Today is my first day at MoonPay! I am going to be joining the team as a Senior Engineering Manager and I really can't wait to get started 🚀
Wind back to near the start of the year, I had been getting more and more involved with the world of Web 3. Cryptocurrencies had been something I was aware of for a while, and I bought my first Bitcoin in 2020. Things really took off in early 2021, it seemed as though everyone was talking about crypto and the more I learned about this world the more it lured me into it.
I bought into more currencies than just BTC. I found a love for NFT's and dug deep into DeFi. Every corner I turned there was something new, people were building things and were excited about doing it. The community was one of the most welcoming I have ever been part of and almost overnight the problems I had been interested in previously just seemed to pale in comparison to all of the innovation that was going on here.
I made my mind up about this time that if the right opportunity should present itself to change my career path into Web 3, then I would seriously be considering it. As I mentioned in my last post 'Goodbye, Attest' I was very happy in my job. It would need to be something special to get me away from were I was. I was interested in being part of a team that was improving the User Experience of crypto in some way and that were solving a big problem. I didn't want to niche down into something super specific.
"MoonPay was created with the mission of giving the next billion people access to cryptocurrency".
Out of the blue I had a message about the role at MoonPay. I knew a couple of people I respect who worked there already, and having a quick look at the product and the 'MoonPay Mission' made me get back in touch and organise an initial interview. Their aim is to make cryptocurrency more accessible and user friendly for the masses, something I could wholeheartedly get behind.
The interviews went well, and everyone I spoke to was great. The team is going through a rapid growth period, and the first few engineering managers are going to be playing a role in defining what engineering looks like at MoonPay. Being able to have that influence so early on is something that is exciting for me and seemed the logical next step in my career.
I accepted the offer back in April, but unfortunately was not able to hand my notice in being in the middle of buying my first home (it would have meant resubmitting for my mortgage which I was not prepared to do). MoonPay were so incredibly accommodating and said that they would wait for me and the offer stood for as long as I needed it to. Fortunately(?), our house ended up falling through a couple of months later, and I handed my notice in at Attest and began my three month notice period.
It has felt an incredibly long time coming, but I am super excited to be joining this team. There are so many exciting challenges ahead, and I look forward to speaking about them in the open.
If you ever want to talk about crypto, or MoonPay, then please feel free to hit me up - more than happy to chat about it: hey@jame.es 🤙🏼