In the first episode of the second season of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty, eventual murder victim Edgar Minnows mentions in a proposal to his fiancée that he no longer wants to be named Fast Company‘s Most Eligible Bachelor. While neither the award nor this man really exist, we imagined what the write-up would look like anyway.
The boy king of crypto relishes a good ‘Connect 4’ competition, but to Edgar Minnows, love is no game.
Bucephalus cofounder Edgar Minnows is Fast Company‘s latest Most Eligible Bachelor—the fourth straight tech exec to win the award, continuing a trend since 2008, when the financial crisis wiped out young bankers’ desirability (and their savings accounts).
Lately, hot founders of even hotter startups have dominated the list—and this year is no different. In 2022, Edgar Minnows won the top spot for his ability to woo investors, customers, and hearts. Tall and self-effacing, Minnows has printed billions in five years through the cryptocurrency Bucephalus, which he runs with best friend Sebastian Drapewood from a palatial pad in Bermuda and an office in San Mateo, California. Though he regularly spends, by his own estimate, 300 hours a week working, Minnows is looking to settle down. “I am on several dating apps, but my heart’s not in it,” the Harvard ‘09 graduate says. “I want somebody who immediately stops talking when I start talking because that means I have something to say.”
Minnows’ long hours and secretive work—he will not divulge any financial details with Fast Company but his PR team did share magazine covers he has appeared on—doesn’t mean he is without hobbies. Not only does he own a 600-foot-long yacht where he has hosted the likes of Jeff Bezos and longtime favorite band, 3OH!3 (Minnows does not enjoy musical performances so prefers to stay in his room when they take the stage), but he is also a member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Stroking his pet lizard, Roxana, he admits, shyly, that his two NFTs—purchased for $1.5 million each from Reese Witherspoon—are named after Macedonian soldiers Hephaestion and Cleitus, both of whom served under his favorite world conqueror, Alexander the Great.
Born into a patrician family with wealth originating in the Gilded Age, Edgar is proud of his lineage. “My forefathers were part of the 2% of the U.S. population that controlled more than 30% of the country’s wealth. I am proud to continue that tradition on a global scale,” he says. Sent to boarding school at age 12—where he met his eventual cofounder, Drapewood—Minnows quickly established a reputation for his fiercely competitive streak in everything except sports, dominating classmates in games from chess to card-collecting. Drapewood says of his best friend, “He always seems to win. And, he’s handsome if you squint.”
At school, Minnows also became known for the radical candor he still espouses today. With a timid smile, he says his personal policy of complete honesty can sometimes backfire on dating apps. “One time, a woman named Charlene from Myrtle Beach mentioned she struggled with depression in her bio, so I slid into her DMs and wrote, ‘You are so pretty—sorry about the depression.’ She thought I was being facetious but really I didn’t want to lie to her.”
Fast Company’s own head of podcasts and former actor, Josh Christensen, once ran into Minnows backstage after a Broadway performance of Annie. “I was 23 and he told me I was unconvincing as Bundles the laundryman and that he hated the show,” Christensen says. “That night, I decided to quit theatre, so in a way he changed my life.”
That doesn’t mean he isn’t interested in social causes. Minnows brings up at several points in our conversation his commitment to adoption rights because he has an adopted sister, Hannah. He has also funded extensive research into fields including immortality research and seasteading. And though he hates paying taxes, he is open to finding a partner with different political views. “As long as they do not make me speak in public, do not ask me to dance, and do not ask too much about my business, we could get along,” he says.
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