Andrew Katz

Andrew Katz is a Harvard graduate and entrepreneur who spends his free time with friends but spends most of his time working on his company. He developed Seaquake, which provides firms with brokerage services and data analytics in order to stabilize the digital asset market’s fragmented infrastructure.

Andrew Katz is a market maker and entrepreneur.

Andrew Katz used his previous knowledge to start his own company in 2016. Following the launch of Seaquake, Katz’s inventive, out-of-the-box thinking and business talents resulted in rapid growth and positive steps toward his ultimate aim for the company, which was to launch a native crypto platform.

Andrew Katz started his career as an equity analyst at UBS before launching his own firm. He worked as an Equity Trader at LeGarde Capital Management in the New York office for just over a year. He thrived in New York and relished the opportunity to live and work in one of the world’s most important financial capitals.

Katz then made a strategic shift to Zooz Capital Management, where he worked as a Senior Analyst for more than two years, perfecting his trading and market analysis talents. Katz was in charge of the firm’s FX futures portfolio-building operations. Furthermore, his volatility-based trading strategies consistently generated 15% returns for his portfolio.

Andrew Katz created trading efforts for futures, foreign exchange, and equities at EFG Bank. He managed daily electronic trading activity and holdings while maintaining risk positions, allowing him to examine possible investment opportunities correctly.

Andrew Katz built end-to-end startup solutions during his time at Smoking Gun. Raising financing, advising business clients, and providing go-to-market support were among his responsibilities. Katz demonstrates his financial expertise by constructing forecasts based on meticulous market risk and data research. He mastered the deal-flow lifecycle by assessing operations and generating marketing materials for clients, a crucial ability for his later success as an entrepreneur.

Andrew Katz is the CEO of Seaquake, which he co-founded with Dylan Knight in 2016. Clients can rely on Seaquake for liquidity, statistics, and market-making help.

Seaquake is a group of financial, business, and technology specialists, including Matthew Krueger, a former PayPal employee dedicated to creating stable digital assets through modern technologies. According to Katz, fragmented infrastructures and inefficiencies are now preventing the digital market from gaining a foothold in the banking industry.

To meet goals set forth in his early career, Katz has constructed a renowned company. He also appreciates working in an environment that is overwhelmingly positive, with team members who are dedicated to solving problems that will propel the entire industry ahead. Katz has always paid close attention to the smallest details, which has helped him spot patterns and possibilities that others might overlook.

Seaquake has assembled a group of highly qualified individuals with exceptional communication skills. Katz credits his ability to keep everything running well to his organizing skills. Despite the importance of routines, he pushes his employees to think outside the box.

Andrew spends a lot of time at work, but he also enjoys traveling, being outside, and spending out with his French bulldogs. In the future, Katz wants Seaquake to be a comprehensive crypto ecosystem.

Andrew Katz earned his schooling at prestigious colleges and universities, including the following:
Harvard University is a prestigious university in the United States. Katz earned his Master’s degree in Finance from Harvard University.
The University of Colorado-Boulder is located in Boulder, Colorado. Katz has a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Where did the idea for Seaquake come from?

Have been doing trading and quant for over 15+ years in traditional markets and as I started trading crypto noticed gaps in the market and started building tools to satisfy what I need long story short, we have a capital markets ecosystem going. We have market-making, prime services, big data, and mining as a service, and are working toward our banking application

I had worked in similar types of systems in traditional markets and watched many people really do impressive things, such as the coming of buy-side technology being utilized to create liquidity and make markets. This was a game changer as it allowed people to do this with far less capital and shifted the power away from the big banks. There was an immense lack of infrastructure and liquidity in the crypto space, I knew there was a void to be filled. This barrier would prevent institutions from stepping in and the market from really taking shape.

I started building tools to fulfill my own trading needs to fill the void which transitioned Seaquake. After hearing from many people in the industry about similar issues, I knew my mission was clear. The crypto market while growing was missing key elements that were needed for crypto to be truly accepted. From issues with liquidity to reporting the market had a massive deficit.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

In a Remote Work environment, we depend on communication. A normal day involves routine team check-ins and strategy sessions to make sure we are on track with our 2022 roadmap. We routinely connect with our clients and investors to ensure they are also aligned on our roadmap. Lots of reading, it’s hard to stay at the forefront of technology, so we always have to be researching. Also, networking is a constant, not just for current clients and investors, but also for people who potentially could be working with us in the future. Effectively, we need to know everybody in the industry and everybody. Dylan regularly spends time driving the tech team with his ideas and assistance whilst Andrew drives the leadership team ensuring everyone is driving towards the same goal.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Through conversation and willingness to try things that are outside of our comfort zone. We are always looking to gain knowledge. Whether that means using new tools, new libraries or simply building something of our own from the ground up, we are always ready to try. This is an attitude that we also look for in any candidates that go through our hiring process. We want people who are not stuck in their ways. Once we achieved this attitude amongst ourselves and our colleagues, we found that any new idea can come to fruition through conversation and willingness to fail and learn.

What’s one trend that excites you?

One trend that really excites me and the company is the future of DeFi, from community DAOs to Automated market makers. I’m also excited about the market any more regulations and institutionalizing, as it’s going to weed out the star track-like projects and allow for the more impressive ways to flourish. The ones with actual functional technology will have the time to shine.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I am OCD I hold myself to a very high standard and what we look for in people as they join the team. The OCD is quite helpful as we get things done fast and to the best of our ability, but are never satisfied. Therefore, Why not just strive for excellence, but it was trying to come up with new ways to make things better, be it researching, networking, or even rewriting our own code.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Listen to your team. You are hired for a reason and don’t be afraid to delegate work to others. Also, make sure to do your due diligence on any person that wants to be a part of the company, whether that be a new hire or a client, or a prospective investor. We had an issue earlier where we did not do enough diligence on a particular individual and it turns out he was not who he said he was. Luckily we did not get very far along before our lawyers figured this out.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I push my team to the max but we are on the same page. I have the best team in the game.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Do your due diligence, never take anyone’s word, and don’t assume they’re being earnest. Unfortunately, there are many rotten people in this world and as entrepreneurs, we need to be very mindful of that because they see us as low-hanging fruit and try to take advantage of it.

I didn’t do enough due diligence on one early hire and he happened to be a rotten one. Fortunately, that rotten apple didn’t spoil the bunch and we got rid of him. Now he tries to troll us, but se la vie.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

How to handle company scaling with new lines of business coming online and making sure to hire a top-notch team. It’s not enough to have a good idea, but you need to have impeccable execution as well. Additionally, the lack thereof and uncertain regulations, made for a little challenge, so we made sure to design a business that was not going to hail as many barriers, something that I learned from my prior experience that’s one reason why we’re B2B, we don’t have to worry about as many regulations.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I did not do enough due diligence on a new hire. The man had claimed to be a Finance and Fintech veteran, Upon review by our legal team it turns out he was a fraud. The reality is he was an all-around failure portraying himself as an industry veteran and Rockstar. He was arrested several times for fraud, arrested for being a market scammer, barred from Finra, etc.

Also, counting their chickens before they hatch, better to prepare for a rainy day because there will be plenty in a start-up.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Be careful investing in things you don’t understand. Do your due diligence or you may end up investing in something that seems like it’s a good idea but you may end up with a cartoon dolphin that you paid $30k for that’s worth $200.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Buying drinks for my team. It may sound silly, but it was a great team-building exercise. Once the team got more comfortable with each other turned into a brainstorming session and we developed some of our newest and most impressive systems.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

We love google docs it makes it much easier to collaborate with the team.

We develop the majority of the technology we use in-house, such as our technology stack that is built in a way where every system is both modular and has multiple uses, to allow us to create, backtest, and put strategies live in minutes. Which meant we could pivot into multiple business lines in the company was profitable and self-sustaining after about 10 months and we have only been soaring since, adding more lines of business.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Chan Thomas The Adam And Eve Story The History Of Cataclysms (1993 Full UNCENSORED)

What is your favorite quote?

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.” – Winston Churchill

Key Learnings:

• Learn from your mistakes, don’t let them bring you down
• Ask your team their opinions, they are there to help you and the company grow
• Surround yourself with good people