Justin Hartzman on CoinSmart’s expansion and public plans

0:01i'm ashton addison from event chain for investment pitch media in the crypto coin show and today on blockchain interviews we have justin hartsman the co-founder and ceo of coinsmart justin welcome to the show and thanks for taking the time to be here ashley it's my pleasure thanks for having me i'm really excited for our discussion uh on coinsmart i know you guys have a

0:21lot of updates recently and some big milestones but we could just kick off the interview by getting a little bit of background on yourself how you first got involved with bitcoin and what made you start coinsmart absolutely uh myself my two co-founders we've known each other since we're six years old we've been business with each other for over 20 years um and

0:40really the genesis of coinsmart came out from the need to have a hobby my wife said to me justin get a hobby you need to do something other than work all the time uh and in true entrepreneurial spirit hobbies typically turn into businesses and that's exactly what this did so um out of a lunch and learn about crypto that i was giving to people around a

0:59pool in florida turned into um our vision for the company when it when one hour to try and get someone on a platform took four days i knew three words were super important we live by those three words and everything that we do today which is making cryptocurrency accessible and that's what we're doing we're creating a platform we've created a platform

1:18that allows anybody at any level of trading abilities or crypto knowledge to come in and buy and trade but more importantly from having the easiest tools giving you all the advanced tools to become an advanced trader and letting anyone in the gambit go from a to z in a full service platform like we have at coinsmart that's a great overview justin and what

1:38would you say makes coin smart unique and you know do you have a competitive advantage over others that are looking to get people involved with cryptocurrencies for the first time absolutely i think the bottom line is a couple things are super important they really circle around that making cryptocurrency accessible which is trust you know we've taken a

1:57regulatory approach first which i think is uh vital while may have stammered some growth at the beginning spelling the best platform for future growth so i'm excited by that and second of all um is keeping our customers our clients our users as the number one focus in everything we do we are the only platform worldwide that does 24 hour a day seven day a week

2:17omni channel support so live by chat by phone email social media whichever way you want to contact us we're there to service you and help you in any needs that you have that's really making it more accessible letting them get on the platform and then what we do from there which i think is unique is we help educate so we offer every piece of content that

2:36we do whether it's an article a blog post a how-to guide in three forms smart savvy ingenious two-minute form five-minute form and essentially white paper form so you can go from learning a little bit to having a basic conversation and leveling yourself up all the way along to go from a crypto buyer or seller to a full-on trader wow that's great and i love that you

2:59really cater it you know some people they just need the two minutes and some people really need to dive in so it's great to have that diversification there now i know you've been working at this for a while now i just want to hear a little bit about the journey can you talk about you know when when did you start coin smart how has it been growing and where are

3:15you primarily operating right now it's a great question we started at the absolute worst time in the market um yeah you know mid 2008 2018 uh around june july we launched right in time for crypto winter so it was a hard slog at the beginning and hard to get through it we had some real stumbling blocks but we knew being really early being still in the

3:38first half of the first inning of this cryptocurrency game or our whole ecosystem that we had to get through it so um you know 2019 we started seeing some traction and started building up and every quarter from uh quarter to 2019 we've been growing month over month quarter after quarter year after year we're now uh we're uh 30 000 plus customers you know validated trading customers

4:03here in canada and we just launched our doors uh opened our doors for a soft launch into europe we have a 330 000 person waiting list to get on live so we're super excited to open our doors fully into europe over the next quarter uh as we continue to build our team our services and our rails and make it very again accessible to all people and then from there

4:22we're looking to be in australia by end of year and then into latin america in 2021 2022 sorry wow that's that's impressive and 330 000 people that is insane it just shows the the demand and the interest for these types of assets uh at this time right now and that's great that to hear that you are expanding and i was reading that coin smart recently closed a 4.5

4:47million dollar seed funding round so first of all congratulations on that that's amazing thank you very much i appreciate that and just to put that into context for anyone who's not in the canadian market here that's a big seed round and we want to raise three million we oversubscribed and stopped the round at four and a half so we're really really proud of what my team's done to

5:05allow me to go to work and do what i need to do to help bring in more funds to grow this company and scale at a faster rate definitely and it is a lot of work uh you know distracting from the actual operations of the business to raise capital put yourself in a position to be able to close that and now move forward so with that now closed you know what are

5:24the next steps in terms of actually utilizing that capital and using it to expand the business yeah it's a great question well also an announcement that just went out a week or two ago is our go public strategy so we're working on going public right now we'll know more about that and get more news into the future so super excited about that i just finished a road show on that side

5:42of things which we'll announce shortly uh so lots in the pipelines but this money is really to going to help build out you know strengthen our bench bringing some really key players on the 15th i have a chief compliance officer coming from the largest financial institutions in canada uh to join our team which is exciting uh across the financing team new developers we're

6:03working on products to get to market so lending and margin trading in europe and then hopefully once regulation comes to place back here into canada so uh we'll be putting some research and development there we're also doing some m a or looking at some m a opportunities for picking axes in our space as well as building out further product lines um like compliance software

6:21and banking solutions because what we're looking to become over the next you know 18 months is a full-fledged financial institution based on cryptocurrency so everything the holistic approach from bank accounts saving you know debit cards credit cards so you can go in and out of your own uh bank account right on a platform trade right from your account

6:39um you know uh lending uh margin futures uh and then right back to your bank account to spend it as you want in a normal method or keep it on platform so really giving them everything they need which includes you know security features custodial features banking and all the trading platforms that we do have wow that's that's a big feat and i'm looking forward to seeing how that plays

7:01out and it's great to see that you know these digital assets are getting to that financial institution level where you know all of a sudden cryptocurrency startups are turning into financial institutions in the future of finance uh this is super exciting it's super exciting then with all that stuff we have these great you know d5s coming into place looking at that nfts which i think are

7:19really interesting to picking up steam right now so we look at all those pieces and again just want to be the place where you can go know very little be interested and get exposure to all these other things that get exciting as you learn more or you want to get involved in more so really giving again that holistic full full circle approach um and not run into

7:39issues that you traditionally would now with your banks not setting wires when you might want to do them or holding you know transfers in and out we're really solving that for everyone as best as we can definitely and yeah you know in the past it seemed there had been you know some people were having issues just moving back and forth between financial institutions into the digital

7:56asset space now in terms of you know your perspective into the canadian landscape at what stage do you sort of see virtual currency adoption in canada you know how early or how late are the people that are getting involved right now and where do you see that heading maybe in the next 12 months it's a great question i've talked about this before but i guess most people know

8:16the s-curve of adoption i believe we're at the inflection point of we're not on the flat where people are understanding we're starting to move up into the parabolic growth i think we haven't reached it yet but we're actually taking that little corner where we are to move forward so more canadians are more interested in it um they're learning more there's more trust in the market as they

8:33see real players being here um and we see some of the bigger financial institutions as well as the institutional players playing within it so again i think we're still quite early still in the first half of that first inning but i do think we're past that little curve where we're going to start seeing that trajectory upwards right now here in canada and abroad so i think

8:52we're in a really good space you and i and all the people who are listening today um in early and really let's see where we can take this because there's a long road ahead of us of uh continuing to show great products great services with really big companies that can help you do that and have trusted definitely and you know it's great to be focused in where we live here in canada but you

9:14mentioned that you're also expanding out into europe and just elsewhere internationally and you know there's only so many people in canada and it's sort of small compared to you know the states and europe and everywhere else so how do you see you know the base of your operations as you continue to grow do you see you know more business coming outside of canada

9:32um even though you're a canadian business well i think just naturally based on the size of market like you're saying that we're going to that are um extremely larger than we are here in canada so that by nature differently than the other exchanges here in canada our whole plan is to expand and make our big offering bigger well we can do that we can offer

9:51more liquidity we can offer more products have more services to bring back and offer here as regulation allows us that's really one thing that we're working as much as we possibly can very tightly knit with the regulators in canada great relationship with them they're doing awesome stuff to help us innovate i think that's part of having the discussion with them so that we can um

10:09instead of communities having to come to an exchange like ourselves by cryptocurrency and you know shipping it off to an offshore exchange or something across the world um where there is no protection for them how can we keep that in somewhere that they trust right on the soil here um and provide them the services they want in canada so that's something that we work on every day and

10:28really big part of my job is to help explain that move forward and get regulation on our side to help us accomplish those pieces definitely and i'm glad that you're talking about regulation you know there's been some people that are in canada that have used exchanges that were in canada before that didn't really have those regulatory pieces uh you know

10:47in place perfectly some of those people ended up you know in a bad position um you know do you do how do you see you know coinsmart taking that regulatory uh stand and actually you know do you see them you guys being the the exchange in canada that's actually you know it's safe that obviously safety is going to be one of the top priorities of funds and just the security in terms

11:12of you know the one-stop shop for canadians well i think that's a great thing and yes that is what we're working towards that's exactly what we want to be um part of again i'll go back to what's so important to what we're doing making cryptocurrency accessible trust is one of the biggest pillars within that being under a regulatory body working with them not against them

11:32offering you know insight another reason why you know a public um you know we're taking that public position to the future and working towards that is this information should be readily available to the people out there um privately held very close to tight-knit doesn't offer as much uh you know transparency as those things do to create more trust within that market

11:53and help these people understand what we're doing how we're doing it in what way we are protecting them across the board so all part of what we're looking to accomplish definitely and what would you say will be one of the key factors uh for the success of coinsmart in the future and just to get bitcoin adopted by more canadians yeah i think it's just continuing to

12:14what we're doing now helping make it accessible helping them get there being there to support them offering the product that they need that they have to be searching to other places to do take de-risking those by offering you know institutional great custodial services um you know having trust within what we're doing and having oversight from different

12:32regulatory bodies is just that's that's the key factor to all this you know so i think all those things are what's going to help um and then i think as we hear more news of institutional players getting involved whether it's in canada or abroad that brings more you know that's if we look at the price of bitcoin and where it's going that helps with growth of the market

12:52what's happening now is we have institutional players buying large sums of them really being very helpful in a supply and demand problem by taking those big chunks out of the market they're not being traded now they're going to cold storage away and as people hear about that and understand those companies who are doing it and believe in those companies

13:08they're going oh this might be something i want to come in so you have the masses following on so making it easy for those masses to follow along and again supply versus demand less less supply in the market more demand for it we see price action upwards so i think again i don't make any uh price predictions that's not my job i'm not allowed to do that

13:27um but again being early the space i have like you've said it before the moon is really like maybe that's the the stop over on the way to out of the galaxy so i don't know where we're gonna go with it um and i do think that um we have a lot a long road as i say green you know green pasture blue skies ahead of us in the space definitely justin and you know on the

13:47flip side of that um of course there's going to be challenges and obstacles to overcome on the way do you have any specific challenges or obstacles that you foresee uh overcoming to bring mainstream adoption to coinsmart well i think it's going back to that regulation piece i think that's changing and never changing as being in multiple jurisdictions over time

14:08again we're canadian right now focused um but being muscle jurisdictions we have to think about that in every single place and follow those rules very specifically um and ensure that our teams and have specific teams in locations they're trained based on those laws kyc aml and the regulatory compliance so i think that's the biggest uh hurdle that we're going to have to

14:28continue to face but an important hurdle not something that i look as a roadblock but as something that will might be a stumble for us to get there um but will lift us up higher as we're when we actually make those things into reality yeah definitely well said justin and i agree it's uh it is troublesome to have you know different jurisdictions have different

14:47laws and every country you know if you're in uh a continent that has 30 countries and they all have different laws and you have to you know make little adjustments for each place um that is you know it's it's tough but it's obviously uh something that you have to do as a business so to that point though i think that uh when we when we look at the jurisdictional laws

15:09you know in each of these places in regulation um it only makes us stronger in every one of our wherever else that we are if there's something that they're bringing on because it's important to them but why don't we look at that across the board everywhere it's for our users our our investors protections consumers customers protection and that's what we want to continue to

15:27do again it's so important it's not easy but i think that's why we will get ahead and we'll continue to be a major player in the space very well said justin and we're running out of time but how can the viewers learn more get involved and start using coinsmart yeah just go to the website you know go sign up very easy instant do it instant to do so um we have great our

15:50our get smart section our blog and just talk to our team they're ready to talk to you if you have questions you want to understand more you want to get involved that's the first place to start uh and uh you know i wish everyone the best this is a great a great market to be in a volatile one that's fun uh that's fun and as i say to everyone let the trend be your friend

16:09great thank you so much for your time justin all the best with coin smart moving forward and let's follow up in the near future i appreciate ashton have a great day you