Quick Take
Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed.
Crypto firm Paradigm hired 19-year-old Charlie Noyes as a disruptor.
Noyes, an MIT dropout, arrived late to his first meeting, surprising leaders.
He has since risen to general partner, showing unconventional success.
When San Francisco-based crypto investment giant Paradigm hired its first Gen Z employee, they didn’t quite know what they were signing up for. Charlie Noyes, a 19-year-old MIT dropout, showed up five hours late to his very first morning meeting, a move that left co-founder Matt Huang both frustrated and intrigued.
“They create an absurd amount of chaos sometimes, and you want to pull your hair out,” Huang admitted in an interview with Colossus. “But then you see what they can do, and it’s like, nobody else in the world could pull that off.”
Today, Noyes is 25 and has risen to become a general partner at the $12 billion firm, proving that unconventional beginnings can lead to extraordinary results. Huang recalls first connecting with Noyes in a Telegram chat about Bitcoin Cash forks, initially mistaking the sharp-witted teenager for a middle-aged crypto veteran. “From his messages, I thought he was a 40-year-old with a beard. When he showed up for dinner, I was shocked he was just 19.”
Noyes’ journey began even earlier; he discovered Bitcoin at age 12 through gaming communities and, by 19, was already a published researcher and a two-time Intel science competition winner. After brief stints at school and MIT, he dropped out to join Paradigm, diving headfirst into the crypto world.
Huang admits that integrating Gen Z talent like Noyes wasn’t smooth at first. Early on, Noyes believed that “critiquing pitch decks over email and turning up at the office once a week” was standard practice. But once expectations were realigned, the results spoke for themselves.
Paradigm’s roster now boasts several young prodigies. Its CTO, Georgios Konstantopoulos, joined just two years after graduating from college and has since become one of crypto’s most prolific engineers. Another star is a developer known only by his Discord handle, @transmissions11, whom Paradigm recruited while he was still a student.
Huang likens managing this team of brilliant but unconventional minds to running a school for superheroes. “Sometimes I feel like I’m running the X-Men Academy,” he quipped.
And Paradigm is far from alone. Globally, more companies are learning to embrace Gen Z’s unconventional style. As Geoffrey Scott, a senior hiring manager at Resume Genius, told Fortune, “They bring a unique blend of talent and bold ideas that can rejuvenate any workforce. Gen Zers might have a bad rep, but they have the power to transform workplaces for the better.”
