Builders & Founders

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, to discuss what it takes to build through chaos, why he refused to “walk off” when crypto turned ugly in 2022, and what Polygon is really trying to become: not just another blockchain, but a global payments layer powered by stablecoins. Along the way, Sandeep reflects on his childhood, his obsession with individual sovereignty, and the philanthropic moment that turned crypto into a cu

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Brian Armstrong to discuss what it really takes to build something that lasts. We talk about the myth of the “smartest founder in the room,” the unglamorous muscle of unreasonable determination, and the emotional cost of scaling Coinbase over more than a decade. Brian opens up about burnout, loneliness, ambition, and the mindset shifts that helped him keep going when things felt heavy. We also get into why he believes ca

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Seung Yoon Lee to discuss the $80 trillion creative asset class, why creators are shut out of the value they generate, and how Story Protocol aims to tokenise and “programme” intellectual property so anyone can legally remix it while paying royalties automatically. Fixing Creator Economics Seung’s path to this problem began with a long apprenticeship in media economics. Fresh out of Oxford, he tried to fix journalism’s b

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Emin Gün Sirer to discuss his journey from Turkish immigrant to Cornell professor...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Jordi Alexander, founder of Selini Capital, to unpack one of the most pressing...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Sergey Nazarov, co-founder and CEO of Chainlink, to discuss why crypto has...

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Sam Blackshear, Co-founder and CTO of Mysten Labs, to discuss the creation of the...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Diogo Mónica, General Partner at Haun Ventures, the $1.5 billion firm known for...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Luca Netz to discuss the highs and lows of building Pudgy Penguins, how he...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Dan Tapiero to explore his journey from Wall Street to crypto. We talk about the...

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Chris Larsen, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Ripple, to unpack how he and...

What if everything you’ve been taught about money, like buying a home, playing it safe, and climbing the ladder, is actually keeping you...

Evan Cheng sat down with me on the 125th episode of When Shift Happens  to unpack a bold ambition: fixing the broken foundation of the...

Sebastien, the Swiss co-founder and CEO of Sophon, sat with me on When Shift Happens  to explore why crypto has stayed niche for so long,...

In the latest episode of When Shift Happens , Kevin Follonier sat down with Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, to...

In the wake of an industry-wide crash and the collapse of FTX, many expected Solana to vanish quietly into the crypto graveyard. Instead,...