10 Things You Didn’t Know about Zac Prince
Zac Prince is the founder of Blockfi. For those who are curious, this is a cryptocurrency management platform that is more than a bit reminiscent of conventional banks. Something that might interest those looking for a place to put their cryptocurrencies.
1. Went to University of Oklahoma
Prince spent some time studying at the University of Oklahoma. It is interesting to note that said school predates the state in which it is situated. This is because the University of Oklahoma was founded in 1890, meaning that it was around for 17 years before Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory came together to create the state of Oklahoma. Nowadays, said school has a strong focus on research.
2. Went to Texas State University
Having said that, Prince graduated from Texas State University. Said school is the single biggest of the institutions that make up the Texas State University System. However, that makes it no more than the fifth biggest of the universities in the state of Texas. Currently, Texas State University has a main campus that can be found in San Marcos, TX as well as a satellite campus that can be found in Round Rock, TX.
3. Studied International Business
Primarily, Prince studied international business. Some people might think that business is business. However, the simple fact of the matter is that countries can have very different business environments, which is something that companies must be capable of navigating before they can become multi-national companies. For that matter, the trade of goods, services, and other resources over national borders is a very specialized topic in its own right.
4. Studied Spanish
Besides that, Prince studied Spanish as well. Said language is spoken by a lot of people in the United States. Having said that, interested individuals should have no problem seeing why it might prove useful to someone studying international business. The Spanish Empire once encompassed a huge portion of the Americas, with the result that there are more than 400 million Spanish speakers in those two continents. Similarly, Spanish is spoken by other people in other parts of the world as well for much the same reason, which isn’t even counting the people of Spain itself. Simply put, it is one of the most spoken languages that can be found in the entire world, thus making it very useful in international business.
5. Member of Sigma Iota Rho
Speaking of which, Prince was involved in honor societies. To be exact, he was a member of Sigma Iota Rho, which was founded in 1984 for the purpose of promoting international studies. Students don’t get to be inducted unless they excel in academics, so much so that they are nominated by their local chapter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Prince managed to graduate Cum Laude.
6. Involved in a Number of Successful Tech Companies
Prince has managed to build up a lot of expertise and experience in his chosen field by holding leadership roles with a number of successful tech companies. For example, he worked at AdMeld, which was bought out by Google. Similarly, he worked at Sociomantic Labs, which was bought out by DunnHumby.
7. Has Held a Fintech Role Before
Specifically, Prince has held a fintech role before founding Blockfi. In short, he was a Vice President overseeing business development teams for Orchard Platform, which is a broker dealer and RIA in online lending. Something that has presumably helped Prince out with his own startup. On the whole, fintech companies have a lot of potential for consumers as well as other customers. However, they are also relative newcomers, meaning that it is difficult to see where they will wind up in the times to come. As such, fintech is a very exciting sector, which can sometimes be a rather nice way to say a very scary sector.
8. Got Convinced to Start Blockfi By a Couple of Individuals
Prince was convinced to start Blockfi by a couple of individuals. One was his wife, who gave him the push because he was talking on and on about the potential of cryptocurrencies. The other was a mortgage lender, who initiated additional compliance checks when he tried to list his holdings of cryptocurrencies as an asset. This happened because said individual was concerned that Prince might have been involved in something illegal, which explains their choice to be extra-cautious. In turn, one can say that Blockfi is an excellent example of those companies founded because their founders ran into a problem for which there was no readily-available solution.
9. Runs a Company that Fills a Very Real Need
Blockfi fills a very real need when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Chances are good that interested individuals have heard the horror stories about people losing their cryptocurrencies because of untrustworthy platforms. As such, there is a need for reliable and reputable places to store cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, Blockfi satisfies something else as well, which would be the need for a platform that lets its users benefit from their cryptocurrencies by just holding on to them. Something that is very widespread when it comes to conventional currencies but not so much for cryptocurrencies. Of course, Blockfi’s success isn’t 100 percent based on it filling these two needs. It is important to note that it has also shown up during another surge of interest in cryptocurrencies, meaning that it has benefited from riding that wave.
10. Runs a Company that Faces Serious Risks
Having said that, Prince also runs a company that faces serious risks. This is something that he shares with conventional banks to some extent. However, Blockfi operates in a much riskier environment than its conventional counterparts. After all, cryptocurrencies are notorious for being very volatile assets, which makes them much more difficult as well as much more unnerving to handle than something stable. Still, risk management isn’t exactly a new thing for either finance or fintech, though interested individuals should be aware that this means that Blockfi can’t take as much risk as its conventional counterparts. Something that has a direct effect on the products and services that are available to them.
