Eight Questions Village Edition: June 2022

Each month in our Eight Questions series, we profile individual members of the Anchorage Digital team. This month, we’re doing something different by focusing on four of the talented people on our Product and Design team. We’ll discuss their careers, what brought them to crypto, and what excites them about creating and designing products at Anchorage.

We’ll stick with the traditional eight total questions because it’s the number of decimal places a bitcoin can be divided into.

Introducing Gloria Chua

Gloria Chua joined Anchorage Digital in March 2022 as a product designer. Prior to Anchorage, she spent three years with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore. Gloria has her B.S. and M.S. from Stanford, where she studied product design in engineering and computer science. In her free time, she performs with a musical improv troupe.

1. What most excites you about working on Anchorage products?

The complexity of designing new systems, and especially enjoyed designing products for crypto. I’ve learned a great deal about the industry since joining and I particularly enjoy the preview we get of what the major players in finance are doing with digital assets.

2. You mentioned doing musical improv as a hobby, do you see any connections between the improvisation there with your work on the product team at Anchorage?

Improv is all about the “yes, and” spirit: supporting each other’s ideas, staying in the moment, and reacting to real-time inputs. That’s very similar to the culture Anchorage has created within the Product and Design team: we check in individually and look out for the whole person, holistically. We’re in the moment, listening to feedback from our counterparts on other teams, and making changes based on what’s needed.

Introducing Luis Ferreira

Luis Ferreira joined Anchorage Digital in May 2021 as a product manager. He spent most of his career prior to Anchorage at Farfetch, a luxury ecommerce company. Luis has his MBA from Porto Business School and attended the University of Porto’s School of Economics (FEP). He lives in Porto, Portugal, with his family, where he enjoys taking his kids to the park or beach.

1. You joined Anchorage from the world of luxury ecommerce payments. What is similar about your prior experience to what you do here?

They’re both based on trust. Submitting credit card info or using new forms of payment is a trust-intensive process. The crypto world is also a trust business, where private keys and the integrity of platforms come into play. Another similarity is both industries have to build compliance into their products while working to make the client experience as frictionless as possible.

2. How has your role evolved over your first year with Anchorage?

I joined as the fourth member of the Product and Design team. Now, we’re a team of more than ten. The scope of our work has grown along with us.

As the first U.S. federally chartered national digital asset bank, complying with all the same regulations as traditional financial players requires our product design to interweave compliance requirements. It’s exciting because Anchorage’s work on compliance within our product is moving the needle for innovation within crypto. My team works closely with compliance to build many of these processes.

Introducing Colin Kraczowsky

Colin Kraczowsky joined Anchorage Digital in February 2021 as a product manager, based in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to Anchorage, he was a senior product manager at Lookout, a cybersecurity company. Colin also dedicated engineering skills to AsylumConnect, a platform that connects LGBTQ asylum seekers with services in North America. He holds a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz. In his spare time, he enjoys collecting vintage art.

1. How did you get interested in blockchain technology? What brought you to Anchorage?

I first heard about blockchain technology around 2016. Decentralized databases that could bring access to more people, and shift control to the owners of value, to more people immediately appealed to me. I have a builder mindset and intellectual curiosity, so when I learned about Anchorage’s pioneering role in institutional crypto adoption, it seemed like a natural next step for me to join the team.

2. How do you make time to stay on top of the latest developments in crypto? What inspires you about blockchain technology?

I like to ask who people are following on Twitter, Medium, and Discord, since this industry evolves at a frenetic pace. I like that there’s space to explore new use cases for blockchain and that Anchorage actively encourages us to do this.

I’m interested in how value is moved across blockchain networks, as well as the methods of participation that these networks provide, like governance, staking, and incentives. I’m excited to be part of both the community and Anchorage, as a company, where my work involves moving blockchain-based networks forward.

Introducing Mariana Rabaçal

Mariana Rabaçal joined Anchorage in July 2021 as a product manager based in Lisbon, Portugal. Prior to Anchorage, she was a product manager with Talkdesk, a global cloud contact center leader, and also held project manager roles at SAPO. She received her B.S. in business and M.A. in information systems from Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE). Outside of work, she spends time outdoors with family and friends.

1. When you work on building a product, how do you think about the technology and work with engineering?

I’ve always been curious about how things work. As a non-engineer, I tend to think like one, which led me to work on technical projects, and partnering with engineers to understand the foundations of the technology. Throughout my career, I’ve sought out close partnerships with the engineering team to help me be the bridge between the technology and our end users and I believe that helped me build better products.

2. What do you like about the culture here at Anchorage?

Everyone is very eager to help you learn. I know I can always ask questions or put time on someone’s calendar if needed. Even though I didn’t have a lot of knowledge or experience in the crypto space or the financial industry prior to Anchorage, my colleagues were supportive and helped me learn. I also like getting instant feedback and working on internal-facing products makes it easier to have that. It’s so gratifying knowing that you’re helping make your colleagues’ jobs easier and helping them be more efficient with their time.