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Brian Armstrong explains how he built Coinbase on nights and weekends while working at Airbnb Brian first advises those who are currently employed to not build your project on company hours or on your company laptop: “If you build it on company time or on the company hardware, the... company probably owns the IP.” Then he describes his schedule for working on Coinbase while still working full-time at Airbnb. “I would often work [at Airbnb] until 7pm. I’d come home, eat dinner, and then I would work from 8pm to midnight. I would do that maybe 3-4 days a week on weekdays. And then on the weekend I’d work Sunday afternoon for 7-8 hours.” Brian did this consistently for about a year and a half until Coinbase was far enough along for him to get seed funding from Y Combinator. “It sucked. I mean I was tired after the full day of work [at Airbnb]. But this is where determination comes in… At that moment in time, I was in my late 20s, and I was like, ‘I really want to try to build something important in the world.’” When asked how he maintained friendships during this time, Brian replies: “I was pretty intense about it. I would say I sacrificed friendships for it. It’s not like I was just never responding to people, but I’ve seen this happen to various people. They get to a certain point in their life. Sometimes they turn a certain age where they thought they would have more done by then or maybe someone in their family passes away and they’re like, Oh my god, time is finite. It’s precious. And something happens where they’re like, ‘I’m going to get this done, no matter the cost.’” Brian tells those out there who might be in a similar situation: “Go hard at it. Finish your book. Launch your thing. Just start doing stuff - and even if you don’t know what to do, just do anything, because action will produce information and it’ll help you get to the right thing.” Video source: Steven Bartlett (2022)show more

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1,094,303 views • 6 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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35 Comments

David Kenah6 months ago

Translation: he worked on it while at work for Airbnb but legally needs to make it very clear that that he only worked on it on weekends

ludwig6 months ago

here we can see the simpleton computer person's mind in its natural habitat, in front of microphone, self-fellating about wanting to build something important in the world" which actually translates, in the simpleton's world, to "make big number and big famous"

Echoes6 months ago

He definitely built Coinbase with Airbnb laptop on working hours.

GetOffMyDickerson6 months ago

“Build something important in the world” Builds a degenerate crypto gambling platform

Startup Archive6 months ago

Watch the full interview with Brian Armstrong on the @StevenBartlett podcast here:

Levi6 months ago

im starting to think he worked on his company laptop during work hours.

Maurizio6 months ago

Very relatable. My dad passing away 3 years ago was the driving force behind pushing me to publish my book Beyond Slides, as I explain in the book. Time is finite so make it your "one day I'll do it" come by fast.

Andres Eloy 💡6 months ago

Brian always do the disclaimer bc he fears AirB&B taking Coinbase away from him... Stupid rule!

canute6 months ago

his "sacrifice" resulted in coinbase, my sacrifice resulted in a level 100 character on an rpg. we are not the same :*)

ashley6 months ago

Uh I believe Richard taught us that fact first

David Key6 months ago

He totally worked on it during work hours.

Michael Stan6 months ago

I did the same in 2021, building Uniflow after hours. Brian's point on IP ownership is critical. If your employer has a broad IP clause, anything built on their hardware or time is legally theirs. Read your contract before writing a single line of code. The clarity at 11pm when the noise is gone — that's the real advantage.

Young Griff6 months ago

And yet I still can’t get a 1099 that imports directly into TurboTax from coinbase. @coinbase sucks

Alex Reeder6 months ago

Shoutout to the nights and weekends crowd. This is pretty much my exact playbook. Get the kids to bed - start working. Get up at 5am. Start working before work. Weekends I dedicate to family time, nature walks, errands, play, but mornings and nights are me time. 🧑‍💻

born2baghold 🌎6 months ago

He forgot the part where he hired indian scammers and gave them all the user data

Ryan Rosztoczy6 months ago

Shout out to all my people that understand and are going through this! “I was pretty intense about it. I would say I sacrificed friendships for it. It’s not like I was just never responding to people, but I’ve seen this happen to various people. They get to a certain point in their life. Sometimes they turn a certain age where they thought they would have more done by then or maybe someone in their family passes away and they’re like, Oh my god, time is finite. It’s precious. And something happens where they’re like, ‘I’m going to get this done, no matter the cost.’”

Nuke the Internet6 months ago

And he ended up with the monumentally useless Coinbase. Sad!

Originae6 months ago

Initial dedication is potent. Building for the long term demands converting raw effort into defined, repeatable processes.

Valerie Marien6 months ago

Fuck this scammer

Dwayne6 months ago

Brian is lying. He obviously worked on Coinbase on company time and won't admit it.

Matt McDonagh6 months ago

Steal from your employer! That’s what going to work exhausted is. Stealing. Gross.

ken6 months ago

He would have been happier investing all of that time and energy in a better hairline 🥀

vdice_diceco6 months ago

Only evenings and weekends and then a mere 7-8 hours on Sunday? If he can slack like that and still succeed, anyone can do it.

DS6 months ago

Built Adeptia nights and weekends while consulting. The constraint of limited hours forces ruthless prioritization on what actually matters.

JCSM6 months ago

He's bald! @PaulSkallas

Dev Shah6 months ago

theres nothing like a 5-9 after your job that feeds a builders soul

.6 months ago

im pretty sure he worked on coinbase in airbnb laptop before. It's just something nobody will publicly admit

app referral KING 👑6 months ago

Bald fgt 😂

Lex6 months ago

lol I know big Brian IS NOT TALKING

Sunflower Clarke6 months ago

okkks

Kayode6 months ago

True, it's good to work hard but that's not enough for success contrary to what many successful founders think

jay6 months ago

this guys a fucking egg head

Prolific VA6 months ago

This guy literally looks like an Alien and a robot at the same time.

Moch6 months ago

Ending work at 7pm is such a luxury lmao

𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏⚡️6 months ago

🤡

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Josh Chambers

779,534 views • 9 days ago

One of the most powerful moments in this episode. At 28, mark pincus finds himself unemployed (fired by John Malone, Bain, and others), with few prospects. He had big dreams, but the world wasn't cooperating. This is how he turned things around. what "I realized I had nowhere else to fall from this because I just felt like I’d made a lot of bad career decisions and I was washed up early and I just sat there in this temple." It was a good place to sit and think because he didn't know anyone and didn't understand anything. "And I just started writing in a notebook about why my life sucked so badly." This book, a journal he's kept every year that he calls the book of life, allows him to take an accurate accounting of his life and change his mindset through reflection. After writing for hours about how bad his life sucked and all the mistakes he'd made, he focused on one small thing. "I just ended on this one thing: that I smoked cigarettes. I didn’t even smoke smoke. I smoked like one or two a day, a pack a night if I was at a bar on weekends, but I hated it ... I didn’t want to do it, but I kept doing it." He felt like his life was out of control, but this was one thing he could control. "I just was like, if I could do one thing to know that I’m making some positive change in my life, I’m going to quit smoking. So on October 19th, 1994, I did a lifetime quit on cigarettes and then every day for that year after that, that I didn’t smoke, it was something I could feel good about. So I was like, okay, I did something for myself today by not smoking." The wins started to stack. I asked him what he was writing about. What was his process? "At that point, I had no structure or process. I was just writing, and there was so much in me." Was it anger? "It was. I did feel angry and frustrated and I was like, I had all these dreams. I wanted to be an entrepreneur from early on and I was an achiever. I thought I was an achiever, but I was not achieving." He's done the same technique every year: "What it’s done for me and I think it could do for a lot of people is just be strategic about your life, like be thoughtful about, I like to say, what would your future self thank you for doing this year and what wouldn’t?" And that question is the one that really matters. What can you do today that your future self will thank you for? What the book of life did was hold him accountable and force him to make tough decisions that his future self would thank him for.

One of the most powerful moments in this episode. At 28, mark pincus finds himself unemployed (fired by John Malone, Bain, and others), with few prospects. He had big dreams, but the world wasn't cooperating. This is how he turned things around. what "I realized I had nowhere else to fall from this because I just felt like I’d made a lot of bad career decisions and I was washed up early and I just sat there in this temple." It was a good place to sit and think because he didn't know anyone and didn't understand anything. "And I just started writing in a notebook about why my life sucked so badly." This book, a journal he's kept every year that he calls the book of life, allows him to take an accurate accounting of his life and change his mindset through reflection. After writing for hours about how bad his life sucked and all the mistakes he'd made, he focused on one small thing. "I just ended on this one thing: that I smoked cigarettes. I didn’t even smoke smoke. I smoked like one or two a day, a pack a night if I was at a bar on weekends, but I hated it ... I didn’t want to do it, but I kept doing it." He felt like his life was out of control, but this was one thing he could control. "I just was like, if I could do one thing to know that I’m making some positive change in my life, I’m going to quit smoking. So on October 19th, 1994, I did a lifetime quit on cigarettes and then every day for that year after that, that I didn’t smoke, it was something I could feel good about. So I was like, okay, I did something for myself today by not smoking." The wins started to stack. I asked him what he was writing about. What was his process? "At that point, I had no structure or process. I was just writing, and there was so much in me." Was it anger? "It was. I did feel angry and frustrated and I was like, I had all these dreams. I wanted to be an entrepreneur from early on and I was an achiever. I thought I was an achiever, but I was not achieving." He's done the same technique every year: "What it’s done for me and I think it could do for a lot of people is just be strategic about your life, like be thoughtful about, I like to say, what would your future self thank you for doing this year and what wouldn’t?" And that question is the one that really matters. What can you do today that your future self will thank you for? What the book of life did was hold him accountable and force him to make tough decisions that his future self would thank him for.

Shane Parrish

23,083 views • 5 months ago

Q: How will I know when it’s the right time to go full-time on a startup idea? Tony Fadell is the co-creator of the iPod, iPhone, and Nest. As he puts it in the clip below: “Great ideas chase you.” He continues: “In this world, there are so many people who have more ideas than they have time to implement… I used to be like that. But the best ideas are the ones that you can really focus on… Now I try to run away from a great idea. And then it stalks me. It hunts you down because you’re like: ‘Ah, that’s going to have this problem, I’m going to put it aside.’ And then a few days later, you’re like: ‘Actually I think I know how to solve that problem.’ At some point it just becomes this black hole that sucks you in and you can’t think about anything else but this.” Mark Zuckerberg gave similar advice in a previous Startup Archive answer: “I always think the most important thing entrepreneurs should do is pick something they care about and work on it, but don’t actually commit to turning it into a company until it’s working. If you look at the data of the very best companies, I think a tremendous percentage of them have been built that way and not from people who decided upfront that they wanted to start a company because you just get locked into a local maxima a lot of the time.” Let great ideas chase you and don’t turn it into a company until it’s working. There’s almost always a ton of work you you can do upfront to de-risk an idea before turning it into a company. And perhaps just as important: you want to make sure you’re still excited about the idea after a few months and the novelty has worn off—it should be all you can think about. Companies are almost always a 10 year project if they work and a 2-3 year project if they fail. It’s worth it to be patient before jumping in with two feet.

Q: How will I know when it’s the right time to go full-time on a startup idea? Tony Fadell is the co-creator of the iPod, iPhone, and Nest. As he puts it in the clip below: “Great ideas chase you.” He continues: “In this world, there are so many people who have more ideas than they have time to implement… I used to be like that. But the best ideas are the ones that you can really focus on… Now I try to run away from a great idea. And then it stalks me. It hunts you down because you’re like: ‘Ah, that’s going to have this problem, I’m going to put it aside.’ And then a few days later, you’re like: ‘Actually I think I know how to solve that problem.’ At some point it just becomes this black hole that sucks you in and you can’t think about anything else but this.” Mark Zuckerberg gave similar advice in a previous Startup Archive answer: “I always think the most important thing entrepreneurs should do is pick something they care about and work on it, but don’t actually commit to turning it into a company until it’s working. If you look at the data of the very best companies, I think a tremendous percentage of them have been built that way and not from people who decided upfront that they wanted to start a company because you just get locked into a local maxima a lot of the time.” Let great ideas chase you and don’t turn it into a company until it’s working. There’s almost always a ton of work you you can do upfront to de-risk an idea before turning it into a company. And perhaps just as important: you want to make sure you’re still excited about the idea after a few months and the novelty has worn off—it should be all you can think about. Companies are almost always a 10 year project if they work and a 2-3 year project if they fail. It’s worth it to be patient before jumping in with two feet.

Michael McGuiness

62,662 views • 3 years ago

Toni Storm on a problem she had with WWE. “I wasn't told like I mean there obviously you're told what to do in a certain circumstance but overall like I don't feel like I was told what to do enough. I mean there's direction in things like you know this is how you do it, this is what you do on television, cameras.” “But then like as in regards to a character, no, I was never like I mean they would write promos, but like I was just kind of just did it. I wasn't really told like do this today. You're a cat and your name is bloody Tory or bloody Smith. No one told me anything. And I kept my name the whole time and it was like I had complete creative freedom to be honest. I saw where others didn't and others would be given things and so it's a very difficult thing for me to grasp.”

Toni Storm on a problem she had with WWE. “I wasn't told like I mean there obviously you're told what to do in a certain circumstance but overall like I don't feel like I was told what to do enough. I mean there's direction in things like you know this is how you do it, this is what you do on television, cameras.” “But then like as in regards to a character, no, I was never like I mean they would write promos, but like I was just kind of just did it. I wasn't really told like do this today. You're a cat and your name is bloody Tory or bloody Smith. No one told me anything. And I kept my name the whole time and it was like I had complete creative freedom to be honest. I saw where others didn't and others would be given things and so it's a very difficult thing for me to grasp.”

📝

79,413 views • 4 months ago

Mark Zuckerberg reveals the hiring rule he uses at Meta "I have this hiring heuristic at Meta: I will only hire someone to work for me if I could see myself working for them. Not that I want them to run the company, but in an alternate universe, if it was their company, would I be happy to go work for them?" "Everyone always says don't compromise on quality, but there's this question of how do you know someone is good enough. My answer is: I would want someone on my team if I would work for them"

Mark Zuckerberg reveals the hiring rule he uses at Meta "I have this hiring heuristic at Meta: I will only hire someone to work for me if I could see myself working for them. Not that I want them to run the company, but in an alternate universe, if it was their company, would I be happy to go work for them?" "Everyone always says don't compromise on quality, but there's this question of how do you know someone is good enough. My answer is: I would want someone on my team if I would work for them"

Jaynit

221,894 views • 3 months ago

Sam Altman on the importance of momentum and why burnout doesn’t come from working too hard “I was told, and I thought for a long time, that you get burned out from working too hard. At least in my own experience, what I’ve found is that burnout actually comes from failing and things not working.” Sam continues: “Momentum is really energizing. The lack of momentum is super draining. And I find that I have infinite energy to work on things that I find interesting and that are working, and almost none to work on things that I either don’t find interesting or aren’t working.” He offers the following advice to startup founders: “I think you see a lot of founders try something and fail, and they assume that they just can’t work hard enough or don’t have enough energy or passion or whatever. And that’s actually not true. It’s just that that thing didn’t work. And what you should do is shut that company down, go on vacation, and try again.” He concludes: “When you look at really successful people and say, How do they get all those things done? It’s that they have the benefit of momentum. And momentum is energizing.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)

Sam Altman on the importance of momentum and why burnout doesn’t come from working too hard “I was told, and I thought for a long time, that you get burned out from working too hard. At least in my own experience, what I’ve found is that burnout actually comes from failing and things not working.” Sam continues: “Momentum is really energizing. The lack of momentum is super draining. And I find that I have infinite energy to work on things that I find interesting and that are working, and almost none to work on things that I either don’t find interesting or aren’t working.” He offers the following advice to startup founders: “I think you see a lot of founders try something and fail, and they assume that they just can’t work hard enough or don’t have enough energy or passion or whatever. And that’s actually not true. It’s just that that thing didn’t work. And what you should do is shut that company down, go on vacation, and try again.” He concludes: “When you look at really successful people and say, How do they get all those things done? It’s that they have the benefit of momentum. And momentum is energizing.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)

Startup Archive

122,877 views • 1 year ago

Keegan Bradley says losing the Ryder Cup at Bethpage was the “darkest time of his life”. However, he also would love to do it again and “avenge that loss.” Speaking ahead of the Hero World Challenge, he said: “I have this like gaping hole in my career now that I don't know that I'll ever be able to fill. This isn't something that you lose the Masters, you lose a tournament, I'm going to work extra hard to get back and win. “Being the captain of the Ryder Cup team is not something you can work hard for, it's just something that's sort of elected on you. “I don't know. Of course I would love to do it again, I would love to avenge that loss, but that's not up to me. That's not up to -- I don't think that's fair for me to come out here and say that. “But I would love to do it again at some point. I don't know if that will ever happen, probably won't. I think if you ask any losing captain if they would like to do it again, they would all want another shot.” On what the weeks after the Ryder Cup were like for him emotionally, he said: “I mean, the darkest time of my life probably. I mean, I don't know how else to describe it. Certainly, definitely of my career. There's always this letdown after a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup regardless of the outcome because the emotions are so extreme. It's Ryder Cup hangover and you're just exhausted and you're down, you know. That takes a toll on you. “But there's just, it just was, it just was a tough time. Still is. But to be honest with you, the last couple weeks I've felt more like myself. Getting back, getting ready to play tournaments, playing the Skins game, getting ready to come play here. “Really, it's been tough for all of us; not just me, the players as well. I feel like every time I see a player on the team here I want to just go give him a hug and sit down and chat. But I'm grateful for everybody. I'm in a unique position where I could make another team, which has never been done. I would love to do that.” What are your thoughts on this, would you give Keegan another shot at being Captain in 2027?

Keegan Bradley says losing the Ryder Cup at Bethpage was the “darkest time of his life”. However, he also would love to do it again and “avenge that loss.” Speaking ahead of the Hero World Challenge, he said: “I have this like gaping hole in my career now that I don't know that I'll ever be able to fill. This isn't something that you lose the Masters, you lose a tournament, I'm going to work extra hard to get back and win. “Being the captain of the Ryder Cup team is not something you can work hard for, it's just something that's sort of elected on you. “I don't know. Of course I would love to do it again, I would love to avenge that loss, but that's not up to me. That's not up to -- I don't think that's fair for me to come out here and say that. “But I would love to do it again at some point. I don't know if that will ever happen, probably won't. I think if you ask any losing captain if they would like to do it again, they would all want another shot.” On what the weeks after the Ryder Cup were like for him emotionally, he said: “I mean, the darkest time of my life probably. I mean, I don't know how else to describe it. Certainly, definitely of my career. There's always this letdown after a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup regardless of the outcome because the emotions are so extreme. It's Ryder Cup hangover and you're just exhausted and you're down, you know. That takes a toll on you. “But there's just, it just was, it just was a tough time. Still is. But to be honest with you, the last couple weeks I've felt more like myself. Getting back, getting ready to play tournaments, playing the Skins game, getting ready to come play here. “Really, it's been tough for all of us; not just me, the players as well. I feel like every time I see a player on the team here I want to just go give him a hug and sit down and chat. But I'm grateful for everybody. I'm in a unique position where I could make another team, which has never been done. I would love to do that.” What are your thoughts on this, would you give Keegan another shot at being Captain in 2027?

Flushing It

269,736 views • 11 months ago

I love Elon Musk's old interviews. I really enjoy hearing what he said back then, knowing what the future holds. This "CBS Sunday Morning" interview was recorded in 1998, when then 27-year-old Elon talked about starting his first company: “That was the summer of '95. I had no money whatsoever. I was working, doing research in Silicon Valley on a completely different subject and trying to start this company at the same time. And when it came time to decide do I want to do graduate studies or do I want to start this company and I decided to start the company. I had no money. As a graduate student, I would have received a scholarship and a stipend and so forth. In starting the company, I had nothing. I had no income source. So we found that an office was actually cheaper than an apartment in Silicon Valley. So we got this dinky little office that had a leaky roof. It was just the nastiest place you can imagine. And you lived in it. And I lived in it too and showered at the YMCA. This lasted for about three or four months. And the reason we chose this office, in addition to it being really cheap, was that there was an internet service provider on the floor below. So we were able to get really cheap internet access by drilling a hole in the floor and connecting to their server directly.”

I love Elon Musk's old interviews. I really enjoy hearing what he said back then, knowing what the future holds. This "CBS Sunday Morning" interview was recorded in 1998, when then 27-year-old Elon talked about starting his first company: “That was the summer of '95. I had no money whatsoever. I was working, doing research in Silicon Valley on a completely different subject and trying to start this company at the same time. And when it came time to decide do I want to do graduate studies or do I want to start this company and I decided to start the company. I had no money. As a graduate student, I would have received a scholarship and a stipend and so forth. In starting the company, I had nothing. I had no income source. So we found that an office was actually cheaper than an apartment in Silicon Valley. So we got this dinky little office that had a leaky roof. It was just the nastiest place you can imagine. And you lived in it. And I lived in it too and showered at the YMCA. This lasted for about three or four months. And the reason we chose this office, in addition to it being really cheap, was that there was an internet service provider on the floor below. So we were able to get really cheap internet access by drilling a hole in the floor and connecting to their server directly.”

Eva Fo𝕏 🦊 Claudius Nero's Legion

24,804 views • 4 months ago

Why anybody would expect somebody else to pay for them is beyond me. Even if it was a close friend, I would think about it. If it did not happen often and I didn’t think they were trying to finesse me then I would more than likely do it. It sounds like in this case, the friend does this often and doesn’t pay her back. I have a name for someone like this and it’s a moocher. We will all have a friend like this in our lives and I think there will come a time where we have to decide whether or not this is something we are willing to tolerate. I would never do this to anybody else. If I had dinner plans but not enough money, the solution would be very simple, I would apologize and then cancel. I would y tell them why because that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I don’t have enough and I am not going to put my problems on anybody else. Friend’s like that have a short timespan to actually be a friend. I feel that people who do this are taking advantage and they know exactly what they are doing.

Why anybody would expect somebody else to pay for them is beyond me. Even if it was a close friend, I would think about it. If it did not happen often and I didn’t think they were trying to finesse me then I would more than likely do it. It sounds like in this case, the friend does this often and doesn’t pay her back. I have a name for someone like this and it’s a moocher. We will all have a friend like this in our lives and I think there will come a time where we have to decide whether or not this is something we are willing to tolerate. I would never do this to anybody else. If I had dinner plans but not enough money, the solution would be very simple, I would apologize and then cancel. I would y tell them why because that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I don’t have enough and I am not going to put my problems on anybody else. Friend’s like that have a short timespan to actually be a friend. I feel that people who do this are taking advantage and they know exactly what they are doing.

SonnyBoy🇺🇸

50,678 views • 5 months ago