Sitting around the house wasn’t on the menu for Dan Magnuszewski.
The Buffalo-based entrepreneur and technologist has joined Foundry Digital as its chief technology officer.
Foundry is a Rochester-based blockchain and cryptocurrency firm that has grown to 150 employees since it was founded by Mike Colyer in 2019.
The plan is for Magnuszewski to build a major hub for the company in Buffalo, partnering with local colleges and hiring for both technology and business roles.
He said Foundry Digital has been scouting office space in downtown Buffalo and will have an announcement soon.
For Magnuszewski, it’s a new chance to build a business around cutting-edge technology that has long fascinated him.
“I’m excited to build a big company again and cement the idea that Buffalo is a place for both startups, specifically this time in the blockchain and crypto industries,” he said.
Check out a list of blockchain projects in Buffalo and who's behind them
Magnuszewski co-founded ACV Auctions eight years ago. The company went from startup to publicly-traded tech corporation in that time, with hundreds of employees locally and more than 1,000 across the U.S. His last day at ACV Auctions was June 3.
Magnuszewski has long been interested in the blockchain space, participating in a group called Blockchain Buffalo that met regularly. He met Colyer at one of those groups about five years ago, and the two developed a friendship around that shared interest.
Colyer’s company provides financing and advisory services to other blockchain and cryptocurrency firms. Magnuszewski said they’re in the process of building the “AWS,” or Amazon Web Services, in the digital asset industries.
And he said Foundry is positioned as a clearinghouse for new ideas in the space, creating new services and new spinout startups.
“Mike reached out and said, ‘We’re growing like crazy, we have a ton of new stuff going on and we’re looking for someone who can help us create a big Buffalo presence,” Magnuszewski said. “The goal is to do all that while taking the product and the tech to the next level.”
Magnuszewski said the hiring plans call for both established technology and business types and new graduates. One of his longtime connections is Bina Ramamurthy, director of the Blockchain ThinkLab at the University at Buffalo, who teaches hundreds of UB students each year in her blockchain courses. Magnuszewski said he wants to give those students an opportunity to stay in Buffalo while working on new tech paradigms at a high-growth company.
“We think we can work with UB to help shape the curriculum and help retain more of those students in Buffalo,” he said. “This is an exciting space.”
Magnuszewski said that Foundry Digital’s growth pattern looks a lot like ACV’s in the same stage, with expansive potential to build products and services around its core business.
“They are on this trajectory of hyper-growth, and they’re dealing with questions about scaling the organization, the technology and the product,” Magnuszewski said. “The growth pace we’re look at is parallel with what we did at ACV."
