Eugene Plotkin Began his Career in Silicon ValleyEugene Plotkin is Chief executive officer of TechWallet and advisor of Fintech startup companies. Plotkin is an internationally recognized fintech expert and serial entrepreneur, who has co-founded five companies in Silicon Valley since 1995. He was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for his expertise in security and storage of digital information, mobile payments and authentication technology. This year he will be focusing on the intersection of law, finance and technology to assist banks, entrepreneurs and governments with their digital transformations at Fintech Innovation Lab (San Francisco).
Plotkin is also the author of two books: “How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur” which received rave reviews from best-selling authors such as Seth Godin; and “On Your Doorstep”. In addition, he is a regular speaker at technology, financial and legal conferences around the world. Eugene Plotkin is a board member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Digital Finance.
Plotkin was born in San Francisco and has lived in Southern California since 1987. He holds a BA magna cum laude in Political Science from Stanford University and a JD degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the “Law Review”. He lives with his wife, Melissa Plotkin, and their children (Max & Julia) in San Francisco.
Eugene Plotkin began his career in Silicon Valley in 1995 as the first employee of InterTrust Technologies, an encryption company he co-founded with two colleagues from Stanford University. While at InterTrust, Plotkin served in a number of positions including general counsel, vice president for business development and chief technology officer (CTO). During his tenure at InterTrust, the company grew to over 50 employees and $30 million in revenue.
After leaving InterTrust in 2000 on excellent terms, Plotkin co-founded Lerna Corporation with four colleagues from InterTrust. Lerna Corp. created digital rights management systems that allow companies to control the use of their digital property without having to own it.
Eugene Plotkin’s interest in computer science began while he was an undergraduate at Stanford. He co-founded the Stanford Java User Group and helped organize the first Software Engineering Institute (SEI) course at Stanford University. Working as a research assistant, he tackled research problems that revolved around web security and other security-related techniques.
Eugene Plotkin began working with Venture Capital firm Accel Partners in early 2000, continuing to serve as a general counsel for InterTrust and Lerna after his departure from both companies. Accel led all investments made on behalf of InterTrust, including investment from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Ashton Kutcher & Chris Sacca (on behalf of their firm A-Grade Investments), John Doerr and others.
Eugene Plotkin is a partner in Tumbling Street Capital, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm whose mission is to make technology investments in companies with $1 million to $5 million in revenue and $2 million to $10 million of venture capital funding.
In July 2018, Eugene Plotkin served as Executive Producer for the comedy short film “Miss India America”, which debuted at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal.
In 1994, while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, Plotkin interned at The Walt Disney Company. While an intern, he helped develop marketing tools and presentations used at the Cannes Film Festival. During his time there he met several movie stars including Brad Pitt, Ellen Barkin and Flavor Flav.