Ran Goldie, SVP Head of Payments at Fireblocks, discusses the company's journey from 3 founders in 2018 to 650 employees and 1,900 clients by 2023, detailing how they achieved product-market fit by solving specific use cases for OTC desks and market makers before expanding into payments, tokenization, and CBDCs.
Ran Goldie shares Fireblocks' growth story from a 3-person startup in 2018 to a 650-person company with 1,900 clients and 4 trillion transactions. The company initially focused on operational security for OTC desks and market makers during crypto winter, then scaled rapidly during the 2020-2021 bull market. Key lessons include solving use cases incrementally rather than building generic solutions, hiring strategically during growth phases, and using M&A to enter new markets like payments and tokenization. Fireblocks now works with major banks on CBDCs, stable coins, and tokenized securities, and partners closely with Stellar on payments infrastructure. The company operates with quarterly strategic focus documents rather than long-term plans, prioritizing developer experience and on-chain identity as future growth areas.