As stated in the last edition of the Paragon Papers, “We’re a collection of collectors, gamers, nerds, crypto enthusiasts, finance bros, and more.” The team building the discovery engine that is the Paragon comes from all different stories and backgrounds. Our collective of collectors is a network spread across two continents. We have a solid blend of TradFi leadership, creative designers, and blockchain developers. The vision and experience of our core team are essential differentiators between Paragon and many other VC-backed projects. Our team is our superpower, so we wanted to share a little bit more about ourselves.
Chris Austen — CEO | @cardmanjones
Chris is a data lover, an avid skateboarder/skier, a degenerate collector/trader of all things, and a blockchain/crypto enthusiast. Chris studied Naval Architecture and holds a degree in Optimization Engineering from the University of Michigan where he also played Division 1 lacrosse. During his time at school, Chris started a sports cards and collectibles company, where he ultimately stumbled into NFTs. Subsequently, Chris joined Starstock to run growth (acquired by CollectibleX). He also lead Product on an early NFT auction platform Grail, before joining the Paragon.
Tim Harris — Chief Gaming Officer + Resident Magick Maker | @thewzrd
Tim began his career working on the initial US launch team for the Nintendo 64 and Pokémon Red & Blue. He later went on to work as a Director of Advertising at Yahoo and later a VP for Starcom IP. Tim began to venture into the gaming space and went on to start multiple companies, SMG Play, Seven Lights, Gunslinger Studios, and Industrial Toys, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2018. Most recently Tim worked as the Managing Director of Games at Iron Galaxy, is an Advisor for Bound and FarBridge, and owns AlleyCat Comics, a comic store hideaway in the city of Chicago.
Patrick Hourihane — CFO | Lead Investor | Founding Member
Patrick has 25+ years of experience as a trader, investor, and blockchain enthusiast. He began his career as an Interest Rate Trader at DRW, he later went on to start his own trading group that focused on exchange based products globally. In the early 2000’s he shifted his focus to HFT, ultimately building an advanced FX aggregation system offering customizable algorithmic execution on spot, forwards and swaps to large institutional and corporate clients. After selling his platform to a well known bank, Patrick began investing in blockchain technology and has bootstrapped Paragon from day 1.
Ron Klipstein — CSO | Lead Investor | Founding Member
Ron has been involved in the world of trading for 25+ years. A former floor trader at the Chicago Board of Trade, Ron realized that the trading world was quickly becoming computerized. In response, Ron taught himself how to trade the electronic markets. This journey took Ron from trading the electronic Nasdaq and S&P futures at the CME for himself to working at Vortex Trading and Getco, both large Chicago-based electronic market makers. From there, Ron started his own automated market-making company, Holon Trading. After a successful exit from Holon, Ron was recruited by Citibank in 2012 to help improve the speed and pricing of their foreign exchange trading models. At Citi, Ron began to learn about Bitcoin and the world of digital currencies. From Citi in New York, Ron returned to Chicago to build an electronic foreign exchange business for Northern Trust. Once his work was complete, Ron left to focus on seed-level investments in the crypto infrastructure space.
Johnny Perkaus — Head of Partnerships | @JohnnyPerkaus
Johnny is from Chicago, Illinois, and has been involved in cryptocurrencies since 2017. He has a business degree from Indiana University and is a pretty badass guitar player. He most recently worked at ParkWhiz but decided to follow his passion for NFTs and eventually joined Paragon. Johnny is an avid NFT collector and an entrepreneur at heart.
Franco Galletti — CTO | Founding Member
Franco is an Industrial Engineer at heart, but is an expert in managing technology teams and projects. He holds a degree in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Neural Networks. He most recently worked for a development shop called Digital Beings where he worked with clients throughout the blockchain space, such as Super rare
Joaquin Gonzalez — Lead Blockchain Dev
Joaquin has 5+ years of experience in blockchain development and is an expert in Solidity and cryptography. He has worked with companies like Marmo.io, Ripio, RCN, Radar, and WiniWallet where he led the development and collaborated with the MakerDAO team.
Agustin Landaburo | Product Design Lead
Agustin is an expert in product and design. He has worked for companies like Sitix, the ticketing platform for Sports Illustrated, Citibank Argentina, and 4 logik. Agustin spent his early career as an Analyst at Accenture and later Citi as a Software Architect. In recent years Agustin has focused his efforts on web3 and designing next-generation products for crypto-focused users.
Agustin D’Atri | Blockchain Game Engineer
Agustin is a father of two kids and two dogs and has been in crypto since 2017. With 15 years of experience working in technology teams, Agustin is a master of visual design and front end development. Lover of colors, good UI and even-better UX. Passionate about architecture solutions and NFTs, that’s why he loves Paragon
Alejandro Gramajo | DevOps Lead
Co-founder of BAICOM Networks, a company dedicated to providing infrastructure, security and development services with open technologies. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of security, linux and development and was a teacher and researcher for UBA Engineering. In recent years he has focused on blockchain development and has collaborated on several NFT projects such as, Cromy, Defun, Alien Boy NFT, Poundtoken, and Leafbird.
Project Advisors
Alex Seropian | Founder of Bungie, Wideload, Industrial Toys and more…
Alex is a lifelong video game developer. Alex was one of the founding members of Bungie Studios, the developer of Marathon, Myth and most notably HALO. Bungie was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. Alex then created Wideload Games, which was ultimately acquired by Disney in 2009 and Alex joined as the VP of Game Development for Disney Interactive Studios. In 2012 Alex started Industrial Toys with our CEO, Tim Harris, which was later acquired by Electronic Arts. Most recently Alex acts as the Founder and CEO of Look North World Studios.
Carson Cook | CEO of Membrane Labs | CEO and Founder of Tokemak
Carson is a serial blockchain founder, otherwise known as LiquidityWizard. Carson is the founder behind the Defi protocol Tokemak, the proprietary trading and market-making firm, Fractal Wealth, and most recently, a digital asset netting, clearing, and settling company, Membrane.
Lawrence Richardson | Founder Hxro Games
Lawrence started his career as an automated FX and gold trader at CitiBank. Getting involved in crypto early in 2013 led him to ultimately start Hxro Games and now acts as the Head of Defi for Membrane.
‘Internet’ Paul | Marketing Lead @ Membrane Labs
Paul holds a B.A. in European History. Professional training in design, lifelong technologist, and 7-year token market veteran. Meme liker, anime watcher, fashion appreciator. Concepted and executed the creative strategy of Tokemak.
To all the seekers, we salute you and can’t wait to meet you. Now that you know who we are, be sure to say hi in the Paragon Discord!
— The Paragon Team
