Nick Preszler

I was born in Fargo, ND, and grew up in Newtown, CT.

From a young age, I developed a deep interest in financial markets. I began trading at 15 and learned to code through that process, expanding my focus from picking individual stocks to running quantitative strategies on commodities and eventually crypto. My first exposure to crypto came through trading: I wanted to put real money on the line but was too young to open a brokerage account. So I started by using a VPN to access BitMex, running strategies on a Chromebook in my bedroom closet.

Driven by a desire to better understand businesses and markets, I landed my first internship in high school at a marketing agency in my hometown. In university, I analyzed companies for a search fund, then interned as an ETF portfolio management analyst at Invesco, and later joined the Index Delta desk at SIG.

Throughout this time, I continued trading and building companies. I started with a commodities and crypto fund, iterating with the market until the idea for NodeKit emerged. NodeKit addresses one of the biggest challenges in crypto today: fragmentation. Developers and investors are incentivized to launch new blockchains for every potential use case to maximize value capture from onchain activity. While that benefits them, it worsens the user experience. NodeKit solves this by unifying these chains, making it possible to access and use many blockchains as if they were one.

In October 2023, NodeKit raised $1.2 million from investors, including a16z's Crypto Startup Accelerator. I turned down my return offer from SIG, dropped out of university, and moved to London to participate in the program. I've since returned to the U.S. to set up shop in NYC.

I admire those who make bold bets and work relentlessly to ensure they pay off, people who prioritize execution over posturing, and deeply believe in the power of compounding.