Interview with a Founder: Edward Woodford

1. Tell us your story. How have you decided to start zerohash?

I started zerohash in 2017 because it was clear that blockchains were a fundamentally disruptive way of moving value. Crypto wasn’t a niche asset class to me. Instead, I saw it as a technology shift that would reshape how value moves around the world.

Equally, I have always been drawn to solving complex problems that require structural resets, which most people self-select out of because it's convoluted, and deeply unglamorous -- which is exactly why it matters. The infrastructure did not exist for start ups and big companies to embed and innovate with this technology. Our mission has been to ensure that innovation and trust are not viewed as a zero-sum trade off, but in fact can reinforce one another. With this backdrop we have built the regulated backbone that lets firms like Morgan Stanley, Interactive Brokers, Franklin Templeton, Stripe, Onepay, and many more offer crypto, stablecoins, and tokenization.

Eight years later, we support more than 6 million end users across brokerage, payment and tokenization, and we’re just getting started.

2. What’s one thing you wish you knew before starting your own company?

I always say that the biggest lesson for me is narrowing one’s emotional bounds as there are constant ups and downs with building a business. It’s important to manage these for your own well-being but also to ensure you have the clarity to make good decisions. Building a company takes many, many years and ensuring you take a long-term view I think is critical.

Especially in FinTech, where it’s almost impossible to “fail fast” because the licensing overhead of getting to the start line is a multi-year process. The vision might be obvious, and the applications of these experiences are becoming more overt by the day, but building trust with regulators and with the biggest financial institutions in the world takes relentless patience. The upside is that once you prove you can execute at a high standard, the flywheel creates incredible momentum: some of the biggest and most complex firms in the world trust us because we’ve built the right foundation.

3. As your company grows, what strategies do you implement to effectively manage expansion, preserve company culture, and ensure successful hiring?

We made the conscious decision of being a “remote-first” company. We are orientated around this as a business and we always clarify that “remote” does not mean that we never meet in person. We ensure teams get together frequently and do a global meet up once every 18 months.

I think the critical thing is being clear on what we are and what we are not - and being transparent on this point. We hire people who are comfortable with complexity and comfortable being uncomfortable.

We are exceptionally transparent with our team including sharing revenue numbers and sharing successes and wins on a quarterly basis - we think transparency leads to better decision making and drives collective ownership.

4. What guidance would you offer to fellow founders who are seeking to secure funding?

Investors want clarity of vision and proof you can execute against it. Try to show continued traction through the fundraising process.

Secondly, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from the first person who wrote a check into my first business. He said, “Edward, you always have the answer for every question. Write the obituary of your company for me.” Within 30 minutes of sharing this “obituary”, he wrote the check. The lesson was to articulate the known unknowns. You are taking a bet and if everything was binary and clear, there would not be a play. Be comfortable in these unknowns, know the bet you are making and articulate that.

5. What’s next for zerohash?

Our goal is to be the building block for every global business. We have solved the technical and regulatory complexity around crypto, stablecoins and tokenized assets for some of the biggest companies globally. Our mission is to make this technology highly usable and interoperable. Sometimes people forget that when SMS started, you could only text people on the same network as you. We are at a similar inflection point in blockchain technology where there are many chains and many assets. Interoperability and abstracting the technical complexity for the user will only accelerate the adoption of this technology and zerohash is focused on these unlocks.