Stephanie Zinn portfolio

Roles & results

Growth and editorial lead

a16z 2022 – Present

Run editorial and audience growth across Substack, X, YouTube, and search with a small, scrappy team.

substack subs+70K
youtube subs+22K
x follows+165K
impressions in 202520M+

Editorial lead

Coinbase 2020 – 2022

Built the editorial team, launched Coinbase Learn and Coinbase Bytes. Turned a crypto exchange into something people actually read.

newsletter subs15M
open rates40%+
trading volume from newsletter+1%
views on Learn/month1M

Senior editorial manager

GitHub 2015 – 2020

Helped build GitHub's editorial team and launched The ReadME Project. Figured out how to talk to developers without getting roasted.

content creators0 → 7
campaigns shipped50+

Writing & editing

Longform, strategy docs, scripts, and editorial. The actual work.

writing

It's Time to Take Back the Internet

A full-page ad in The New York Times making the case for a better internet built on blockchain technology—one that puts power back in the hands of users, creators, and builders.

ghostwriting

Why Bad Policy Favors Memes Over Matter

An analysis of how bad policy decisions allow memecoins to flourish, while threatening productive technologies with legal action.

State of Crypto 2025 writing a16z crypto Annual report on builder activity, onchain metrics, and policy Why Bad Policy Favors Memes Over Matter ghostwriting Financial Times How bad policy lets memecoins flourish while threatening productive tech It's Time to Take Back the Internet writing The New York Times Full-page ad making the case for a better internet State of Crypto 2023 writing a16z crypto Developer trends, usage data, and the regulatory landscape How Rust Developers Are Making the Web Safer editing GitHub The push to secure core internet infrastructure with Rust How Open Source Powers Modern Filmmaking editing GitHub OpenEXR, Blender, and the infrastructure behind VFX studios Open Source on Mars: NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter editing GitHub How open source developers helped fly a helicopter on Mars Coinbase Founder's Letter ghostwriting Coinbase Brian Armstrong's founder's letter ahead of the direct listing

Audio & video

Videos, podcasts, and clips. Same ideas, different shapes.

podcast a16z crypto

Books that Defined Our Year

Podcast guest appearance discussing the books that shaped our thinking across tech and culture.

explainer a16z crypto

Read Write Own: Taking back the internet

Chris Dixon on the case for a user-owned internet.

Audio

ad

Ad read by Bill Simmons

The Ringer · Writing

ad

Ad read by Malcolm Gladwell

Revisionist History · Writing

Books that Defined Our Year podcast a16z crypto Podcast guest appearance on books that shaped our thinking How Stablecoins Will Eat Payments explainer a16z crypto How stablecoins are poised to transform payments Simply become insane and desperate clip a16z crypto In our collared shirt era clip a16z crypto The Future of Oats is the Future of Everything clip a16z crypto Palmer Luckey on mundane industries and innovation In Bots We Trust? clip a16z crypto Sean Neville on humans and AI-driven systems What's the Smallest Hill You'd Die On? clip a16z crypto Quick-fire opinions from the a16z crypto team Who Cares About Privacy? clip a16z crypto Eddy Lazzarin on why privacy is a feature, not a bug Read Write Own: Taking back the internet explainer a16z crypto A conversation with Chris Dixon about his book What is DePIN? explainer a16z crypto The case for decentralizing physical infrastructure How to Set up a Crypto Wallet ad Coinbase Product tutorial for new users Bring Innovation to Work ad GitHub Enterprise product video Ten Years of Code ad GitHub Brand film celebrating a decade of building How We Build Software ad GitHub Brand video on collaborative development GitHub Presents Atom 1.0 ad GitHub Launch video for the open-source text editor

Hi, I'm Stephanie — an editorial leader, working on the future of owned media at a16z.

I've spent ten years at GitHub, Coinbase, and a16z figuring out how to communicate tricky ideas in ways most people can understand. I build teams, develop audiences, and write the actual stuff—from full-page ads and commercial scripts to op eds and newsletters read by millions of people.

My favorite projects are the messy, inscrutable ones. I also think that beautiful, cohesive, clear communication is the closest thing to a superpower a company can have in an era when anyone can make anything.

When I'm not working, you can find me doing escapism through books and movies set in faraway lands, and also touching grass closer to home, in the Pacific Northwest.

x linkedin