I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Hey, Karen. Doing pretty well. Hi, Eric. Thanks for the welcome. Absolutely. It's always a pleasure to have you all on. Now, everybody that's listening in. We have had Irina and Karen and Barbara all on the talkus live with them.
and it's women's history month for starters. And I would just love to go down the line and we can start with arena, then mara, then Karen if that's cool at you all. I would just like to take a moment to reflect and reflect on that.
first time you all came into the FinTech space. Was there a lot of things to overcome in order to succeed in your careers? Well, I don't know if it's really a woman thing related, but in general I'd say that any new industry you come into
you have to really learn a lot of things. So when I came into the Fintech and blockchain space, it was just a whole new learning curve for me. So kind of understanding the technology, understanding the regulatory
Landscape understanding the use cases that was that that was kind of what shocked me a lot because I came from a little bit of a different space before when I was an auditor and a lot of my clients when I was an auditor were consuming just real products and then after that it was just like soft software and technology
So in financial services and FinTechs, there's a lot to learn. And in fact, I was talking to Don this morning and I learned something new about how certain things operated at a bank. So there's a lot of nuances and
and new information no matter where you come from that you have to absorb. I guess it's my turn. So, you know, unlike arena and Karen, I have not been in FinTech that long just a
about five years, but I've been in software for 30 years. And that industry, unfortunately, is not diverse enough, not enough women in it. So there have been struggles coming up through that industry.
I will say it has been great. There is still a lot to learn, but I have felt welcome at every company that I have been at in the industry and removing ahead. It is a good place to be.
Yeah, you know, I would actually echo what Laura says. Prior to being in Fentech, I wasn't a developer, but I was a product manager. So being the primarily liaison with developers,
were plenty of times when I was the only woman in the room, you know, me versus 10 men. And it definitely takes some getting used to and wasn't always comfortable, but you know, you just have to stand your ground
feel confident, but I do, I would echo that coming into the crypto space in particular has felt very welcome to me as a woman. I feel like people in this space are very open and generous with thoughts and open minds.
And you know, I just, you know, I think we're seeing more and more women come into this space, but I can't wait to the day when it's, you know, more 50/50 would be great. So when you said that,
It was a lot more welcoming and inviting when you came into this space. Who are these people that you are mentioning? Was it folks within the community? Was it folks within Metallicists or people in conferences? Anything of that nature?
Yeah, I would say this space in general, but certainly, you know, Metallicus is very open and welcoming to all. And we are quite diverse across gender and race and geography.
But I have found that the crypto space in general is an open and welcoming space for women mostly. Maybe I can add something about Metallica too and we also have a very large
age diversity here, which is unusual sometimes for crypto companies. I'm talking about us. And we are not the only women that
three of us here just so you all know. There are other women in different functions within our company and different roles. And that's been a big deal because it's not just people don't come in here and
say I want to be in the crypto company, they come in here into Metallica and say I want to be in accounting or in customer support or in compliance and there's diversity across the board at our company.
Well that was great because I was reading this article that came out in January this year and there was an outline of my forms where they outlined that the crypto industry is male dominated and that there is a massive need for women
in crypto which I don't disagree with and it just sounds like a brass and fresh air knowing that there are certain companies within the industry that are trying to break that mold and trying to
I have more diversity all across the playing field, not just with Ray, Saint, Age, but also a gender. And I think that's where Metallic stands apart and just bringing out the best and everyone whoever they may be.
But it's been a work in progress and I'm sure arena of you you've definitely seen it's you've seen this company grow for Well, it was about three years just as same as me right? Three about three years ago. I started a little over three years. I mean that you know, I like
to say that diversity can be defined in very many different ways. And I think it's very important that you have different people who come from different points of view and backgrounds and experiences. And that makes, I think, our company strong or any company will be strong. Because if everybody
is exactly the same than you really don't have a new view that can push you forward. Sometimes it's very the most unlikely people you think that would give the best contribution because sometimes you generalize what that could be.
Absolutely. Were there any mentors in your lives? And I'm not talking just in crypto web 3 but as you all started your career, we could start with Karen, then Mara, then Arena.
So I wanted to say to be honest, I wouldn't say that I had specific mentors in my career. But thinking about this question, I had three aunts who
When I was growing up, I didn't think too much about it, but in retrospect, it's pretty amazing because they all three went away to a four-year school and got college degrees, and this would have been in the '50s. So it was just a normal part of my upbringing.
And in retrospect, I think they must have been pretty brave to do that at that time. So when I've been very many other women doing it. And also, I had three sisters, but my parents did buy me legos and right now.
cars and quote-unquote boys toys. One of the legos was one of my favorite toys growing up and my parents were very happy to buy that, not just Barbie dolls and dolls. Again, I didn't think too much of it at the time, but now in Rochester,
I'm very grateful for that influence in my life. I guess it's my turn. You know, similarly, I don't really have a mentor that I could point to Eric. You know, I
I've always since since a child I've always been in a male dominated world I've got seven brothers. I've got sons and no daughters. I've been off where I've been in sports companies. It's just kind of the way the way it's been
So I've just kind of got used to it. However, like Karen, there have been some experiences I've had seeing women who really excelled. And one of them was early in my sports career. Some of my teammates when I was in college, they were so good, but there were no professionals.
and they went on and they played in Europe professionally. So this is a scary thing for me that you would leave your home, leave your family, go to someplace like Italy for a job playing professional sports. So, you know, I looked up to them and that was great to see.
And then in my first software company, this may be surprising to hear, but there used to be more women in software than there are now when I was first coming out. And a lot of people were surprised to hear that. It's actually gotten worse over the years. And so my first job was around
50-50 men and women. And that was enough to keep me going in the career. I wonder why that is. Is it just because the total studies on that?
Some studies that the environment has not been friendly to women, both in college and in the career for women who leave to raise a family, it's a lot harder to get back in. I wonder if that's like that in the US or if across the
world that changed but that'd be interesting. Yeah I wouldn't so don't get me wrong it wasn't 50/50 in the industry my company was 50/50 but the percentages were definitely still higher than they are now in the whole industry.
I have a my brother-in-law as a professor and so he saw a lot of women come through his program and he did say during the you know the dot com boom which was you know late 90s early 2000
There were a lot of women coming through the program. And when that dot com boss happened, you know, basically it went down to almost no women. And we never really recovered.
Never heard that. Do you think is going back up or is it still a lot of work to be done? Well, there's plenty more work to be done and I don't know if it's going back up. I haven't really paid as close attention to Eric.
I'm gonna look up that statistic. What kind of program was your brother doing?
Don't my brother-in-law. He's a professor of math and computer science. God, they got it brother-in-law. My apologies. Not a problem. Yeah. I love how it should have ran out. Well, I started my career in San Francisco at Grand Thornton where, you know,
I didn't really know there was a problem for women or to be promoted because there was very much not so at GT, both in San Francisco and across the country. So I was kind of lucky enough to be thrown into
a position that didn't have any real or perceived barriers. We had a lot of women leaders, we had a lot of other diverse leaders at Grand Thorton. So, you know, I have some very
I would say successful women, partners of Grand Thornton and other public accounting firms that I still rely on who wore my mentors. They were mostly my mentors about other things than gender promotion or gender diversity. They were
my mentors and technical skills and manager management skills and other things that kind of get you through your career. But what I kind of like to say, and maybe if anyone cares for
some advice is, you know, you don't have to look for mentors to be, you know, women can look for mentors to be somebody who has the skills that you want to possess. You know, there could be leadership skills, management skills, or technical skills. So I've been lucky enough to have some very
good men who were mentors at my company that we did an IPO, my boss, the VP of Finance, that company was a great mentor to me for everything, for a lot of the skills that I have now.
Find the right ones for yourselves, I guess, at every stage.
And would it be good to have multiple in those scenarios would it be good to have multiple mentors or different types?
I think so. I think different people can teach you or guide you into different directions and different things.
So let me ask you this, I'll start with Farina. We've heard
We have a lot of good answers, such as being just used to going up in career backgrounds where it's more mail-dombed, some being
more 50-50% with women leadership and just being able to keep on pushing and keep on bringing not your best of your abilities.
But what keeps you confident?
Even just for your day to day, what keeps you confident?
That's an interesting question. I like to, I like to kind of, you know, and I don't know if I always succeeded this, but I like to think before I swear
speak or I want to be like sure about what you know I'm saying or the answer to certain like problem is and maybe maybe the
What's a woman trade? Maybe it's a personal trade, but I want to be kind of very prepared for what I'm doing. And if I'm not, then I'm less confident, but when I am, I'm more confident, I guess.
Thank you. Now Karen or Bora. I don't know if you want to be confident. Can I just jump in? So I want to say that you know imposter syndromes are real thing right and it doesn't it affects women but it also affects other people like it's not just a female thing but
But I think it is pretty high in women because of the way some of us have grown up, you know, culturally. And I think I suffered from this for a long time. But for me, it's experience that's make me more comfortable and more confident because
After a while, you get to realize that you do know as much as the other folks out there that you're working with, or that you're talking with regardless of their other women or men or what have you. And I think experience is a big part of that.
Right, because I'll just show that you know your stuff and you have the skills and the repertoire to back it up. Am I in my right about that or? Exactly and sometimes I don't know right, sometimes I don't know, a lot of times I don't know, but it's I'm also not afraid
to ask the right person or let somebody who does know control the conversation or what have you. I think it's important to be in an environment where you're not afraid to make
So the wrong kind of statements and I've been in environments where was the opposite and in public accounting, you know, Grand Thornton, you know, I spent almost 10 years. You sometimes will get in trouble. You know, it's not an environment where you can be wrong or can speak without being super, super prepared and 100% sure of what
what you're saying or delivering the kind of work. And I feel like at Metallica there is an aspect of that because we are regulated. So we have to be very sure about the laws and rules and regulations we're following. But as a culture within the company, there is a lot of room for
questions and you don't have to always know the answer will be right. I don't know how you all feel about it who's here but my boss who's Marshall treats me that way and I think we have a relationship like that. So that helps with the confidence piece to me.
I really appreciate that. Now Karen, what keeps you confident?
think you're out of microphones off. Oh sorry. Yeah, no I was just saying it's all a facade. I definitely don't always feel confident. But I think you have to kind of realize that
Everyone has their own floibles or feelings of insecurity or whatever. And again, just the experience of having
been in different situations, not even just the experience of actual technical knowledge, but the experience of being in lots of different situations and
things that have gone right and wrong and and
being able to leverage that experience to ensure that things are moving forward in the right direction because you know you've been there, you've done it, you've seen it happen. I think that's been very helpful.
I appreciate your impulse on this. Now!
Irina already mentioned this slightly, but let's say there's more to likely going to be women listening that tune into our podcast
to an Internet or Twitter space. Karen, Mora, and also Rina if you have anything else to add into that. What advice would you have for them?
especially going into a web 3, thinking that this is their interest and this is something that they would want to get started in and move forward with it. I have one, Eric. I would say if you see a job out there that you
But maybe you don't have all the qualifications that are listed still apply, right? Because we need so many different skill sets in our roles, like if you don't have that perfect set of requirements that we've listed out.
That doesn't mean you couldn't still be valuable in the role. And I've seen this at other companies. We won't rule you out because say you don't have like C++ or something and we want that. We want diverse people
you know, at least in my team we do and definitely feel comfortable about that. What's the worst that can happen? We could just ignore you or not bring you in for an interview. But there's lots and lots of jobs out there.
You never know if you don't try it.
and your results just by the maze view.
What about you, Karen? Yeah, I, I, I, some of the advice that I would give is, you know, first of all, um, do feel confident, you know, even if you have to sort of fake it until you make it, you know, if you're, if you're in a meeting, your voice, uh, are you
your thoughts are important. So, you know, make sure you stand up and, you know, make sure your voice is heard because it is important. And secondly, sort of similar to what Morra said, but if you think you might be interested in a different role,
Let's say for instance you're in customer service and you think that maybe you want to be an engineer or maybe you want to be a product manager. Just make friends with those people, you know, if you're in the office and invite one of them to lunch, if you're not in the office, you know, hold the meeting and
You know, sort of find your mentor and you know, that's how I think a lot of us got into different types of roles or different companies. So, you know, don't be afraid to reach out because other people are going to be happy to share
their knowledge with you and you may find the perfect role for you. I like to say and I say this to my daughter a lot is before you ask the answers no. So definitely
you know, ask or apply or try. And then when the other way is someone offers you something and you say no, then that ends there. But you could say yes and try. And you know, you should say yes to all the experiences, you know, that interest you
and maybe you're not even ready for them, but if it's being offered. I think there was more of a saying, women sometimes won't apply for a job if they don't have 100% of the requirements.
But men will apply even if they only have 50. I don't know if that's true, but you know something to think about, you know, would I would I apply for it? So definitely go for it. That's that's the answer. I think that's how a lot of the leaders where they've gotten have gotten there.
So I'm not really interested in what you just said or what I was. Before you asked the answer is no. Can you bill up on that?
I mean, I have to say this to myself all the time because it's very uncomfortable, you know, sometimes what you're asking for, what you have to do. So, I mean, promotions, right, raises,
things like that or even interest like what Karen was saying if you're you know customer support where you want to be a developer or if you want to you know being compliance you know unless you ask that you know the answer you're not going to get that position you're not going to get that answer this doesn't obviously only go for
women. We have this conversation a lot at Metallica's, you know, about people moving positions or, you know, asking to do more things outside of their roles. Being a little bit maybe too specific about it, but I think that goes a lot with any experience.
I think so too. I just never heard that before and I'd love it. It's just really stuck out to me.
Now, I don't know what you would all consider yourselves, but I would personally consider you, Arranda, Karen, and Mora, as leaders within the Web 3 space.
If you feel the same, I think that's fantastic and I'll be slightly agree. But being that being women leaders and with three, do you feel any pressure by that at all?
And we can start with Karen, Arena and Laura.
No, to be honest, no. I find it actually kind of fun. I think, you know, it's still sort of surprises people. You know, probably in the most frequent question I get out.
is, you know, why, you know, why are you a, you know, an older female in cryptocurrency? It's, you know, people outside of the industry think I'm crazy or there's something wrong with me. But, um,
Maybe that's the biggest pressure I feel is, you know, I'll still try to explain to sort of friends and family, why I'm in this space, especially after some recent events, in kind of evangelizing the
cause. But now within the space, as I reiterated before, I really enjoy my time here. There's always something to learn. There's always something new going on.
- Arena, do you feel pressure? And being a woman later in the left race space? - No. I think that...
You know, I'm doing what I'm doing You know, we talk about you know whether we're doing a good job or a bad job. I have my Kind of guide of what a good job and a bad job would be so
I don't feel like we're paving the way necessarily for women. Maybe we are, but I think we just, well maybe I'll say I am just doing the best that I can in my position.
in my role in my, I guess, Web 3 world. That should be enough, I think, that the contribution.
Absolutely. Namara, being a woman later in the web 3 space, do you feel any pressure? I also don't feel any pressure. In fact, I feel energized to be in this space and I'll tell you why.
I am a lifelong learner. I love to learn new things. And being in the crypto space, it's just an endless, you know, smorgasbord of new ideas, you know, new technology.
and it's great. It's fun to learn from all the people I work with, you know, young and old and male and female. It's just a great industry to be in. So, no, I don't feel any pressure.
Well, y'all are here in this right here live and fortunately not in person but on the Twitter spaces that these fantastic women do not sweat the pressure. They keep it going one day at a time and
And they're doing a damn good job at it. And I appreciate all three of you. That's why I said, I look up to y'all as women leaders within the Web3 space. So for what that's worth, that's just my flowers. I want to give to y'all, absolutely.
Absolutely, absolutely. Now, being that these women leaders in Web 3, they're also leaders within DM Metallicist ecosystem. And now I gotta ask some questions about that.
And maybe a renaissance or maybe all of us can answer. Well, Metallica's having a presence at upcoming events moving forward to 2023. I prepared my answer because I knew you would ask. So we are planning on being at money 2020 in Europe.
And you may see some of us on stage there, and I'll leave it at that, it will be a surprise. We are planning on being at consensus this year, some of us in certain capacities.
and then probably at the Bitcoin Miami conference. Down the road, I think, you know, money 2020 is always a really big important event for us, so probably the Vegas money 2020 will be another bigger one that all of us will attend. But we should be,
We should be kind of on site and in person including the other three of us and some of the other management Pretty soon, so if anyone wants to meet up at any of the three already mentioned, but any you know some of them down the road as well And you said money 2020
You say consensus and you'll say Bitcoin? Yeah, I think with my amy. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, and we actually like to send not just the same people all the time. It's not just, you know, if Marshall gets to go or doesn't get to go, we
Some of you might remember the last year at Consensus we sent our accounting person there and we had our CS team there. Forget like compliance, sometimes get it goes to them. So it's not just the execs who go for networking, but we also like to
both the rest of our team to events like that for their own benefits. Absolutely. That's great. Eric's been to some of them, you know, in certain capacities. So we see it as an learning opportunity not just the way for us to get on stage and, you know, speak.
Absolutely and a lot of the people that we made because I can attest I've been to a big point Miami and this past money 2020 and The things that we're doing as a company Metallica's that is it's been fantastic and it's
It's such an awesome experience to see how we grow up the brand, how people come meet with us and the boob's or on the conference floor and even outside the conferences. It's just, it's been fantastic and I have the dates right here for the upcoming
coming events, Bitcoin, Miami, being in the middle of May, then we got consensus that's actually in the end of April. And then we also have money 2020 in Europe being in June. So those next three months,
months, you should be able to see us in any way, shape or form capacity, drop by, say what's up, and let's see what that holds for us. I think also, maybe more, you go to some local events, right? Yep, I'm going to be
Speaking of a woman in blockchain event in mid-April and probably a couple of other events this year in the next few months, nothing's confirmed yet. I don't want to say what I'm applying to.
I'm also speaking at a local event here in
Boston. So I advise a group of young women in blockchain called WeBlock. So shout out to Alison Roo from Hedera H.Gaath. She's started a nonprofit or
organization for female college students in blockchain. It's just getting up and going, so I'm attending one of their events next week, but I will also tweet about that.
That's exciting. Is that your first time doing the...
the event with WeBlog? Yes, yeah. Fantastic, fantastic. Yeah, started learning a lot more about WeBlog within the past few weeks and I remember we met Alzen Lou at one of the past events and
She's awesome. Yeah, she's an awesome girl. Yeah. Yeah, we're we're trying our best to get her on Metallica's live. So stay tuned for that everybody. That's going to be a fun one as well. But wow. So there's only more to it. This is
So far, I announced my presence and the events I will be. So, I will only be able to come from that. So, please be on the lookout for us in your area. And we are all going to have so much fun together.
We talked about the presence at upcoming events. Now, what then Metallic is, is there, can you give us any insights into the next releases on metal, peg, or proton that people want to know?
But people are dying. They always tweet about it. I know. I'm not afraid we have a lot to look forward to. We're transitioning to a new banking service provider that's going to provide
noticeably more diverse and generally better banking services. The new release of MP3 is also going to allow us to develop new features faster.
Once we got that out, we have a full road map ahead of us. Also, right now we support debit card on ramps, and we're just about to roll out credit card on ramps. So keep an eye out for all of those coming very soon.
And can they get on the wait list for the credit cards?
Yes, the credit cards I was referring to is just the on ramp, but yes, our actual Metallicists are metal pay credit cards. There is a wait list that you can join on
So customers will be able to plug in their credit card, their personal credit card and transact on Malay. Was that what you were referring to? Yes, correct.
Oh, that's gonna be exciting. Yeah, you guys are gonna have to stay to it for that one because that's gonna be a lot of fun and personally, I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be all over me too. Me too. Yeah, the more fiat, you know, our big
kind of push with obviously the bigger strategy for the company and a lot of you have heard Marshall say that is Fiat on ramps, off ramps for crypto and blockchain products. So it is very, very hard to do that with partners and with banks and with regulators
So we have to take it very slow, but this is a step that we are ready to take with our partner. So in new fiat on ramps, both in the US and in Europe for our users of metal pay.
And also soon, it may be not as soon, but for users of protons in the countries where metal pay is not yet available. Our next big push with the compliance, the compliance team is to figure out when and where and in which order
we can roll out both metal pay, you know, certain features of metal pay outside of the US and Europe, you know, which kind of licenses we need in different countries for different features and also bringing more fiat on ramps to the proton products that we currently already have. The Dex being one of one of the bigger ones so that
that would be a full experience for our users. The DEX is getting some new features in the next very, very shortly, probably within a week. A couple of market makers are joining the DEX, providing liquidity and working on the
different trading tools and then we have a couple of coin listings that are about to be announced and launched on the decks and You know there were there were a lot of guesses of what they are not going to be able to say what they are which coins they are today, but they will be
good teams and good projects.
lots of things happening. Just lots of things happening on both products and platforms. Eric, not to be left in the dust but metal block chain. This is an incredible amount of development being done on metal block chain. So I'm not going to speak about any specific particular things, but keep
I think you're right. We're building a lot of stuff on that. Announcements to come. I love it. I love it. Yeah, we're looking forward to those middle blockchain announcements. We are. We are. We're the communities waiting patiently. I'm waiting patiently. And we know it's just going to be fantastic.
Well, there's also a lot of behind the scene work that's done. I know, Morris' team is very diligent at that, of upgrading and improving everything related to the performance of our products.
The absolutely security speed and internal tools so we can support people a lot better, right? So our client services teams can just do a great job for everybody.
And integrating different products, you know, metal pay and block and proton blockchain and eventually your metal blockchain being You know in the mix of of how things work
work under the pretty app and under the hood. We're really upgrading a lot of that on this team.
Now I want to give a massive shout out to Marge Team, the engineering team, and also Karen's team, the product. There's just a lot of these features and a lot of these products and everything that they're capable of wouldn't be possible with these teams that I've just mentioned here.
And a lot of things have been coming to fruition this past year, even plus, has been the help of just how powerful and how tight these respective teams are. And so if I was wearing a hat, I would have taken it already. Believe me. Believe me.
Your team is also excellent. I appreciate that. Shout out to client services. But we're only as good as a team that works with us and that being finance, that being product, that being engineering, and that being compliance. And everyone else is everyone
This company is just so tight and we get the machines rolling so fast and so smoothly and we just have great team behind it which involves three fantastic women leaders and web three blockchains. So before we get
here. Is there any final thoughts that we have from any one of y'all? So I have another announcement that I said I was bringing a gift to this to the spaces. So with the help of our in-house artist, Paul Gray, we're
going to post a special women's international women's day on FT and I would like to invite anyone here who wants to give a gift to a woman they know or they don't know or just to any woman. They
can tag them and Paul will describe this in the tweet shortly after. They can tag them in the tweet and then we can send them the NFTs with their Web Off wallet. So don't forget to give the women in your lives flowers today and they can be via an NFT.
Hey, that's so awesome. Yeah, you all heard that here folks and will that be on the proton XPR Twitter?
Yes, probably whichever one Paul chooses to do it, but he'll probably let everybody know about this because it's a really cool NFT. And I think it's a really cool gift, you know, right? Nowadays you don't, you know,
Back in the in person days, we would probably do live flowers for the women in the office and maybe your significant others would give you those as well since we can't all be in person. Let's do it via Web 3.
I saw him laying gray and that's just a massive shout out to Paul Gray. An amazing craftsmanship artist, like artistic prowess and he makes a lot of these NFTs happen for us.
celebrate with us, celebrate with your significant other, celebrate with your colleagues and your friends, everybody that you value by staying tuned to our upcoming tweets on not only @wearemetalkis but also @protonxpr.
and at Metal Pays Me for all of these new announcements, not just the NFT but most definitely the NFT, but also a lot of these new features and announcements that are just about to be rolled out that Karen Arena and Mara have mentioned.
So please do that. Please stay tuned. Follow those directions on that Twitter and you're gonna get yourself and someone else, the most prettiest NFT that you can get today. Where else can you get it? No where, only here.
Any final thoughts, Karen, Mora, or Arena?
I don't think I can top that. You know, thanks Eric and thanks everyone for coming and let's keep it going. Thanks everyone. Thank you everybody. It's been such an absolute pleasure. Once again, ladies
and gentlemen that was our CFL or Reina Burkhan that was our VP of product Karen McKenry and that was our VP of engineering Mara Wilder. This has been Metallicist Live. Once again this was always hosted on the Twitter spaces live and uncut. You can follow this @wearemetallicist for the next Twitter spaces and if you missed that on it
It's all good. You can listen to it on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, I Heart Radio. You name it. We're there. And also YouTube. My name is Eric Lines. It's been another pleasure to be your host today. And we will see you in later and happy, happy International Women's Day. Thank you Eric.
- Thank you. - Thank you. - Thanks Eric.