Meet Travis McDonald | Coinfully CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Travis McDonald and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Travis, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
“Seeking balance” has become the core tenant of how I organize my life. Balance is the perfect ideal to aim for, and when things inevitably start to drift, a simple reminder of what we are seeking is all it takes. In a land of extremes like LA, it is so easy to fall into the “all gas, no brakes” lifestyle, especially as a newly minted entrepreneur. Prior to the pandemic, burning the candle at both ends was the only way I knew how to operate. I was Director of Operations for a 100-year-old numismatic powerhouse at the time. Familiar story…long hours, taking your work home with you, never stopping.

In February 2020, my first son was born, and a few weeks later the pandemic began sending the country’s workers home. This tragic global experience had a personal impact on my family that we never expected. It became clear that it was possible to excel in a fast-paced career while simultaneously co-creating a deeply intimate home life with my wife and son. In fairly short order, a switch got flipped. Balancing work and family started to feel not only accessible, but intuitive.

Fast forward to today, work-life balance is all about starting with family and framing everything around that. Coinfully, like my second son, was born in this period, and has its roots in this intuitive and balanced lifestyle. This has driven us to be more efficient and leaner than we thought possible. The benefit of that experience is passed on to our customers through a painstakingly streamlined and equitable platform to sell your coin collection for the best price, all from the comfort of your home.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Like many startups, Coinfully began on a simple prompt, “there has got to be a better way”. For the coin-selling public, the traditional options for selling coins are often confusing, slow, and not very profitable. After spending a lifetime in numismatics, my brother (Wyatt McDonald) and I set out to offer the public the first fully transparent online answer to the trying traditional options for appraising and selling rare coins.

More often than not, coin collectors are unclear of the current market value of their collection when it comes to finding a buyer – there’s a lot of fluctuation and values can change significantly in just a matter of months. Collectors may have a lot wrapped up in it emotionally which can cloud judgement and people who inherit a collection often have no idea what to do next. The risk is that people take their coins to a trader who leaps on an opportunity to pitch a low ball offer and pocket the profits. The unwitting seller in the meantime loses out on profiting fully from their collection. We think that’s wrong. Coin collecting has been a passion for Wyatt and myself since we were kids and our business is founded on making sure sellers know the full details of their collection and why it’s worth what it’s worth.

First and foremost, we educate people – to empower them to make the right decision. We offer a no-pressure approach to coin dealing, and our low overheads enable us to make market-leading offers for coin collections via a simple free appraisal. Soon after we started the business we realized people with larger collections needed an more convenient way to have their coins appraised – so we’ve since added a free at-home appraisal service and now travel across the US at our own expense to make sure the experience is as stress-free as possible for our clients.

Both Wyatt and I are younger than the vast majority of traditional coin traders and we initially worried we wouldn’t be taken seriously – particularly as this was a real paradigm shift in coin trading. Since winning the backing of the ANA (American Numismatic Association), PCGS, NGC, Lloyd’s of London, numismatic authors, and high profile coin collectors, people can see their coin collections are in safe hands with us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Wow, this is my favorite type of question. A week of LA would require a book’s worth of space, so maybe let’s go with one awesome day. And as an aside, I always tell people not to be afraid of the touristy stuff (Sunset, Chinese Theatre, Santa Monica Pier, LACMA, etc). Those places have amazing character and are famous for a reason. But let’s do a lazy day of eating and strolling in LA proper:

Start with a Greek lunch at Papa Cristo’s on Pico, make sure to pay homage to Papa himself. Cruise downtown for after-lunch macarons at Bottega Louie, then burn a few calories walking over to The Last Bookstore for a breathtaking but comfy piece of LA history and a good book. Walk down to Pershing Square and hang a right for late afternoon drinks on the deck at Perch, catch the sunset if you can. Buzz over to Little Tokyo put your name on the list for Rakkan Ramen and hop across the street to get some shopping done for the Sanrio fan in your life. After dinner, grab ice-cream at Salt & Straw on 3rd and walk the galleries in the neighborhood. Finally, head home to the kids or go clubbing, you have to pick one.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Eric Ries! Author of The Lean Startup. This book changed my life. Everyone should read this in all businesses, even companies on the opposite end of the spectrum from startup companies. You leave behind old thinking and focus on only what is necessary to push your company forward.

Website: https://www.coinfully.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coinfully

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoinfullyUS