Erik Voorhees is Founder and CEO of Venice AI, a privacy-first generative AI platform offering uncensored access to over 200 AI models without storing user data.

Erik studied Business Leadership and Political Economics at the University of Puget Sound, and became one of the earliest Bitcoin entrepreneurs, first encountering the technology in 2011.

A vocal crypto-libertarian and advocate for the separation of money and state, Erik extended his philosophy to AI, arguing that just as Bitcoin separated money from state, AI must separate mind from state.

Prior to Venice AI, Erik founded ShapeShift in 2014, a leading non-custodial crypto exchange, and co-founded SatoshiDice in 2012, which at its peak accounted for half of all Bitcoin transaction volume.

Venice AI surpassed 3.5 million registered users, processes 1.3 trillion tokens per month, achieved profitability in Q1 2026, and raised a $65M Series A at a $1 billion valuation led by Dragonfly and Coinbase Ventures.