San Francisco-based Crypto Unicorn, FalconX, Finds the Perfect Fit with Ex-Microsoft Techie as VP of Engineering

Introduction: 

FalconX is a digital asset prime brokerage offering cryptocurrency trading, lending, and clearing services to financial institutions. Founded in 2018 in San Francisco, they have grown monthly trading volume by 12x and doubled their number of customers (2020-2021 period).   

Their crypto-as-a-service enables leading banks, corporate treasuries, hedge funds, asset managers, venture capital firms, aggregators, and others to easily add crypto to their product offerings.

Problem Statement: 

Our client’s mission is to scale their tech ecosystem to build connective tissue and provide a seamless experience across price discovery, trade execution, and value transfer. Further, the client sought to establish a strong presence in the Indian market by hiring a qualified India Site Lead. The mandate involved finding a seasoned technocrat who could manage their engineering team, contribute to product development, and be the face of FalconX.

Solution and Execution: 

The mandate posed a set of unique challenges. To begin with, the Indian crypto market has often faced scepticism, which makes it challenging to attract dynamic talent.

However, leveraging our extensive global network of leaders and domain expertise, we mapped a leader who can resonate with both the US and India’s fintech and crypto space. Purple Quarter’s Behavioural Metrics Model (BMM) profiled that the best-suited candidate would be a Nurturer who could facilitate the company's 10-100x growth journey. 

We identified Rajesh Srivastava — an ex-Microsoft techie, as a suitable prospect for the position. With over 18 years of experience, he has played a vital role in brand building, fund acquiring, and team scaling in his prior stints.  

Our assistance continued beyond conducting the leadership search. Initially, the client sought a Site Leader, but upon analyzing the required expertise and seniority of the leader, we consulted them to onboard a VP of Engineering who can play multifaceted roles towards product development, team management, and brand building in India.  Further, since the FalconX team already positioned several managers to oversee different departments, reporting structure adjustments were necessary to position a VP of Engineering. We helped the client find a balance in the team hierarchy to accommodate the existing managers and the new leader. 

Current Scenario

As a VP of Engineering and MD – India, Rajesh is now managing the engineering team at FalconX, contributing to their product development, representing the company in networking events, and bolstering their presence in India.

He is working towards the company’s vision to enter the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space with a focus on enhancing the cybersecurity of the platform and integrating artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud technologies into its ecosystem.

For more information, please reach out to the Marketing Team.