Interview, article: Authority Magazine

Original translation: Frank, Foresight News

Authority Magazine: Can you tell us a little bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

He Yi: I co-founded Binance in 2017 because I saw an opportunity to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to provide others with more financial access and freedom. Currently, I am the co-founder and head of Binance Labs (Binance's incubator and venture capital arm), responsible for leading business, investment, marketing, and brand strategy.

Over the past six years, I have worked in many different areas and worn many hats, leading business units ranging from marketing, customer service, mergers and acquisitions, and investments, and now as the company continues to mature, I am able to bring all of my experience and expertise into a more "coaching" role. Throughout this process, my ultimate goal has always been the same: to ensure and maintain the long-term success of the company and benefit our users.

Without our users, we would not exist and they are at the heart of everything we do.

Prior to co-founding Binance, I served as Vice President at Yixia Technology, a mobile video technology company that developed popular mobile apps such as Miaopai, Xiaokaxiu, and Yizhibo. I was responsible for leading brand strategy and marketing operations, and was a critical part of the financing strategy that drove the company's valuation to over $3 billion.

From 2014 to 2015, I was also the co-founder of another crypto asset exchange (Foresight News note: He Yi was the co-founder of OKCoin). Before joining the blockchain field, I was an anchor for a TV station, and earlier, I was a teacher and assistant psychotherapist.

I came from a humble background, growing up in a small province in China where economic opportunities were scarce and higher education was even rarer. Most people in my hometown dropped out of school before the age of 16 to work in factories. I also questioned the nature of money at the time, read a lot of books, but didn't find the answers. It wasn't until 2013 that I first encountered Bitcoin and saw a path to actually solve global economic barriers.

This ultimately led to my decision to become a co-founder of Binance in 2017 and change the future of finance. As a co-founder of Binance, I led the business strategy, helped Binance become the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange within six months of its launch, and transformed Binance from an early single platform for cryptocurrency trading to a global blockchain ecosystem with a unique user-centric model.

Throughout my career in crypto, I have been passionate about increasing transparency and accountability, and increasing economic freedom in the industry through all my efforts as a leader in the space. Based on my upbringing, I have developed a passionate philosophy around creating better wealth distribution and increasing monetary freedom through the fundamental means of cryptocurrency/blockchain.

The belief I have always adhered to is to do something valuable.

Authority Magazine: Can you share the most interesting story that has happened to you since you started leading Binance?

He Yi: In September 2017, the first month I joined Binance, China introduced a policy to ban cryptocurrency exchanges. At that time, the Binance founding team, including me, was stationed in Shanghai from July to September 2017 when the company was in its early development stage.

Therefore, the policy changes made us exit the Chinese market and move to the global market, which also caused me to leave my cultural and language comfort zone and learn English as well as different cultures and business cultures around the world. Despite the setbacks in the industry, we decided to continue to persevere and invest all our efforts in cryptocurrency. Even in the face of huge challenges, my belief in the huge potential of cryptocurrency remains unwavering.

Authority Magazine: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were a startup owner? What lessons did you learn from it?

He Yi: This is not a mistake, but a practice that sometimes causes controversy. We were one of the first companies in the industry to help users recover lost or mistakenly sent cryptocurrency to the wrong address/blockchain network. We worked harder for our users than other companies at the time, but some people in the industry thought we intervened too much.

As most crypto traders and industry insiders know, recovering funds sent to the wrong address, as well as recovering funds from scams or rug pulls is difficult. Many rug pulls are associated with DeFi projects and listed on DEXs, where governance decisions are coordinated by the community and require approval from their network’s validators.

Binance is a centralized exchange and cannot control funds in a decentralized ecosystem, but we will support the community by blacklisting the attacker's address (which requires approval from network validators) whenever possible, and support law enforcement in investigating and identifying the bad actors. We have invested a lot of time and resources in our internal security and investigation teams to this end, and our users come first, and our top priority is to protect them and the ecosystem.

Most of the time, we receive thanks and positive feedback from our users. But in some cases, users expect a quick resolution and may blame us for not helping in time or enough. Looking back, these are interesting reflection and learning opportunities that teach us that doing the right thing can sometimes backfire. But we always learn from all criticisms, insist on doing the right thing, even if it means additional challenges, and always adhere to our core value of user-centricity.

Authority Magazine: No one’s success is without help along the way. Is there a particular person you’re grateful to who helped get you to where you are today? Can you share a story about that?

He Yi: CZ, founder and CEO of Binance.

Binance has grown rapidly and has become the world's leading cryptocurrency platform in a short period of time. During this period of rapid development, I sometimes pushed too aggressively, and CZ gave me direct and constructive feedback. He kept me grounded and always made sure that I and the team were doing the right things, which helped me grow and reflect quickly, and gradually become more mature.

Authority Magazine: According to a report by EY, only about 20% of funded companies currently have female founders, which represents both tremendous historical progress and the fact that more work still needs to be done to empower women to start companies. Based on your perspective and experience, what are the main factors currently hindering women from starting companies?

He Yi: In many industries, you will find that the proportion of women in leadership positions is very small. The root cause is that social expectations limit women's personal and professional development. People are often influenced by their environment and shaped by social norms and values.

Many women don’t speak up or pursue leadership positions because their families, schools or friends don’t encourage them to do so. I advise women to be more proactive and take opportunities. If they don’t give it a try, they will never know what they are capable of. In the tech industry or other emerging industries, women can be bolder and take more risks. Through education and opportunities, women should constantly challenge themselves and know that they can be successful leaders. I encourage women to take on challenges head on.

There are indeed some barriers that hold women back, and overcoming them does take a lot of effort. The good news is that we are seeing more and more female leaders playing important roles in the crypto industry.

As for Binance, we have an internal culture and various efforts to support female leadership and employees, including external programs for women in technology (education and scholarships) to encourage more women to embrace and participate in the cryptocurrency and innovation industry.

Authority Magazine: Can you help shed light on some of the things that individuals, society, or governments can do to help overcome these barriers?

He Yi: For individuals:

  • You should develop your personal abilities and skills and keep learning throughout your life, that’s how you will compete and succeed;

  • Be confident and assertive in character and have a strong mentality. Keep moving forward and trying even when faced with pressures in life, work and being a woman in society. Don't be ashamed of your ambitions, stay true to yourself and don't let others belittle your abilities, especially yourself, as your own mind can become a battlefield;

  • Don’t focus too much on your identity as a woman, focus on your output and completing the task;

As a society, we need to encourage gender diversity in the workplace by promoting equal access to educational resources, such as creating an inclusive learning environment, providing mentoring and communication opportunities for women, and challenging gender stereotypes in daily work. Emerging innovative industries like the crypto industry often provide more opportunities for people, and I encourage more women to bravely join in.

At Binance, we recognize the value of bridging the gender gap and have been actively working to close it. Currently, more than 35% of Binance's senior leadership are women, including executives and managers. Our organization provides a very supportive environment for the success of female executives and employees, including promotion opportunities after maternity leave, as long as their capabilities and output are strong and they can successfully lead a team. Many women at Binance have experienced this and have been promoted.

Authority Magazine: As a female founder, can you share a few reasons why more women should be founders?

He Yi: True equality can only be achieved when there are enough female founders in the world so that there is no longer a discussion and topic like "Why more women should become founders". From an ideological perspective, breaking the glass ceiling for women means true equal opportunities.

There is no actual difference in skills and abilities between women and men. Regardless of gender, everyone has unique talents. Women should not be constrained by society, environment and history, and their talents should be encouraged rather than suppressed. More female founders can inspire more women to bravely pursue their dreams. In the process, we will see a more diverse and colorful entrepreneurial environment, with more innovative ideas emerging to drive further global development.

Additionally, women make up half of the world’s population, and having a diverse team and leadership allows us to have a holistic view that is not limited to one demographic group. The world is more global than ever before, and diverse perspectives are critical to success.

Authority Magazine: What “myths” about entrepreneurs would you like to dispel? Can you explain what you mean by that?

He Yi: The positive “fallacy”: seeing the success and achievements of the founders, while the reality behind the scenes is that we work hard every day, without rest, to continue to develop our strengths and achieve “rapid” growth.

A taboo "myth": successful women or founders use their appearance to get more opportunities or it is a result of their achievements, which is discriminatory. I personally don't care about people's criticism of me, whether it is a myth or misunderstanding, I don't live for others and have a clear understanding of who I am. Successful founders and leaders continue to break the myths, misunderstandings and stereotypes they face every day.

Authority Magazine: Is everyone cut out to be a founder? What specific traits do you think increase the likelihood that someone will be a successful founder, and what kind of person might be better suited to being an employee looking for a “normal job”?

He Yi: Founder traits - successful founders are lifelong learners. They are ambitious, have bottom lines, and have strong execution. They know that their background (origin) is not important, what is important is their skills and ability to make effective decisions, especially when faced with uncertainty. When they face the unknown, they know that perseverance is more important than giving up. Entrepreneurship is full of uncertainty and requires making the right decisions in challenging situations with limited information. They know the importance of bottom lines, as well as the importance of rapid iteration and execution.

Job Type: Most young professionals start their careers in a “regular job” type. They should start their careers by trying to get a comprehensive understanding of the world. This will allow them to gain experience in different fields and better understand themselves and the nature of work. In this way, they will learn how to withstand pressure and possess qualities such as foresight and strong execution.

Binance has an entrepreneurial culture that encourages internal entrepreneurship, allowing people to challenge themselves and start their own projects in a relatively low-pressure environment. We are willing to recruit employees with entrepreneurial experience because they are more likely to better understand themselves and their abilities.

Authority Magazine: What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Business”? Why (please share a story or example for each)?

He Yi: There is only one. Don't dwell on regrets, accept the negative or positive results with grace, because it is a part of life and will provide valuable experience regardless.

I prefer to be consistent with stakeholders, maintain transparency, and embrace all potential outcomes once a decision is made. While some may seek more knowledge or advice before embarking on a project, I believe failure and difficulty are necessary for personal growth and we cannot fully understand them unless we experience them firsthand.

Authority Magazine: How are you using your success to make the world a better place?

He Yi: When I co-founded Binance, we helped reshape the crypto industry to make it more user-centric. For example, we significantly reduced transaction fees to benefit more users, and we took the lead in building a leading customer service system when the industry was just starting and developing to help users solve problems in a timely manner. In essence, the crypto industry focuses on improving efficiency today, which is in line with our mission to promote monetary freedom and our unique user-centric culture.

Additionally, I helped create Binance Labs, our venture capital and incubation arm, to give back to the industry by supporting and investing in strong projects and startups with long-term growth potential, and to scale adoption. We invest in cryptocurrencies and Web3 projects, manage over $9 billion in total assets, cover over 250 portfolios from 25 countries across 6 continents, and have incubated 50 projects.

We help many young entrepreneurs and startups build and grow their businesses, which is the driving force of Binance Labs and Binance.

Throughout my tenure at Binance, I have also made a commitment and effort to give back to the community, including spearheading the creation of our philanthropic arm, Binance Charity Foundation. Binance Charity Foundation is the first blockchain-powered nonprofit dedicated to promoting transparent philanthropy. We have donated over $30 million to date through a range of global sustainability efforts, including philanthropic work and donations to help alleviate poverty and economic inequality, and increase education and opportunities for women.

We have launched several charitable initiatives such as the Lunch for Children Program, the Web3 Scholarship, the Pink Care Project (a social impact initiative to address period poverty), and more.

Authority Magazine: You’re a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

He Yi: Many years ago, someone asked me what kind of person I wanted to be. I said I wanted to be someone who could change the world.

So far, I have achieved some small efforts aimed at bringing positive change to the world, but it is not enough and I will continue to do more on this path.

Cryptocurrency makes money more efficient, and I want to help more people (including regulators and key groups) see the true value behind it and how it can help improve life across society.

Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency will bring huge benefits to most people. It is an effective way to promote financial inclusion and improve lives for greater well-being. I believe that in 10 years, cryptocurrency will become a standard part of daily life like mobile phones or electronic payments. It will be transmitted in the global value chain like the Internet transmits information. We and the entire industry are just getting started. We hope to further promote money freedom and fairness through cryptocurrency, thereby improving the lives of more people.

Authority Magazine: Is there a person with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch and why?

He Yi: In general, I hope to have dinner with successful people in various fields and learn from them, especially those pioneers in their fields, such as Elon Musk, who embodies first principles and constantly pushes boundaries; Jeff Bezos, who emphasizes long-term thinking; and Sheryl Sandberg, who empowers many women in the workplace.

Also, I admire Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie for staying true to themselves, ambitious, and independent even in the face of criticism.