Austin Barnard is the co-founder and portfolio manager at Orca Capital. Austin manages all five funds in the Orca family. Growing up, Austin has always been an analytical person. His mom was also a trader for a small family office. This greatly influenced his interests, and he started trading stocks in his Roth IRA in high school, and he has never looked back since. Austin traded during his classes in college and even during work post-college.
After graduating from Ohio State and getting his CPA at EY, Austin was a full-time stock and equities trader before discovering Bitcoin in early 2017. Initially, he was attracted to crypto because the trader in him loved the 24/7 markets and crazy volatility. But when the bear market came in 2018, he began to study the fundamentals behind blockchain, and after researching more, he fell in love with the concept. Austin also quickly realized crypto is the future and has been fully committed ever since.
Orca Capital was started in April 2019 and has quickly grown into a family of 5 funds with almost 200 investors and $60M assets under management. Being a trader at heart, Austin finds it very rewarding to have a job that directly matches his passion and has no limits. A successful trader, Austin feels like his life goal is to help others have an open mind. According to him, too many people naturally bash things they don’t understand, which can often lead to some of the most significant missed opportunities.
An expert in the field, Austin has now embraced the role of helping traditional finance people have an open mind and see the incredible value of blockchain technology. He wants them to see the potential in the technology and how it is going to disrupt pretty much everything. This is part of his goal to help other people become successful entrepreneurs and hopefully realize their life goals.
Austin also points out success to start by finding something you are genuinely passionate about. Every startup requires a ton of hard work and long days, but building something you love makes everything much easier. When you’re your own boss, no one tells you when to wake up or what has to be done. Self-motivation and personal accountability are requirements to be a successful entrepreneur. Having a partner who compliments your talents and pushes you to be better is a very understated benefit as well. Austin can’t speak highly enough about Jeff as a business partner at Orca Capital and how he has been instrumental in his quest for success.
Austin also advises other entrepreneurs not to focus on the money. He believes money will be just one of the many byproducts of creating a business you love. Find what you are passionate about and hyper-focus on one thing instead of spreading yourself too thin. Success doesn't happen overnight; besides, "anything easy isn't worth a damn!"
His plans include opening a DeFi-focused fund, which he is very excited to add to their growing list of funds. Austin would also like to start philanthropy work that is tied to the fund and goes towards helping make the world a better place. "There is nothing more rewarding than helping others," says Austin.