Surojit Chatterjee took over as Chief Product Manager at Coinbase Global, the largest crypto exchange in the US, last February. In just over a year, Chatterjee, a former Google executive, has a stake in Coinbase worth Rs 1,500 crore. Chatterjee will also get share options that are worth Rs 3,500 crore now within the next five years.
Coinbase made its debut in the stock market the other day. Shares opened at $ 429 and the company’s market value rose to more than $ 100 billion.
Bitcoin and Ethereum were the mainstays of Coinbase’s business last year. Bitcoin is now trading at its all-time high. The price has doubled this year to $ 64,000.
Chatterjee, a BSc graduate from IIT Kharagpur, may be currently celebrating the company’s stock exchange debut with coinbase founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ersam. According to a Bloomberg report, their shares are worth more than $ 16 billion. Chatterjee was the head of the shopping platform at Google. But it was his activities at the Bangalore-based e-commerce site Flipkart that drew Armstrong to him.
The rise of Chatterjee at coinbase is a striking example of the benefits of instant equity which employees get when working with startups. In the past, companies were distributing equities as a reward for loyalty and performance, in portions, over years.
Announcing Chatterjee’s appointment in a company blog post last year, CEO Armstrong wrote, “When someone has only lived, worked, or transacted in a country like the United States, it can be difficult to grasp the size of the opportunity in simplifying cross-border transactions.”
Chatterjee’s growth was at lightning speed which surprised even Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. It was recognition of perseverance and hard work.
As things stand, one is more convinced that Indians are an unmatched lot abroad.
