How I met Vitalik Buterin and why entrepreneurial geeks are unstoppable

Good morning. I write my main article section on weekends. Topic and material collection happens during the week while I consume content or notice shareworthy learnings while doing my work. Then, I mix it all up with my personal experience.

This weekend is different.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I am writing from the disconnected Mendocino Forest. No cell service out here for three days and I have no Starlink (yet). To be honest, it’s quite refreshing.

I still want to write. This week, we will draw from experience and have a little storytime. I’ve had 12 years to explore the people that make Silicon Valley special. Here are my observations.

4-minute-read

Silicon Valley - where entrepreneurs and geeks meet

Ever since I came to Silicon Valley 12 years ago, I have been drawn to understand what makes this place so special. Since success here seems to be a repeatable pattern, I wanted to understand what that special sauce is.

Today, I want to explore what is behind the success of some tech companies, specifically, what type of person it takes and what the exact characteristics of that person are.

First, let me tell you a story about one of these special individuals. I followed their rise to become a world technology leader.

How I met Vitalik Buterin

Almost exactly 10 years ago, I met one of these young geeks who had set his future and mission to solve a gigantic problem. Over the last 10 years, I have seen this geek evolve into an example of an entrepreneurial geek (yes, a combination of both) who has had a tremendous impact on the evolution of crypto. And while doing that, he became the world’s youngest crypto billionaire at 27. The geek I am talking about is Vitalik Buterin—the creator of Ethereum.

I went hiking with him. A pretty common thing that can happen to you in the Valley. This was a crypto enthusiast hike.

You can find a group to meet on any day of the week for any niche technology you can think of. If not, set one up, and other enthusiasts will come out of their closets. This is how I used to spend my weekends.

Vitalik Buterin conceptualized his idea of a decentralized blockchain platform that would enable decentralized applications and smart contracts in November 2013.

In March 2014, the organizer of a local Ethereum meetup announced that Vitalik and two of his co-founders, Gavin Wood and Antonio Di Iorio, were in town and would come along.

It was a Saturday morning, and we met at a popular trailhead in the Foothills above Palo Alto. From a distance, it was easy to recognize him wearing a shirt with a big Bitcoin logo and the slogan “I use coins.”

Twelve people showed up for the hike.

It gets even better: As we returned, he and his co-founders had to ask for a ride back to the house they crashed in, and yours truly got to chauffeur them back to Palo Alto.

Did I contribute a small part to Ethereum? Certainly, none of my comments would have helped him solve any of Ethereum's problems. But I’d like to think that at least the ride back helped. For all we know, he might still wander around the Foothills if it wasn’t for me.

Nothing could stop him

He is one of these geeks who is a perfect example of the determination required to solve a hard problem no matter what. He learned about Bitcoin in 2011 and started to write for a website called Bitcoin Weekly. But in the early days, nobody understood or wanted to read about Bitcoin. The publication couldn’t get enough attention and eventually shut down. He didn’t stop. He co-founded Bitcoin Magazine and was involved in several other Bitcoin-related projects.

In 2014, he came to Silicon Valley to join the Thiel Fellowship. An organization led by Peter Thiel to help bring good ideas to market + a stipend of $100,000. The only ask… drop out of college; good ideas can’t wait.

In 2015, he launched Ethereum. By then, more people understood Bitcoin and the underlying technology. Vitalik and his co-founders were able to sell ether for bitcoin worth $18 million to fund further development.

Along the way, Vitalik weathered every storm a new product could face - sudden Bitcoin price drops, environmental concerns, governance challenges, and so on- while creating more awareness and building a strong community around Ethereum. He kept on going. He became obsessed with bringing it to the world and found ways to overcome every obstacle.

I specifically remember one thing he said in our conversation during the hike. I asked him why he was so focused and determined to solve it. His one-sentence answer was: “Because it deserves to exist.”

The Geek and the Entrepreneur

Silicon Valley nurtures a geek culture. Companies here have learned to shape their corporate environment to attract talent that wants to solve difficult problems. And it is not about the playful offices with bean bags and ping-pong tables.

In Silicon Valley, geeks gather around topics they are deeply passionate about. Companies have learned to attract them not just with high pay but also with high levels of autonomy and empowerment.

A geek becomes so obsessed with a topic and wants to dive deep. They want to solve problems that others haven’t solved. They take pride and satisfaction in learning and mastering a field.

Their idea of a wild Saturday night? Picking up a 1,000-page manual about quantum computing, armed with nothing but a pencil and a highlighter.

If a geek starts a company and stays a geek - they will focus a lot on their product. If a geek becomes just as obsessed with growing a business around their product, they’ll need to adapt to the characteristics of an entrepreneur. And if not, they’ll need to find an entrepreneurial partner to build the business.

This is the second type of individual that makes Silicon Valley special: entrepreneurs. They are always looking for the next big opportunity and coming together with others to scheme about business plans and seed rounds. They look for geeks and how they can partner up.

They build a broad network that can enable their business.

While the geek focuses on the problem and product, the entrepreneur focuses on the distribution. It’s a perfect combination.

Where do geeks and entrepreneurs differ?

Although there are many similarities, there are some differences between geeks and entrepreneurs.

The Entrepreneurial Geek

Where all this culminates is the ultimate personality. I would categorize people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Vitalik Buterin as examples of geeks who became entrepreneurs. After or while solving a hard technical problem, they became obsessed with the next step—making it a business that could grow.

The entrepreneurial geek gets obsessed with how to run a company at the forefront of tech innovation.

They go beyond solving technical problems. They go broader. They want their solution to touch millions. They know it will make lives better. And they know the technology deserves to exist.

To summarize, I think it makes for 3 super-powerful combinations.

No matter if you are a geek, entrepreneur, or both. Silicon Valley is a special place to meet like-minded people from every technology field. You can find the obsessed geek as well as the driven entrepreneur. You quickly get absorbed into the mindset of unlimited opportunities, and you might meet the next tech billionaire on a hike.

I would love to hear feedback on how this story resonated and, of course, your thoughts.

Have a great rest of the week,