Circle is a financial technology company at the epicenter of the emerging internet of money, where value can finally travel like other digital data — globally, nearly instantly and less expensively than legacy settlement systems.
Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer, shares details on Circle and what it’s like to work there.
In This Video
We discuss:
- Who is Circle?
- Recent IPO, and what’s next for Circle
- What is the culture at Circle?
- Why now is a great time to join Circle
Video Transcript
Hello. I’m excited to connect. It’s been a while. And we’re going to talk about Circle, one of the most innovative and successful fintech companies out there. So, let’s unpack Circle. What does the company do?
Circle is a technology company building the internet financial system. We’re basically building a new economic operating system with the currency layer being USDC, the stablecoin that we invented in 2018. We’re essentially a full-stack platform, and we give financial institutions, businesses, and developers the tools to make money work much more intelligently because the infrastructure this is all built on is open and programmable. It’s built for money movement. The way to think about it is just as the internet reshaped how the world interacts with information, Circle is transforming what’s possible with money because that’s never really been done before. We don’t really have a true form of digital money. While we built the largest regulated stablecoin network of digital dollars in the world, our ambitions transcend far beyond just being a crypto company or a stablecoin issuer. What we’re really doing is building a new economic operating system that has never existed before because the technology wasn’t ready for it. Whether it’s a central bank or a corner shop, Circle connects the dots between all of that. We link banks, merchants, internet platforms, asset managers, and governments into a single global network of value that fuses the safeguards of traditional finance with the programmability of the internet.
Okay. So the IPO was back in June. What’s next with Circle?
Well, I think what’s very exciting is that we have definitely entered a brand new chapter. In that respect, it’s not just about being public, but it’s also about having been primarily known as the issuer of USDC, and now we’re moving into a world of building where people are starting to recognize that we are essentially creating the foundational infrastructure layer of a new internet financial system, a new economic operating system. For example, since we went public, we recently announced ARC, which is a layer 1 blockchain. Blockchains are the highways over which the stablecoins travel. It is designed specifically for enterprise finance, developers, and real-world economic activity. That’s an incredibly exciting development and an announcement that we’re very proud of. It’s an example of the direction of travel of the product suite we’re building out. Diving into that for a second, ARC presents us with an opportunity for every type of company to build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure. We’re advancing this shared vision that a much more open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system can be built natively on the internet, consistent with our mission. Whether it’s the Genius Act passing, ARC, or the Circle Payments Network, which we talked about earlier this year since we went public, our momentum is really accelerating. From global partnerships to new product lines that bring stable value and programmable payments to literally millions of people worldwide, we have a very bright future ahead of us. We very much see this as a whole new chapter that we’re only at the beginning of.
All right. So, the culture at Circle, what’s it like working there? What’s the day-to-day culture like?
I am beyond proud of our culture. We have our mission, which is at the heart of everything we do. Around that, we have values which we embrace and evaluate people’s performance on as well. They include values such as high integrity, which won’t surprise you given we’re handling money. Multi-stakeholder is another, thinking not just about employees and shareholders, but their families, the customers, the customers’ customers—anywhere money flows and whoever it impacts. We also recently added a value related to embracing technology, specifically AI, to enable us to iterate even faster than we already are. The culture is one of deep respect. We absolutely encourage debate and constructive feedback, but it’s very important that it’s done respectfully. If people don’t treat each other respectfully, they tend to turn each other off, and then you’re literally just wasting time. We ask people to start from a position of respect and trust and then give candid feedback within that perimeter. It’s amazing how much more willingly the person receiving the feedback will receive it so that everyone realizes they’re part of the exact same team. We work very hard and iterate very quickly. We are a globally distributed workforce, so in these kinds of environments, we really ask that everybody has their video on so they can see each other. Because it’s remote-first, we encourage team leaders to have in-person meetings. We have a budget set aside that we’re not spending on real estate to encourage teams to meet in convenient locations for two or three days every now and again so they’re actually interacting in person, because we believe that’s important. The vast majority of the employee population is here because of the mission we’re on and what they agree we can build with it. We’re an incredibly mission-driven employee base.
All right. Top-tier talent always has options regardless of market conditions. Why is now the ideal time to join Circle?
There are so many ways I can answer this. Now is the ideal time because way back at the beginning, we were imagining what could be. Now, we’re beyond that. We’re not just imagining what an on-chain financial system or a new economic operating system could look like. We are literally in the middle of building it. That is a fact, so anyone joining now doesn’t have to worry if this is real. This is very real, and what we’re doing is happening. If you join us now, you have the confidence to know that we’re not experimenting and imagining as much as we were in the past. We’re really building on infrastructure that has been pressure-tested and essentially embraced by the industry, including regulators. The work that we do here shapes how money moves, which means it also shapes how markets operate and how people and machines participate in the global economy. When you put all those things together—money, movement, markets, people, machines, and global participation—the scale of the opportunity is absolutely enormous. There is just so much opportunity to help shape that if you join now. It’s an incredibly exciting time without the concern of whether this is just imagination. We’re really building this now. What also makes the moment exciting is that the world is really catching up to this vision that we’ve believed in for over a decade. We now have the credibility, the partnerships, and the momentum to make this real. Every single person at Circle has a hand in building that. They’re going to build something that will outlast today’s systems and really help define the next era of this internet economy. It’s a very rare moment when vision, timing, and capability all align. This is my third startup; getting all three to align is unusual. That’s where we are, and I think that’s why it’s extraordinary to be here right now.
Well, as Elizabeth said, this is a very unique and special opportunity. You need to go to their company page on VentureFizz to check out all their job listings. Go to venturefizz.com/circle and you’ll see their job listings there. Elizabeth, thanks so much for taking us through all the details about Circle.
Absolutely, my pleasure. I love talking about Circle, I could talk about it all day. So, this is just another fun part of my job. It’s absolutely a pleasure, Keith, and thank you very much for the opportunity.