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Brian Armstrong

20 statements across 9 episodes · 14 bullish · 2 bearish · 7 people on the record · first statement Aug 4, 2017 by Brian Armstrong · said 86 times in 33 episodes since 2016 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Brian Armstrong's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (29), Emilie Choi (21), Jason Lemkin (11), Zach Weinberg (5), Rory O'Driscoll (4), Matt Mochary (4), Garry Tan (2), Tom Loverro (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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04820162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
00448820162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 17 mentions in 6 episodes 3 per episode
2025 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2024 9 mentions in 7 episodes 1 per episode
2023 5 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2022 5 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2021 23 mentions in 3 episodes 8 per episode
2020 10 mentions in 2 episodes 5 per episode
2019 2 mentions in 1 episode
2018 3 mentions in 1 episode
2017 3 mentions in 1 episode
2016 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Brian Armstrong, oldest first

Aug 4, 2017
Insight
Armstrong: Political and governance issues, not tech, block crypto scaling
“Actually, the biggest challenge in scaling digital currencies right now is not a technical one. I think it's a political one or a governance one, if you want to call it that.”
Brian Armstrong Aug 4, 2017 ▶ 17:27 20VC: Coinbase's Brian Armstrong on The Rise & Short Term Correction in ICOs, The Regulatory Framework Required For Blockchain To Succeed & How The Rise of Blockchain Disrupts The VC Industry
Aug 4, 2017 positive
Insight
Armstrong: Y Combinator's core value to founders is confidence, not money
“Y Combinator, there's sort of this underappreciated aspect of it where they make young people who are not quite confident in their decision about what they want to build in the world a little bit more confident just by giving them the money. It's actually the …”
Brian Armstrong Aug 4, 2017 ▶ 4:52 20VC: Coinbase's Brian Armstrong on The Rise & Short Term Correction in ICOs, The Regulatory Framework Required For Blockchain To Succeed & How The Rise of Blockchain Disrupts The VC Industry
Aug 4, 2017 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Armstrong: ICOs face short-term correction before broad long-term adoption
“So I think the long-term trend for ICOs is very positive, or token sales. I think that's a new thing that's been invented, and it will probably get a lot of adoption. I think in the short term, we'll probably see a correction on it, if I had to guess.”
Brian Armstrong Aug 4, 2017 ▶ 11:43 20VC: Coinbase's Brian Armstrong on The Rise & Short Term Correction in ICOs, The Regulatory Framework Required For Blockchain To Succeed & How The Rise of Blockchain Disrupts The VC Industry
Nov 6, 2020 positive
Insight
Weinberg: Companies can take public stances while prohibiting workplace political debates
“You can say, I believe these things are important, and also say to an employee base, however, don't bring it into the day-to-day office, don't bully people, and if you do bully people, and if you do push people based on their beliefs, we're going to fire you, …”
Zach Weinberg Nov 6, 2020 ▶ 10:58 20VC: Zach Weinberg on Whether A Company is a Democracy, The Importance of Ownership, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed and How he Approaches Both Risk and Personal Capital Allocation
Nov 6, 2020 negative
Opinion
Weinberg: It is naive for modern companies to claim complete societal neutrality
“To me, I think it's a little naive to think that a company can just say, we stand for absolutely nothing but our business. And maybe that was true 5060 years ago, but I just don't believe that that's true today.”
Zach Weinberg Nov 6, 2020 ▶ 9:09 20VC: Zach Weinberg on Whether A Company is a Democracy, The Importance of Ownership, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed and How he Approaches Both Risk and Personal Capital Allocation
Aug 23, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Choi: Brian Armstrong remains calm regardless of crypto market conditions
“First of all, I think Brian Armstrong, our founder, is the key to this because he is very kind of calm and even keeled and balanced regardless of how the market is.”
Emilie Choi Aug 23, 2021 ▶ 5:45 20VC: Coinbase President & COO Emilie Choi on Building Coinbase Ventures into One of the Best Performing Funds with 0 Employees, How Coinbase Thinks Through Internal Resource Allocation and Prioritisation & Why, When and How To Hire Your COO and Head of C
Aug 23, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Choi: Brian Armstrong Stamped Out Political Culture and Side-Lobbying at Coinbase
“Brian Armstrong, there's no political culture here, and I don't just mean that about his apolitical post. I mean about, you don't lobby people on the side. You don't have this thing where you talk about Somebody in the room one way, and then after they leave t…”
Emilie Choi Aug 23, 2021 ▶ 23:04 20VC: Coinbase President & COO Emilie Choi on Building Coinbase Ventures into One of the Best Performing Funds with 0 Employees, How Coinbase Thinks Through Internal Resource Allocation and Prioritisation & Why, When and How To Hire Your COO and Head of C
Aug 23, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Choi Pressure-Tested Armstrong's M&A Commitment Before Joining Coinbase
“I pressure tested this with Brian. Cause I really wanted to make sure if I was going to come over to head up corp dev at Coinbase that Brian genuinely wanted to do M&A.”
Emilie Choi Aug 23, 2021 ▶ 11:14 20VC: Coinbase President & COO Emilie Choi on Building Coinbase Ventures into One of the Best Performing Funds with 0 Employees, How Coinbase Thinks Through Internal Resource Allocation and Prioritisation & Why, When and How To Hire Your COO and Head of C
Nov 7, 2022 negative
Insight
Armstrong: Personal consumption is wasteful unless it increases productivity or family time
“I think most personal consumption, unless it's there to basically help your productivity or to just give you more time with loved ones is kind of a waste.”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 32:18 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022
Insight
Armstrong: Financial freedom is necessary for all other freedoms
“If you can't like store your own wealth in a way that it can't be taken from you, then you probably don't have freedom in any other thing.”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 40:10 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022 positive
Opinion
Armstrong: Having children does not harm executive productivity
“Taking care of someone or something actually doesn't harm your productivity. It makes you, it makes your day more fulfilling and you can still be very productive.”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 33:39 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Armstrong: I have never fired an employee in anger on the spot
“And I, frankly, I've never done that once in my whole life. I've never fired somebody in anger in the moment, right?”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 12:58 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022
Insight
Armstrong: Startup goals are largely secured once 60% to 70% complete
“I don't usually by the time I accomplished some goal that I've set, maybe I've worked on it for years by the time I actually hit it. I'm usually don't not even thinking about it. I'm like, cause you know, by the time you're at like, 60%, 70%, you're like, oh m…”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 4:07 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022 bullish
Prediction Partly held up
Armstrong: Coinbase will evolve into a holding company of decentralized units
“The future is a little hard to predict, but look, here's one vision I've had for it, which is that I think Coinbase Global, the parent company is starting to become more like a holding company over time. And we have this portfolio of different products, differ…”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 51:48 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 7, 2022 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Coinbase raised $3B debt in one week with zero CEO meetings
“You know, I was kind of surprised to learn that like in, in 20, 21 you know, our CFO came to me and it was like the, you know, the markets are really good. The debt terms are really good. We should probably stock up for the next, you know, if there's another c…”
Brian Armstrong Nov 7, 2022 ▶ 23:43 Brian Armstrong: Coinbase’s Failed NFT Launch, Thoughts on SBF & FTX, Crypto Winter | 20VC #946 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 14, 2023 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Marcus: Coinbase will succeed long term by playing by regulatory rules
“Brian Armstrong has done a really, really good job at balancing this and from the get-go decided that he wanted to play by the rules and has been desperately demanding clear rules from the various regulators. And, you know, certainly I think over the long run,…”
David Marcus Apr 14, 2023 ▶ 28:17 David Marcus: How I Came to Lead PayPal; Why FB's Crypto Failed; How AI Fixes Inequality | E1001 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 30, 2024 positive
Opinion
Saarinen Would Choose to Invest in Brian Chesky Over Brian Armstrong
“If I really had to choose, I would really choose Brian Chesky, because I think he's really this I don't know, power of nature that he can drive through anything. I think Brian Armstrong is as well. But I think like if you put Brian Chesky to do something, like…”
Karri Saarinen Oct 30, 2024 ▶ 5:03 Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Anduril operates internally as an apolitical company following Coinbase's philosophy
“Internal to Anderrill, like we're an apolitical company. Like we don't talk about personal politics inside the company. We kind of subscribe to the Brian Armstrong Coinbase kind of philosophy of like, we're here for a mission.”
Matt Grimm Nov 11, 2024 ▶ 2:08 Matt Grimm, Co-Founder @Anduril: How a Trump Administration Changes the Defence Industry | E1224 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 7, 2026 positive
Opinion
O'Driscoll: Brian Armstrong's ban on political discussion at Coinbase was entirely correct
“In retrospect, an excellent call. I mean, an excellent, not only because it wasn't just a political call, it wasn't taking the other side, it was taking no side, which has turned out to be entirely the correct position.”
Rory O'Driscoll May 7, 2026 ▶ 1:28:36 Anthropic's Raise & What It Means for Potential IPO? Mag7: Google & Amazon Up, Meta & Microsoft Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 2, 2026 bullish
What-if
O'Driscoll: Without open source, Coinbase's AI costs would have sextupled
“The counter counterfactual is if those open source product didn't exist, the Brian Armstrong quote would tweet would have been, We were paying ten million dollars six months ago for our AI intelligence. Now we're paying 60.”
Rory O'Driscoll Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 33:03 Coinbase Cuts AI Spend by 50% | Kalshi's $40B Valuation & Impending IPO | The Year for SaaS Roll-Ups · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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