Mick is a tech entrepreneur, angel investor & philanthropist. Mick is currently CEO of Hightop — a digital bank powered by blockchain technology. Mick is also Chairman of Mainframe (HiFi) — an open-source project leveraging decentralized protocols to provide people w/ greater financial access, services & freedom. Since dropping out of Princeton University, Mick has been a maker & builder. The first venture-backed startup that Mick founded was Zinch — an ed-tech startup that connected students globally w/ opportunities in higher education. Mick helped Zinch grow to an international, 8-figure revenue company that served 5M students, 1000+ universities worldwide. Zinch employed 80+ people with offices in SF, Salt Lake City, Beijing. In 2011, Zinch was acquired by Chegg. After the Zinch acquisition, Mick became more active as an angel investor — co-investing in promising young tech startups with GV, Spark Capital, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin. Mick bought Bitcoin in 2013 and has since been an active crypto investor. Mick founded Cluster Capital — an investment group that backs world-class blockchain founders at the earliest stages. In the first 6 months and under Mick’s leadership, they invested more than $50M in top projects like Polkadot, ICON, Zilliqa, Oasis Labs. Forbes named Mick as one of three "Titans of industry who are bringing crypto to mainstream" (along with CZ of Binance, Vitalik of Ethereum). In 2019, Crypto Weekly named Mick as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Crypto.” Mick has been a speaker at top industry events including DevCon, La BitConf, TC Disrupt, TedX, Mobile World Congress. Mick’s writing or work has been featured on CNN, ABC, Fortune, NY Times, Boston Globe, WaPo, Techcrunch. Mick’s been named to v100 and Top 40 business persons under 40 by Utah Business Magazine. Mick has mentored at many startup accelerators like Techstars, Ignite UK, Barclays, StartupWiseGuys, Cylon. Mick and his wife love to support non-profit work — focusing especially on populations that are overlooked or vulnerable. Mick was recently on the Board of Effect.org — an international non-profit that operates low-cost private schools. Mick has spent time in Greece volunteering at Refugee camps and exploring how technology can solve challenges that humanity faces. Mick spent two years living in Brazil as a volunteer Christian missionary where he taught, served, loved the people in Brazil. Mick & Rachel have recently supported Encircle (support LGBTQ+ youth), Lifting Hands Intl (refugees), Fresh Start Ventures (ppl coming out of incarceration).