I'm Stephanie Zinn.
I tell stories for tech companies—sometimes with words, sometimes with cameras, occasionally into microphones.

A decade of making things at GitHub, Coinbase, and a16z. I build content teams, grow audiences, and hoard an unreasonable number of browser tabs.

Incorrect Password

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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.

  • +70K substack subs
  • +22K youtube subs
  • +165K x follows
  • 20M+ impressions in 2025

Editorial lead

Coinbase 2020 – 2022

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

  • 15M newsletter subs
  • 40%+ open rates
  • +1% trading volume from newsletter
  • 1M views on Learn/month

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.

  • 0 → 7 content creators
  • 50+ campaigns shipped

Writing & Editing

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

It's Time to Take Back the Internet — New York Times full-page ad
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.

Why Bad Policy Favors Memes Over Matter
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.

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podcast a16z crypto

Books that Defined Our Year

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

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explainer a16z crypto

Read Write Own: Taking back the internet

A conversation with Chris Dixon about his book and the case for a user-owned internet.

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podcast

What we're reading

a16z crypto · Podcast Guest

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ad

Ad read by Bill Simmons

The Ringer · Writing

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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 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 A Magician's Guide to Zero-Knowledge Proofs explainer a16z crypto Magic tricks that make cryptography intuitive 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
Stephanie Zinn

About

I've spent ten years at GitHub, Coinbase, and a16z figuring out how to explain hard things simply. I build editorial teams, grow audiences, and write the stuff that actually ships—from NYT ads to product docs to podcast scripts.

I think clear writing is the closest thing to a superpower a company can have. When I'm not working, I'm reading, hiking, or deadlifting.

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