Text Messages to Crypto Taxes: The Path of Jon Lerner, Co-Founder of CoinTracker
Jon Lerner is one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the crypto space. He is the co-founder and CEO of CoinTracker, a $1.3 billion service that helps millions of users track their crypto portfolio and file their taxes seamlessly. But how did Lerner become one of the most influential CEOs in crypto? What challenges did he face along the way? And what lessons can entrepreneurs learn for their journey?
“Diving into the cryptocurrency space made it clear to us that CoinTracker needs to be seamless, accurate, and provide year-round value. We focused on enabling users to connect their crypto exchanges and wallets and then built software to do the heavy lifting and handle the complexity for users. We wanted CoinTracker to just work. Magically.
– Jon Lerner, Co-Founder and CEO of CoinTracker
Jon Lerner was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up with a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. He taught himself how to code when he was 12 years old and started building websites and apps for fun. He also had a knack for math and science and scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT test. He decided to pursue a degree in computer engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he met some of his future co-founders and collaborators.
Testing Entrepreneurship
Lerner’s entrepreneurial bug struck while he was still at MIT. He co-founded TextNow, which was a service to make mobile services more seamless. The idea was to provide a service that would be accessible and cheap for all.
Lerner still remains on the board of TextNow, which has gone on to become one of the most popular mobile services apps. It offers unlimited calls, texts, and video transfers over Wi-Fi or the Internet.
Dropbox Rejection
One of the ideas that caught Jon Lerner’s attention was Dropbox, which lets users sync and access their files across multiple devices in the cloud. So, he reached out to Drew Houston for a partnership. However, Houston had already found another co-founder, Arash Ferdowsi, who had dropped out of college to work on Dropbox full-time. Houston politely declined Jon Lerner’s offer but invited him to apply for a job at Dropbox.
Lerner later said that he regretted not joining Dropbox, but respected Houston’s decision. His lessons from this experience were that timing and luck are important factors in entrepreneurship. He also learned that sometimes one must take risks and seize opportunities when they arise.
Dipping Into Cryptocurrencies
Lerner joined Google as a software engineer in 2010 after graduating from MIT. He worked on various Google interests, including the camera app, the photos app, the assistant app, and machine learning. But he still had the itch to start his own company. The crypto scene was buzzing, and he became interested and started investing and trading in various coins and tokens.
He soon realized that managing his crypto portfolio and taxes was a huge pain point. He had to use multiple tools and spreadsheets to track his transactions, balances, and gains across different exchanges and wallets. He also had to deal with complex and confusing tax rules and regulations. It made him wonder if there was a better way to handle his crypto finances, so he searched online for a solution, but he could not find anything that met his needs.
CoinTracker Revelation
Lerner decided to build his own tool, and he called it CoinTracker. He reached out to Chandan Lodha, a former Google colleague, and friend, and asked him to join him as a co-founder. Lodha agreed, and they quit their jobs at Google to work on CoinTracker full-time. They applied to Y Combinator for the second time, this time with CoinTracker, and they got accepted. They launched CoinTracker in 2017 and received positive feedback from the crypto community.
CoinTracker helped users track their crypto portfolio and file their taxes seamlessly by integrating with over 500+ exchanges, wallets, and DeFi platforms. CoinTracker also supported over 10,000 coins and tokens and over 100 countries and regions.
CoinTracker solves the tax pain for many crypto users, especially those new to cryptocurrencies. It tracks portfolio performance and seamlessly does tax calculations for the user. It integrates with tax platforms like TurboTax to make tax reporting even easier. CoinTracker has become the go-to app for portfolio management in the crypto space.
CoinTracker raised $100M in funding from prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, and Y Combinator. It raised the company’s valuation to $1.3 billion. CoinTracker also received acquisition offers from Apple and Facebook, but Jon Lerner turned them down.
An Independent and Foresighted Mindset
Lerner’s remarkable progression to the top shows a strong desire to remain independent and commit to a long-term vision. He believes that CoinTracker has a unique opportunity to empower millions of people to use crypto with ease and confidence. It was his way of contributing to financial prosperity and freedom around the world.
He has shown he is also a great leader and mentor, apart from being a good entrepreneur. The CoinTracker team is founded on trust, transparency, a long-term mindset, and high-quality delivery. It attracts top talent from across the world. Lerner shares his insights and advice with other entrepreneurs and aspiring founders through podcasts, blogs, and interviews. For his contributions, Lerner was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential CEOs in the crypto space in 2022.
Sources:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlerner
https://www.cointracker.io/blog/jon-lerner-wins-top25-executive-award
https://www.cointracker.io/blog/cointracker-announces-series-a
https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/cointracker-raises-100-million-series-a-at-a-1-3-billion-valuation
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