George Burke
Advisor at Vela Exchange
George Burke
Advisor at Vela Exchange
San Juan
Overview
Work Experience
Chief Marketing Officer
2020 - Current
Founderpools.com de-risks startup entrepreneurs by sharing equity with other top VC-backed founders as a community. Joining a pool diversifies risk and unlocks your illiquid shares to invest in the best startups who, in turn, are invested in your success. Started in June, already 60 VC-funded startups are under consideration, representing nearly $500MM raised.
Co-Founder, Product, Marketing
2018
(Tides.Network Inc.) "PORTAL" makes exchange unstoppable. Trade with the speed & liquidity of a centralized exchange, but PRIVATELY and WITHOUT exchange risk & regulatory risk, all inside the most advanced local wallet only you control. • Co-founder. Achieved Apple's only approval for peer-to-peer cross-chain atomic swaps in the App Store. • Led V1 product, building trading aggregator for popular centralized exchange accounts, accessible within private, non-custodial wallet. Trade, fund, withdraw all in one click. • Co-wrote ZK-SWAPS, a protocol making exchange unstoppable through economically competitive nodes (similar to "mining"). • Led V2 product. Built first anonymous, censorship-resistant cross-chain exchange using ZK-SWAPS technology. • Negotiated favorable acquisition of App Store's 2nd most popular crypto portfolio app, CRYPTONAUT, as part of product/distribution strategy. • First crypto white paper ebook published on Amazon Kindle, B&N, others. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z4TGJC1/ • Developed UX & managed front-end design for desktop wallet & trading app.
Advisor
2022
Advisory Board member
Head Organizer | Silicon Valley Bitcoin
2019
Manages the 1st and longest-running meetup in the world for bitcoin/crypto/blockchain. Est. in 2011 by Roger Ver, Andreas Antonopolous, others, this is the meetup that introduced thousands into the world of crypto.
Head Organizer | SF Peak Performance
2016 - 2019
Biohacking movement spokesperson. Created and ran the largest biohacking & human performance meetup of its time. Covered internationally by documentaries and dozens of media outlets between 2016-2018, including NY Times, CBS, Washington Post, Wired, Maxim, Men's Health, Forbes.
Product Manager
2018 - 2020
(Acquired by Portal) 2018's highest-rated, most popular crypto portfolio manager in App Store & Google Play (2nd only to Blockfolio). • While with Portal, negotiated acquisition for our go-to-market strategy. • Grew user engagement to MAU/DAU ~4 and 7 app opens per day. • Implemented exchange account API syncing, adopted by 1/3 of users within months. • Absorbed brand into Portal while onboarding Cryptonaut users into Portal ecosystem.
Crypto explorer
2017 - 2018
• Angel investing in decentralized protocols. Deployed 7-figures of capital in private crypto angel syndicate. • Explored business models in cryptocurrency & decentralized infrastructure projects. • Co-wrote & published two cryptoeconomics white papers on kindle: 1) Protocol for decentralized insurance-as-a-service (TIDES.Network - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0846NCVNL), and 2) crowdfunding & tokenization of intellectual property rights (AQUA - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848RZSJK).
Chief Product Officer
2016 - 2017
500 Startups company. FUEL hyper-personalizes tasty meals, portioned to your unique body, genetics and lifestyle... delivered nationwide. • Joined team at $40k MRR. Grew MRR to 6-figures within 5 months and expanded service area from 7 to 48 states. • Developed an untapped acquisition funnel achieving CAC 4X less than other meal subscriptions. • Developed partnership with world's largest food co-packer to cook & deliver meals. • Tweaked subscription offerings, achieving profitable unit-economics. (Other unicorn food services were losing money with every meal) • Interviewed by national media including New York Magazine & Men's Journal. • Developed UX & managed front-end design for mobile app. • 500 Startups, Batch 19.
Product
2013 - 2016
"Bitcoin debit card" FRESHPAY helps consumers spend cryptocurrency in the real world. (Today, Coinbase & BitPay now use the banking contracts originally pioneered by FreshPay) • Co-founder. Built & demonstrated Bitcoin's first-ever working card prototype in Jan 2014. • Negotiated, signed crypto's first card issuance contracts in the US by Metropolitan Bank and MetaBank in Oct 2014. • Awarded MasterCard's first provisional network acceptance for a card tied to cryptocurrencies in 2015. • Created 3 prepaid reloadable card programs (1 global, 2 domestic) in partnership with 3 of the largest program managers. • Commandeered pro-bono project in partnership between UC Hastings & Pillsbury to provide guidance on 50 state money transmission laws, saving $250k in legal fees. • Pioneered unique payments funds flow that was both bank-friendly & didn't require state Money Transmission Licenses. • Developed UX & managed front-end design for mobile & desktop apps. • Managed industrial design for consumer package art & card art.
CMO, Head of Product
2013 - 2013
(Company acquired) During a regulatory-changing time, Crypto Street was the first "meta exchange" for bitcoins & altcoins, aggregating order book volume across multiple exchanges. • Co-founder. Built product around advanced/day-trading customer segment underserved by existing exchanges. • Navigated product strategy within changing/uncertain regulatory landscape • Solved paradox of any new, empty marketplace with go-to-market harnessing liquidity from other popular exchanges to fill order book. • Recognized as first "meta-exchange". Interviewed by American Banker, Payments Source, others. • Studied US money transmission laws to pioneer a regulation-safe launch strategy (at the time), eliminating need for costly state money transmission licenses.
Co-Founder, Product / Marketing
2012 - 2013
(Company acquired in 2013) Launched to capitalize on Amazon Affiliate revenue and readers’ love of free kindle books. Designed product concept, revenue model, and member retention. Executed growth strategy. Conceptualized, launched, and positive cash-flow in under one month. Sold company within first year. • Achieved astounding 50% email open rate with users returning every other day on average • Extremely high Amazon Affiliate revenue at $1 monthly per member