Several years into their working relationship, Mr. Saleh and Nas joined a multitude of entertainers parlaying their wealth and influence into investing, a trend that continues today and includes everything from Ryan Reynolds’s investment
in telecom company Mint Mobile to Gal Gadot’s backing of Goodles, a plant-based macaroni-and-cheese startup. It soon became a significant part of the duo’s work.
“8 a.m. meetings—that changed my world,” said Nas. lol
While working with Nas several years ago, Mr. Saleh cold-emailed Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to discuss ideas, Mr. Horowitz said. The two men got to know one another, and in 2013, Mr. Saleh called Mr. Horowitz to say he and Nas were interested in bitcoin after seeing how many “unbanked” people in the world had no checking account but did have a cellphone—a dynamic he said could decentralize finance. When Mr. Horowitz later heard about Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, he brought the duo into the investment.
Last year,
Coinbase Global Inc. was one of six investments in Mr. Saleh’s personal portfolio that ended in a public offering.