Balaji Srinivasan

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Balaji Srinivasan
Balaji Srinivasan.png
Srinivasan in 2017
Born1980
Known for

Balaji Srinivasan (born 1979/1980)[1] is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and essayist.[2] He was co-founder of Counsyl, Teleport, 21.co,21 Inc and Earn.com, two of which subsequently sold for more than US$100 million each. He is the former chief technology officer (CTO) of Coinbase and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.[3]

Early life and education[]

Srinivasan grew up on Long Island, in Plainview, New York.[4] He received BS, MS,[citation needed] and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University[2] and an MS in Chemical Engineering, also from Stanford.[citation needed]

Career[]

In 2007, Srinivasan co-founded genetic testing company Counsyl, which provided tests to prospective parents to screen for Mendelian diseases.[1][3][5] Counsyl was acquired by Myriad Genetics for $375 million in 2018.[6][7]

In 2013, Srinivasan joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner.[8]

In April 2014, he co-founded Teleport, a search engine for digital nomads. Teleport was acquired by Topia in 2017.[9][10]

In 2013, Srinivasan co-founded 21.co, a Bitcoin mining startup that failed as a bitcoin mining business[11][non-primary source needed] but pivoted to become , which allowed senders to pay users in digital currency to reply to emails.[1] Earn.com was acquired by digital currency exchange company Coinbase in April 2018 for over $100 million.[12][13] After Coinbase purchased Earn.com, it became Coinbase Earn and Srinivasan became Coinbase’s first CTO.[1][14][15] He left the company in 2019.[16]

Public profile[]

MIT Technology Review named Srinivasan on its list of "Innovators Under 35" in 2013.[5] In 2018, Fortune ranked him 26th on its "The Ledger 40 Under 40" list.[1]

In 2013, Srinivasan gave a talk at Y Combinator's Startup School titled "Silicon Valley's Ultimate Exit" and published "Software Is Reorganizing the World"[17] in Wired, which advocated for the technology industry to digitally exit the United States and move abroad. The talk was received positively by Reason,[18] Wired,[19] and Bloomberg News,[20] but was criticized by The New York Times[21] and The Wall Street Journal.[22]

In 2013, after TechCrunch published an article exploring links between Silicon Valley tech leaders and the Dark Enlightenment movement that mentioned this speech,[23] Srinivasan suggested doxing reporters who bring these links to the attention of the public. In an email to Curtis Yarvin, he wrote, "If things get hot, it may be interesting to sic the Dark Enlightenment audience on a single vulnerable hostile reporter to dox them and turn them inside out with hostile reporting sent to *their* advertisers/friends/contacts.”[24][25]

In 2017, the Trump Administration reportedly considered Srinivasan, as well as former HHS official Jim O'Neill, for appointment to FDA Commissioner.[26][27][28][29][30][31] While being considered for the appointment, Srinivasan deleted all of his tweets including ones in which he criticized the FDA.[32]

In July 2020, Srinivasan drew attention after criticizing Taylor Lorenz's reporting alleged misbehavior of Away's CEO on Twitter. On the Twitter thread, he suggested Lorenz and journalists like her are "sociopaths." Lorenz defended herself and characterized Srinivasan's previous actions as harassment on Clubhouse and other platforms.[33][34][35][36]

In April 2021, Srinivasan donated $50,000 in cryptocurrency to aid in Indian COVID-19 relief in during a resurgence of the virus in the country. On Twitter, he pledged to donate another $50 for every time his post was retweeted, up to $100,000.[37][38][39]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Balaji Srinivasan". Fortune. 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Kabir, Usman (14 April 2021). "Balaji Srinivasan's Top 10 Investments, Portfolio and Ideas". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Kafka, Peter (2017-01-14). "Balaji Srinivasan, who may run the FDA for Trump, hates the FDA. But Silicon Valley likes Srinivasan". Vox. Archived from the original on 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  4. ^ Varadarajan, Tunku (22 September 2017). "The Blockchain Is the Internet of Money". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Balaji Srinivasan". MIT Technology Review. 2013. Archived from the original on 2021-02-06. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  6. ^ "Myriad Genetics Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Counsyl, Inc. | Myriad Genetics, Inc". investor.myriad.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  7. ^ "Myriad Genetics to Acquire Counsyl for $375M". Genomeweb. 2018-05-29. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  8. ^ Gannes, Liz (2013-12-10). "Balaji Srinivasan Joins Andreessen Horowitz as General Partner". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  9. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2014-05-19). "Andreessen-Incubated Teleport Aims To Make Location Irrelevant For Mobile Workers". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2015-03-01. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  10. ^ Hankewitz, Sten (2017-04-03). "Estonian startup Teleport acquired by MOVE Guides". Estonian World. Archived from the original on 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  11. ^ Srinivasan, Balaji S. (2018-04-16). "The Turnaround". Medium. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  12. ^ Rooney, Kate (2018-04-16). "Bitcoin exchange Coinbase buys Earn.com for a reported $100M and adds key executive". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  13. ^ "Coinbase Acquires Earn.com". Wall Street Journal. 2018-04-17. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  14. ^ Russell, Jon (2019-05-04). "Coinbase loses its first CTO after just one year in the job". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2019-11-30. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  15. ^ Armstrong, Brian (2018-04-16). "Welcome Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase's new Chief Technology Officer". Medium. Archived from the original on 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
  16. ^ Russell, Jon (4 May 2019). "Coinbase loses its first CTO after just one year in the job". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Software Is Reorganizing the World". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  18. ^ "Tech Should Make It Easier To Escape Government Control, Says Startup Veteran Balaji Srinivasan". Reason.com. 2013-10-30. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  19. ^ "Silicon Valley's Elite Don't Want to Secede. They Just Want to Stay on Top". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  20. ^ "Is Silicon Valley Arrogant? Not by My Definition". Bloomberg.com. 2013-11-08. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  21. ^ Giridharadas, Anand (2013-10-28). "Silicon Valley Roused by Secession Call". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  22. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (2013-11-04). "Silicon Valley Has an Arrogance Problem". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  23. ^ Finley, Klint (23 November 2013). "Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 26 March 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  24. ^ Cavaliere, Victoria (February 21, 2021) “Venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan reportedly suggested doxxing a journalist who reported on narratives he didn't like.” Archived 2021-02-14 at the Wayback Machine Business Insider. (Retrieved April 21, 2021.)
  25. ^ Metz, Cade (February 22, 2021) “Silicon Valley’s Safe Space.” Archived 2021-04-20 at the Wayback Machine New York Times. (Retrieved April 21, 2021.)
  26. ^ Balakrishnan, Anita (2017-01-12). "Trump met with two Silicon Valley insiders who may join the FDA". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  27. ^ Burton, Thomas M. (2017-01-13). "Donald Trump Looking Beyond Traditional Medical Experts for FDA Commissioner". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  28. ^ George, Varghese K. (2017-01-17). "Indian American could be FDA head under Trump". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  29. ^ Langlois, Shawn. "The coronavirus will forever change us, according to an investor who was once eyed for Trump's top FDA gig". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  30. ^ Burton, Thomas M. (2017-01-13). "Donald Trump Looking Beyond Traditional Medical Experts for FDA Commissioner". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  31. ^ RAJAGOPAL, DIVYA. "Balaji S Srinivasan may join Trump's team". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  32. ^ Kafka, Peter (2017-01-14). "Balaji Srinivasan, who may run the FDA for Trump, hates the FDA. But Silicon Valley likes Srinivasan". Vox. Archived from the original on 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  33. ^ "Silicon Valley Elite Discuss Journalists Having Too Much Power in Private App". www.vice.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-23. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  34. ^ Kasana, Mehreen. "A journalist does not deserve to be harassed by VCs for doing her job". Input. Archived from the original on 2021-05-31. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  35. ^ Newton, Casey (2020-07-07). "How Twitter is shifting the power balance from companies to their employees". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2021-04-28. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  36. ^ Levy, Steven (July 10, 2020). "Where Are the Adults in the Clubhouse?". Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  37. ^ "Buterin, Srinivasan Donate to COVID Relief Fund for India 'Shaken' by Second Wave". finance.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  38. ^ "Tech bosses pad up to help India in Covid fight; angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, Vinod Khosla, Sundar Pichai offer monetary support". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  39. ^ "Why Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin, Tron's Justin Sun, Balaji Srinivasan Donated To India's Covid Relief". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
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