Building the Google of Finance: Meow’s Web4 Vision for Jupiter

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Meow, founder of Jupiter, to unpack how a decision made in a ramen shop turned into one of crypto’s most important DeFi platforms, why he thinks crypto desperately needs an “iPhone moment,” and what he really means by Web4 and “social money.”

From ramen shop to Jupiter

Meow’s “cat” persona comes across as a meme, but it’s actually a metaphor for adaptability. Cats survive in any environment, and he wants to be “whatever the situation needs”, which can vary from a calm domestic cat inside the team to a tiger when there’s trouble.

That agility was crucial to Jupiter’s origin story. When he first considered building a DEX aggregator on Solana, it was not the obvious move. Bigger protocols already existed, crypto Twitter was sceptical, and the conventional wisdom said the space was crowded. Meow spent months walking, thinking and analysing Solana’s economics before finally deciding in a ramen shop: “Fuck it, let’s do it.” That call led to a product that now processes trillions in volume and hundreds of millions in revenue.

For him, the lesson is that you cannot outsource conviction to CT. Crypto Twitter is brutally reflexive and pushes founders into short-term reactions. The real edge is independent thinking and a clear-eyed view of what your team can actually do.

Crypto’s image problem

A big part of the discussion is crypto’s public image. Outside the industry, “crypto bro” is an insult, and the space looks like a 24/7 casino. Inside, builders see real tech and real use cases, but that is not what most people find when they search crypto or “trading” on YouTube.

Meow argues that the reason is clearly that projects with no substance overpay for attention, so “the worst people peddling the worst coins” often become the loudest faces of the industry. Serious teams that obsess over usability and support get drowned out by hype, leverage and memes. Millions of people are missing out on better financial tools and wealth-building opportunities simply because the industry looks ridiculous.

A large part of the Jupiter x When Shift Happens partnership is about fixing that credibility gap and building a media presence that feels serious without being boring.

DeFi, Web4 and the “Google of finance”

Despite crypto’s perception as a casino, Meow thinks that this hyper-financialised playground is also the testing layer for “the backbone of a new financial system.”

Jupiter’s approach to creating that system is radically user-centric. They ask: What actually stops people from using crypto? Confusing gas fees, clunky wallets, cross-chain pains. That is why they invest in things like real-time gas estimation, a mobile app that feels closer to Web2, and features like crypto send that let you move funds even to someone without a wallet.

He describes DeFi as a “universe of monies” anyone can access directly, whether they are in Nigeria, Europe or Alaska. In that context, Web4 is his name for the next phase, which goes beyond “internet money” (Web3), into “social money,” where regular people are actively creating, governing and using programmable money in their daily lives rather than just watching charts on an exchange.

Jupiter’s role in that world is to become the “Google of finance”, the default entry point that makes this universe of value searchable, understandable and usable for normal people.

The iPhone strategy and synergies of scale

But before that can happen, Meow believes DeFi needs its iPhone moment. Smartphones existed before the iPhone, but were clunky and fragmented. Apple won by integrating hardware, OS, apps, distribution, backend services and brand into one coherent experience.

Jupiter plans to mirror that with its “triple S” strategy:

• Full surface – strong on web, mobile and APIs

• Full suite – going beyond swaps into lending, portfolios, screens and tools that reinforce each other

• Full stack – from validators and data infrastructure all the way up to UI, community and storytelling

This creates what he calls “synergies of scale”, where each new product makes the others more useful, instead of just sitting side by side.

Owning mistakes and rebuilding the token

Meow took two months off social to step back and reflect on the JUP token. He openly admits that the token has underperformed and takes responsibility for the confusing storytelling and governance experiments that created friction between token holders, DAO workgroups and the broader community.

He points out that even with mechanisms like sending 50% of revenue into the “litter box” for buybacks, many holders either did not know or did not feel the link. In hindsight, he says he was good at talking, but bad at delivering one coherent narrative around Jupiter, JUP and the future.

The reset he describes has three parts: tell a much clearer story about where Jupiter is going, define the role of the token in that journey, and design healthier loops between users, evangelists and investors. 

Stacking wins and staying grateful

Meow closes with gratitude. He talks about “stacking wins”, doing slightly bigger, slightly harder things over time until your personal network effects kick in.

After years in Silicon Valley, he sees crypto as the industry that truly globalised opportunity. Talent and capital are no longer locked in one geographic hub. For him, building Web4 is about making that same level of access possible for money itself. 

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