlockcrunch.

14/ I did the same thing I did before: cold-emailed every fund manager I could find on Twitter (mostly by guessing their emails).

@AdamDraper was kind enough to not be creeped out, said yes, and I'll forever be grateful to Adam for being the first guest!

15/ In the 3 years that followed, the show grew to one of the largest shows in crypto.

Thanks to the generous support from friends like @bonkat, I was able to travel and interview cutting edge projects (like @solana @aeyakovenko back in 2018!)

https://twitter.com/500Startups/status/1039190146141249536?s=20

16/ Even though the show was taking up all my time and brought in $0, the hundreds of hours in researching and meeting people did not go to waste.

It gave me the confidence in jump into investing full time when I met @SpartanBlack_1 at the depths of the bear market in 2018.

17/ To this day, @theBlockcrunch has been an amazing pipeline for hiring, potential investments, even raising capital.

Regardless of where the market goes, Blockcrunch will continue to be a free resource for anyone who wants to learn about crypto in depth.

18/ For young people hoping to break into crypto - the takeaway here is that you don't really *need* anything to break into the industry.

I'm not an engineer, not a designer and didn't have a decade long track record in investing or finance - all I wanted to do was learn.

ps/ To *really* come full circle, @sanlsrni recently joined me and started contributing to @theBlockcrunch in our bi-weekly news recap. I found out later that Saneel was also part of @contrarycapital but a few years after me 🤯