Relentless
01:02:59 · Brian Armstrong
[01:02:59] S0: So I remember, you know, we were sitting there, and we were about to like, okay. We need to do the initial transfer into this new system, and let's do a small amount. Like, let's transfer, like, $1 or something. And I remember I was like, we need to pair... We're gonna sit side by side and pair program every single keystroke because we're both sleep deprived and we need to check each other's work. It's kind of like copilots in the airplane. You know, you like double check the work. And so we transferred like a dollar, and we waited to confirm that. Okay, nothing exploded. Let's do $100 Let's do $1,000 Let's do $1,000,000 You know? And I remember we started this migration, and we're like, okay, let's go home and, like, sleep for a little bit and make sure and come back. And we started transferring, like, really big numbers. And every one of those was scary because, like, if one of them had gone wrong... And there were a bunch of hackers trying to break into our systems at this time. You have to remember, like, we didn't know could one of our laptops have malware on it. So we were we were doing some of the key signing, like, totally offline, disconnected from the Internet with these, like, brand new laptops we had just brought, you know, brought out of the bag that we were pretty sure had not been compromised, you know, like this kind of stuff. And so it was nerve racking, and we got it all transferred like nothing blew up, and I was just... I just remember being, like, so relieved, and we just went home and finally slept like twelve hours. The main lesson of that from my point of view was that, number one, I look back on that as one of the most important moments in my career, right? It showed me that we were capable of more than we thought. On shorter timelines, we were able to do great work. And, you know, I'm really proud of it too. Like, it's something... And so I... Now there's been many stories like that inside Coinbase where different teams have risen to the challenge. And, you know, I often find, like, sometimes teams are really scared if you go in there and you're like, okay, we need a solution to this within this amount of time. And they're like, why are... You know, why is everything so urgent? Why are cracking the whip, Brian? You know, like, like, not everything is just like a made up deadline. You know, this is like... So...
01:04:57 · Brian Armstrong
And and look, there is an element of truth to that. Like, some things require a great craft, and you don't wanna just be like, if you force everybody to do artificial deadlines, you'll get, like, really shoddy product coming out sometime. So there's a lot of truth to that. But it's also true that people are capable of more than they think, and the problem will expand to the amount of time that you give, right? And so it's great if you, like, come up with a goal. And even if you don't hit it exactly, the fact that you had that goal means you're gonna be a lot closer to it than you would have otherwise. So, yeah, there's moments like that that we're defining that required us to make it a defining moment of the company, our our finest hour instead of our end of the company.
01:05:35 · Ty Morse
[01:05:35] S1: With podcasting, it's kind of this magical thing where for this shoot, this is a huge thing that we have to pull off, and we have a deadline, and it's very clear because your schedule is... It's either you're here and there's something or there's nothing. And it's the same thing when I was interviewing Peter Beck, he said, If rocket launches didn't have the payoff of seeing the rocket actually go up and work, no one would work on it because it just sucks most of the time. How do you think about trying to find those critical milestones almost where you can rally the entire company? Can't have... Even if you manage $500,000,000,000 eventually it gets boring. And so you have to kind of create, here's the next here's the next goal. Here's where we're marching next. Yeah. How do you constantly try to find that next marching post?
01:06:18 · Brian Armstrong, Ty Morse
[01:06:18] S0: Yeah. Well, that's part of what was so great about, like, the moon landing is that it had such a clear moment defined in everyone's mind visually. It's like, did the guy walk on the moon or not? Like, you know if you did it, and it was a big one. Most companies don't have that. Right? And so most companies are on some kind of cadence, like they're putting out a new car every two years or, like, a piece of software is, like, shipping continuous updates every week now every day. And so one thing we try to do is have, like, an operating cadence to the company where, for instance, now twice a year, we're doing these product showcase events, and so those are great moments to, like, you know, ask everyone, like, okay. That thing is six months away. Let's write the headline. Like, what do we want to be able to announce on that day for our customers? And then it's like everyone can rally behind that. And even things which launched a few months earlier, we still haven't told the world about it in an adequate way. We need to package it up and like... So those those tend to be, like, great milestones. You know, you can do, like, annual planning processes and OKRs and q... You know, quarterly business reviews and things like that. But I think, like, having those public moments helps rally teams. [01:07:18] S1: Part of the reason why I was initially thinking doing a crazy set and costume design and all this stuff is because of some of the things that you've done publicly to communicate better with your shareholders and stakeholders. [01:07:28] S0: Yeah.
01:07:28 · Brian Armstrong, Ty Morse
[01:07:28] S0: Yeah. [01:07:28] S1: One of the things that I saw, like, a month ago was a earnings call where I I saw, like, Subway Surfer underneath, and I was kinda blown away when I saw that. Yeah. It's very interesting. Over time, like, what have you learned on the communication side and, like, how to communicate what you're working on and why you're working on it?
01:07:45 · Brian Armstrong
[01:07:45] S0: Yeah. Well, I think one thing I've learned is that the world is so noisy with all these ideas. People really you're lucky if can install one idea in their head about what you're up to. Right? And, so you have to make it a lot simpler than you think. Sometimes people get up there and they say, well, we're kind of trying to do this. We're also trying to do that, and it's part of this broader thing here. And so a lot of this is kinda comms one zero one, but you can kind of boil it down and say, you know, what are our priorities this year? It's one, two, and three. Like, try to only have three. Don't have five. You know? And don't... Like, every time you say it, try to say it in the exact same way, the exact same words, in the same order, and make it shorter. You know? Like, if... There's a difference between saying something that's, six words versus two. Like, the two is easier to stick in people's minds. And if stick you want in people's minds, it helps if they hear it multiple times, but it helps if they hear it from multiple different people. It helps if they hear it in multiple formats. So they might hear me say it on a podcast or at a company town hall, but they might also see it posted in Slack, in writing or an email. And they might hear... Not just hear it from me, but they might hear it from their manager or, like... You know? So it's really about, like, how do you install those ideas in people's heads? And it's the same thing for, like, from a customer or external comms point of view, not just internally. How do you make it digestible and simple and memorable? And then people can... If you poll, like, a random person on the street, like, what do know about this company? I was like, oh, don't they do x? And you'd be surprised sometimes because you're trying to put all this complicated stuff, and the only thing they can remember is, oh, that's like the place you buy Bitcoin. You know? It's like... So you have to really... You have much fewer opportunities to store these ideas in people's heads than people think.