Erik Voorhees is a start-up founder and CEO who is now based out of Panama. He is most known for being the CEO and founder at ShapeShift, an instant Bitcoin and altcoin exchange. 

Voorhees, aged 34 years old, grew up in Colorado at his family home within a dense forest. His first business venture started at the tender age of 4 years old when a friend and himself collected pinecones in the forest to be sold. 

After studying at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Voorhees was introduced to Bitcoin in 2011 and instantly fell in love. After researching into the technology, Voorhees went on to land a job at BitInstant, a New York-based exchange led by Charlie Shrem, becoming employee number 3. Voorhees became a well-known spokesperson at BitInstant and was introducing Bitcoin to thousands of new people. At its peak, BitInstant was slated to be processing up to one-third of all BTC trading volume.

Voorhees went on to create an online casino known as Satoshi Dice after buying the code for the program for around $350 (40 BTC at the time). Satoshi Dice became a casino that was known to allow anybody access without requiring any signup information. Satoshi Dice didn't even require an account to be used. Voorhees went on to sell Satoshi Dice for $11.5 million in 2013 after the SEC started an investigation into the grey area casino.

Voorhees went on to invest his profits into a number of cryptocurrency startups which included Coinapult, a mobile-based wallet that was intended to make sending BTC easy and ShapeShift, the company which he is widely known for today.