John joined us for work experience in one of CoinJar’s most hectic weeks for 2014. Here’s what he had to say about it…

My name is John Strentz, a 17 year old high school student from rural Victoria. Heavily inspired by Steve Jobs, when I was 15 I taught myself how to code and read everything I could get my hands on relating to startups and entrepreneurship. Having already enjoyed one week at McCann, a corporate advertising agency and another week at Electron Workshop at a co-working space, my week at CoinJar was yet another enlightening and inspiring experience. It completely reaffirmed my excitement for startups and solidified my passion for bitcoin.

My favourite thing was witnessing the launch of the new CoinJar. I got to observe the synergy that occurs when passionate people band together to make a world class product go live. CoinJar’s employees are genuinely excited by their product offering and as the company rapidly scales over the next year or so, challenges such as maintaining blazing efficiency or retaining good culture will hopefully be easy to overcome.

In my eyes, CoinJar is currently Melbourne’s best startup, so I was very excited to get the opportunity to spend a week with them. I had high expectations, much higher than I’ve had previously of a work experience placement and I was pleasantly surprised that it was everything I thought it would be. If there is any doubt that it is not already one of Australia’s greatest ever startups, as someone who has seen the inside, I can confidently say – soon there won’t be.

“Some things are evolutionary – they take advantage of existing structures and practices and refine and improve on them. Then there are things that are revolutionary…”

As for bitcoin, times have never been better. It is well and truly changing the world with unprecedented pace and effectiveness. Some things are evolutionary – they take advantage of existing structures and practices and refine and improve on them. Then there are things that are revolutionary – they are so incredibly ingenious that the structures and practices that existed before them will inevitably crumple to the ground and be abandoned en masse. In this sense, bitcoin is a revolutionary technology like the world has never seen before. The new CoinJar is a beautiful tool to unlock and realise the “everyday and extraordinary” opportunities of this revolutionary technology provides. For the company, its employees, its customers, the Australian startup community and bitcoin itself, these are very exciting times.

I’m grateful for the week I spent working at CoinJar and I look forward to what I can do in future to contribute to its truly awesome, global vision.

Follow John on Twitter @theuncoder.

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