Work before sunrise
A 5 AM bakery shift began an early education in discipline, service, and responsibility.
Milestone overview
A compact guide to the turning points explored in the chapters below. The complete story remains in the narrative, while this overview makes the chronology easy to scan.
A 5 AM bakery shift began an early education in discipline, service, and responsibility.
Founded a first company while studying political science and learning how ideas become products.
Completed his degree, entered law school, and began choosing entrepreneurship over a conventional path.
Turned a River North apartment experiment into the first venture that produced meaningful revenue.
An old Mac and a failed bank-funded purchase made Bitcoin, settlement, and ownership personal.
Virtual Assets Inc., doing business as Crypto Dispensers, began in Chicago with a plan to improve access.
Financing and retail relationships helped the company expand beyond its first locations.
A Green Dot receipt revealed a path beyond proprietary Bitcoin ATM hardware.
Point of Payment introduced a barcode and participating-cashier route for funding an account with cash.
Firas repurchased a partner’s stake and continued leading the company into its next chapter.
A Cybrid integration added an established bank rail for eligible larger transactions.
Partner integrations widened supported buying, selling, swapping, bank, and card routes.