Matt Huang, who is a capital partner at Sequoia, will leave the company to create a cryptocurrency fund called Messrs. Huang will be working with Fred Ehrsam, who is the co-founder of Coinbase, on the new venture.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Sequoia will continue its investment strategy concerning blockchain-related technologies. The venture capital firm will also invest and make a large commitment towards Messrs — Huang and Ehrsam’s new fund.
Huang is, however, not the first to leave a traditional pathway to pursue a new career in the emerging cryptocurrency industry. Many partners and senior executives have left their financial institutions and venture firms to create their own fund or startups.
In 2017, Union Square Ventures analyst Joel Monegro left his role to create a new cryptocurrency fund called Placeholder. Nick Tomaino also left Runa Capital to create a startup called 1confirmation.
Alfred Lin, who is a partner at Sequoia, stated that Huang “will remain a good friend of Sequoia and we wish him great success.” The venture capital firm confirmed that Huang will depart the company in June 2018.
Huang told Business Insider in November 2017 that:
“Once you spend enough time in the area, there’s enough real substance coming to the forefront and strong legitimate teams working on interesting problems that I think it is a really promising space for investing.”
Traders Quit Wall Street to Join Cryptocurrency Industry
Bloomberg reported many Wall Street traders, who have invested in cryptocurrencies, are also leaving their top firms. A former employee of one of the world’s largest asset managers, Blackrock, named Asim Ahmad said that:
“I’m in a position where it doesn’t make sense to work at BlackRock anymore. The one-day volatility of my portfolio is higher than my salary, so if I get a few investments right then I’ll have made the same as my yearly wage and everything else on top is a bonus.”
It appears as though many employees have managed to profit significantly from the cryptocurrency boom. These employees have often gone into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to start their own companies. Ahmad, currently, runs a fund that invests in blockchain-based companies that have a positive environmental or social impact.
Chris Matta, who recently left Goldman Sach’s to co-found Cresent Crypto Asset Management, stated:
“Crypto is certainly a market that’s pulling away real talent from financial services.”
Cryptocurrency Industry Becomes a Hot Job Market
Despite pulling talent from finance and venture capital firms, the cryptocurrency industry is still booming very quickly when it comes to new jobs. CNBC shared it was found out in an Upwork report in May 2018 that job listings containing the word blockchain have grown over 6,000 percent in just a year.
Jacob Donnelly, the director of marketing for CoinDesk, said that it’s “no secret demand for blockchain skills is high and that finding talent is a real difficulty.” Andy Challenger, who is the vice president of Challenger, also mentioned that:
“If you enter the crypto start-up space and gain some experience in the underlying blockchain technology, it will serve you really well. It’s an industry that requires a certain amount of expertise, and that’s a rare commodity.”
