Devin Finzer

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Devin Finzer
The Rise of Decentralized Markets with Devin Finzer 15m28s.jpg
Finzer in 2020
Born1990 (age 31–32)
EducationBrown University
Known forCo-founder and CEO of OpenSea

Devin Finzer (born 1990) is an American entrepreneur and technology executive. He the co-founder and current chief executive officer of OpenSea, the world's largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens.[1] In January 2022, Forbes estimated the stakes in OpenSea owned by Finzer and his co-founder to be worth approximately $2.2 billion each, making them two the first non-fungible token billionaires.[2]

Early life and education[]

Devin Finzer was born in 1990; his mother is a physician while his father works as a software engineer.[3][4] Finzer grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Miramonte High School in Orinda, California.[5][6]

Finzer matriculated at Brown University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2013. In his junior year at Brown, Finzer worked with future Figma founder Dylan Field to create CourseKick, a socially-oriented search engine for university course registration.[7] Just two weeks after the site launched, over 20% of undergraduate students had registered.[8] While at Brown, Finzer interned at Wikimedia Foundation, Google Cloud Platform, and Flipboard. After graduating, he took a job at Pinterest in San Francisco as a software engineer.[3][9]

Career[]

Finzer co-founded two tech startups, including Claimdog, a personal finance app acquired by Credit Karma for an undisclosed amount.[2] At Credit Karma, Finzer became interested in blockchain technology. With Alex Atallah, Finzer developed and pitched WifiCoin, which would offer tokens in exchange for sharing access to a wireless router. The pair pitched the concept to Y Combinator and were accepted. Inspired by the release of CryptoKitties, the pair pivoted to the non-fungible token market, founding OpenSea in December 2017.[2]

After a 2018 pre-seed round by Y Combinator, OpenSea raised $2.1 million in venture capital in November 2019.[10] In March 2021, the company raised $23 million in venture capital; four months later the company announced another investment round of $100 million making it a unicorn.[11] In January 2022, OpenSea raised $300 million in new series C funding, propelling the company's valuation to $13.3 billion.[12]

In July 2021, Field was listed 19th on Forbes "NFTy 50" list of most influential individuals in the non-fungible token scene.[13]

References[]

  1. ^ "Devin Finzer | Fortune NFTy 50". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  2. ^ a b c Haverstock, Eliza. "The First NFT Billionaires: OpenSea Founders Each Worth Billions After New Fundraising". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  3. ^ a b "Show of 12-18-2021 | Techtalk, Profiles in IT: Devin Finzer". Retrieved 2022-01-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ Kauflin, Jeff. "What Every Crypto Buyer Should Know About OpenSea, The King Of The NFT Market". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  5. ^ "Miramonte grads leave behind climate change lessons". East Bay Times. 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  6. ^ "California Climate Champions: Project Carpool | Climate Watch | KQED Science". Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  7. ^ "New course tool links to Facebook". The Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  8. ^ "CourseKick revamps post-registration". The Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  9. ^ "A Crypto World". www.brownalumnimagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  10. ^ Finzer, Devin (9 November 2019). "Bringing on additional strategic investors to OpenSea". OpenSea. OpenSea. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  11. ^ Matney, Lucas (20 July 2021). "NFT market OpenSea hits $1.5 billion valuation". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  12. ^ Isaac, Mike (2022-01-05). "OpenSea valued at $13.3 billion in new round of venture funding". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  13. ^ "Devin Finzer | Fortune NFTy 50". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
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