Stronger Together: Gitcoin's Rena O'Brien

Gitcoin has been a vital player in web3 since 2017, when it was founded to support the development of open-source software. The following year, Vitalik Buterin co-authored his seminal work on Quadratic Funding, introducing a radical new crowd-sourced mechanism that allows community members to use their donations as votes on allocating funds. Ever the early innovator, Gitcoin launched the first-ever implementation of Quadratic Funding in 2019. Gitcoin Grants has since used the system to distribute more than 60 million USD to projects at the cutting edge of blockchain technology – and beyond.

Rena, who previously served as Gitcoin’s chief of staff began her personal journey in crypto in 2013, coincidentally – or by kismet? – the year Ethereum was conceived. Like many of us in the space, she heard about crypto through word of mouth and, when she went to Reddit to read up on its use cases, the idea of an internet-native alternative to government currency clicked instantly. “It just made sense,” she says, describing an intuitive affinity that, before long, became a career, via stints in product management during the ICO boom. 

When Rena spoke to Coinshift, she had spent the weekend “putting out a few fires” around a product launch (as one does) and enjoying her sort-of base, Barcelona, before the city’s sweltering summer temperatures set in. Rena has been semi-nomadic for much of 2024 – an occupational hazard, one might argue, when you’re in the business of decentralization. But that stereotype seems to be changing: as the web3 work force continues to diversify, the DeFi advocate tells us, new talent is importing norms and expectations from traditional startup cultures and beyond. Part of her job at Gitcoin is reconciling these worlds, encouraging access and fluidity without compromising the values and speed of innovation that everyone in our space is working toward. Building bridges is a priority we share at Coinshift; doing it well, per the executive director, means meaningful partnerships, web2 parity – beyond UX – and DAO structures sensitive to the evolving needs of the ever-growing onchain community.  

CS: So you never experienced that initial resistance that a lot of people have when they first hear about crypto?

RO: I really never had that “what is this?” moment of skepticism. I never felt the need to make a case for crypto; I could just dig in. Sometimes this makes it harder for me to explain to people. Recently, a friend asked, “wait, they just make up money? Then somebody gives that a value?” I was like, what do you think money is?

CS: You’re not coming from an institutional background in finance. Do you feel that is a standard, or even desirable quality in the space? Or are you seeing people coming in with MBAs or other traditional credentials? 

RO: Honestly, it varies. Someone in sales might be coming from an institutional background, but will also easily be able to translate their skills between web2 and web3. I think that applies to most roles and functions within an onchain org: you'll find a spectrum, with people who fill in gaps with learned approaches on one end, and people who will come up with solutions on their own on the other. I’m on the end with the people who sometimes want to answer questions with “let me Google that for you.”

CS: “Do your own research” – how do you feel about that ethos? Independent access to knowledge is great, but so is a little guidance.

RO: There is a big gap when it comes to providing support. Web3 is a bubble, and people coming from web2 or elsewhere are shut out by all the acronyms – you’re a “normie” if you don’t know what “gm” means or don’t get whatever the hot meme is right now. The real adoption is going to happen when we start integrating people and educating those who really want to learn, instead of ostracizing them.

CS: How do you see that happening? There’s the archetype of the mythological tech entrepreneur - the lore associated with dropping out of Harvard and so on. There is also a huge privilege of that. What more accessible frameworks would you like to see, and how are you working on that with Gitcoin?

RO: I think it’s important to create reflexive, responsive operating systems within our own orgs as a starting point. I'm working through this as a leader myself now, thinking hard about what the necessary foundations look like. There is so much time spent in this space presenting thoughts, projects, initiatives, and roadmaps that require translation in order to be properly executed – even within a single organization. It’s important to set a bedrock internally so that our time can be spent on figuring out ways to communicate and operate externally. We’re actively working to shift this at Gitcoin right now.The events and apps that are created  within blockchain are all very high barrier. If our immediate community has a hard time running a grants round on our platform, then people who aren’t familiar with the tech are going to find it even harder. Bringing it back to simplicity is really important and we have a strong focus on product and engineering right now to solidify this approach.

CS: This relates to a really big topic at Coinshift right now, and throughout the space: bringing the accessibility and intuitive user experience of web2 onchain.

RO: And there isn't an agreement on merging web2 into web3 across the ecosystem. Some people are bullish on web2 parity; others don't want to waste their time right now or think, “it doesn't matter.” Their attitude is that there's still enough of the pie to be had from within web3 and the EVM ecosystem. So why should we care about web2? But having growth outside of the existing circles is what's important. That’s what I mean by building on the right foundations within organizations. Young people getting their first real jobs in the space are coming into this Wild West, and there's a cult of culture around it all. They're idealistic and want to do good things for the world, but without having a strong, functioning system, they're wavering. That won't set anyone up for success.

CS: The conversation about achieving parity with web2 isn’t just about UX, in other words – it’s about bringing the best of those business practices onchain, too.

RO: It's a hot topic. And while we’re still in new territory, we need to stay flexible – while obviously being compliant. Being flexible means that you're able to come up with creative solutions to problems that are specific to the space. 

Part of the work I'm looking to do as executive director at Gitcoin requires the same skillset as my previous role here as chief of staff: being the glue between the members of our org. I'd like to establish that between other orgs as well, to figure out how we can work with other big players like Polygon and Optimism and Arbitrum so that we’re stronger, and more adaptive, together. Everyone has developed their own little mechanisms to respond to evolving policy, for example. Having that pooled knowledge base is essential so no one is going to be left out in the cold. Stronger Together.

CS: Do you consider yourself to be an optimist, by the way? In the philosophical sense.

RO: It's funny – if we were chatting over beers, I'd probably say, “nah, not really.” I’ve got a healthy dose of critical thoughts that keep me in check. But when we’re rolling out a project and something goes wrong and the team is freaking out in my DMs, I find myself saying optimistic things and letting people know it'll all work out. So maybe I am one. 

Financial systems are going to have to figure out ways to work with, not against us.. Large web2 payment processors are flirting with or implementing long discussed crypto onramps. They know there’s something in it for them, potentially something worth putting a target on your back for. And they've also got something that we don't have in web3: a huge group of people who have been navigating the regulatory landscape for years. Banks can work with other platforms to accept and make payments – that’s familiar territory now, but it didn’t used to be – think Stripe, etc. Think of how far we could go with a little collaboration. 

CS: Isn’t it time for crypto to get its game-changing service on the level of PayPal, or Wise? Considering people working in web3, for example, the cliché is that we’re all digital nomads living internationally. Crypto is borderless, but the borderless employee still doesn’t really have a great solution for banking and transfers.  

RO: Right. You can send money to your Canadian account using Wealth Simple, connect your wallet through the Bridge app to get Euro – it’s messy! But a lot of people in web3 are rooted in one place, getting paid into one account, and increasingly looking for stability. Crypto is getting more diverse, and a new breadth of ages have started to show up in orgs. They're not all “kids” anymore. You have people starting families and wanting to take care of them. If you get paid in crypto and want t get a mortgage, you can get set up with an EOR. But first you have to see if your bank will even accept the fact that you're getting paid through an EOR. I've heard of them being a little bit tricky with that, too.

CS: How do you see the internal structure of orgs – and specifically DAOs – evolving as talent that’s used to traditional employment models moves into the space?

RO: It can be challenging trying to fit web2 policies and benefits into a space that doesn’t have them yet. People’s concerns vary a lot, depending not just on where they’re entering the space from, but on factors like age or location. Canadians tend to be less concerned about healthcare than people based in the US, for example. I can say, candidly, that I'm working on it. When I came in at Gitcoin, we had six separate work streams, and each team lead was able to choose how they were going to compensate and what their policies would be. It was confusing – people didn’t understand why their group had different benefits. So, I made our policies org wide. Managing internal processes in a DAO, I want to be able to know the real costs of hiring somebody so that when we're making decisions in the future, we can accurately map that out, beyond what we’re paying people. 

CS: So, how do you institutionalize an onchain organization while preserving its ethos – and without just becoming the institutions you’re trying to evolve away from?

RO: Look at the structure of a DAO: a DAO itself is modeled after democratic reasoning that we as a group – as humans – haven’t always been taught to trust. Especially lately. Even seeing things executed at the protocol level hasn’t convinced people. The question is, how can we be flexible with what we've got? How can we iterate in terms of some of these principles and use what worked from web2, upgrade that so it works even better in web3, and implement that into our policy and processes? That is the point: to keep moving forward from our traditional structures.

CS: Without throwing out the good stuff or wasting time reinventing the wheel.

RO: Exactly. Some decentralization and defi maxis would say it has to be all or nothing. But that doesn’t help evolution. It hinders it.

CS: Existential question: do you feel like the web2 parity conversation and improving accessibility are bigger priorities in the EVM community than they are in other ecosystems? 

RO: Ultimately, whether it’s EVM or non-EVM, we’re all trying to do the same thing. And there should be healthy competition. If you’re starting up a new chain, well, what are the use cases for it? Maybe some transactions are faster – great. But you can’t do anything else with that if it’s not integrated. You’re going to get people that want to gamble and are looking to grow their own pie; you're going to get people interested in public goods; you’re going to get maxis. It’s like choosing your sports team.