I’m Dorian Kersch, co-founder of Lunafi, and this is my story
Location: San Diego, CA
Current gig: Co-founder of Lunafi, single, grad school
One word that best describes how you work: Problem-oriented
Current mobile device: One Plus 3
Current computer: ASUS Chromebook Flip with GalliumOS
First of all, tell me a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Florida. Grew up in the Caribbean (Sint Maarten). Went to college at Northeastern in Boston. Traveled a lot in and out of college (Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Colombia, etc). After college, I landed a job in San Diego, California as a Project Manager for Intuit. During my time at Intuit, I worked on 10+ projects (customer facing and internal tools), on 6 different teams, and wore multiple hats (Scrum Master, Program Manager, Jira Admin, Jenkins Admin). After a few years, I lost my passion for corporate america and decided to fuel my entrepreneurial spirit. Knowing nothing about the startup scene, my co-founders and I applied to a Startup Leadership Program, learned digital marketing and growth hacking, applied lean startup methodologies, and now we are here.
How did you meet the other co-founders?
I met Evan Francis through my work at Intuit. He was an engineer on multiple teams and I latched onto him due to his ability to solve problems, write awesome code, and love for customer empathy.
I met Ellery through Evan Francis. Ellery was responsible for deploying tons of code at scale and super passionate about cryptography in general. Ellery’s laid back personality, but passion for doing things the right way attracted me to him.
When did you buy your first bitcoin?
I didn’t buy my first bitcoin until the ~3k mark, but I helped setup a mining rig in 2010 for some buddies in college. As everyone would, I wish I mined with those folks.
What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack?
When I was using a MAC it was Ctrl + R in terminal to do a reverse bash history lookup. On my Chromebook, its the “Magnifying/Search” button. With the amount of time I spend googling, it has become a habit to quickly fact check things.
What‘s your favorite perk at Lunafi?
Lia’s cooking (Evan Francis girlfriend).
What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else? What’s your secret?
Being able to synthesize information from different sources to help articulate customer problems. Bouncing ideas off of people and trying to put myself in the customer’s shoes would be my secret.
How do you recharge? What do you do when you want to forget about work?
I play volleyball or Xbox One and eat 🍣.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“If you truly want to understand something, try to change it.”
What news source(s) do you read for cryptocurrency related news?
I have an RSS feed that collects from all over the web. The most common ones I read are BitNewz, /r/bitcoin, and cointelegraph.
Why are you passionate about in cryptocurrency space?
I believe we are on the cusp of the “next internet”. The idea of a decentralized payment solution and decentralized storage system is huge! The financial industry is about to be disrupted.
What are your favorite cryptocurrencies in your portfolio?
What are some you cryptocurrencies you would avoid?
Bitcoin forks (Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin S2X)
What do you think the next “big thing” will come out of cyrptocurrency?
Triple entry accounting replacing double entry accounting. (Public Ledger vs Centralized bank confirming transactions)
What is your current passion you are exploring to help your business grow?
I am really enjoying learning about all the Google Analytics for startups. Its insane how much free and awesome to use tools that Google provides such as Analytics, Optimize, Surveys, Tag Manager, etc.
What does the next 6 months at Lunafi look like?
The next 6 months are going to be awesome. We are currently gathering customer feedback, building our brand, and utilizing analytics to drive what products we plan to build. At the moment, we are contributing to the community via LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and generating newsletters to help first time investors create portfolios. Remember, our mission is to simplify cryptocurrency in both investing and usage. Customer empathy drives the products we build.
Shout out to Lifehacker for the awesome template.
