Koji Conversations

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Sid has recently taken the space by storm with the development of Maple Finance - a decentralised corporate credit market built on the Ethereum blockchain. By leveraging his experience in traditional finance, Sid has become equipped with the tools that allow him to solve some of the leading problems in the emerging space.

The genesis of Maple occurred during Sid’s time at a lending fintech. While pouring through hundreds of pages of legal documentation, the thought emerged that these documents could be codified onto the Ethereum blockchain. This realisation led to the creation of Maple Finance - the product that would result in the ability for institutions to access capital from anywhere in the world.

Although Sid and his co-founder, Joe, never faltered in their belief in their idea, the world couldn’t always see it. Before DeFi Summer, Sid and Joe were funding the project internally with their own savings. Sid’s perseverance would prove to pay off, with Maple Finance overcoming all hurdles, and triumphing with a thriving team of 15 strong. Sid encourages founders to use their ‘why’ statement as a guiding light towards their goal and to persevere until the world is ready for your idea.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Sid Powell.

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Find Sid on Twitter: @sidbpowell

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: koji.capital

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Hudson Jameson gives the phrase “carpe diem” new meaning.

Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Hudson discovered the space trawling through online forums and quickly fell in love with the idea of decentralised finance. After reading the Ethereum Whitepaper it immediately clicked, “programs on the blockchain, why has no one done this before?!”

His newfound passion led him to become blockchain developer lead at USAA in Plano, Texas. It was here he realised the innovative potential of the Ethereum community and wanted to help however possible, to the point where he volunteered almost as much as he worked.

It wasn’t long before Hudson’s irresistible drive caught the eye of Ming Chan, who offered him a job at the Ethereum Foundation in 2016. In this role Hudson helped newcomers become immersed in the space. Despite being the inveterate grinder, Hudson is passionate about mental health and warns of the dangers of becoming too involved. It is on this basis that Hudson reveals why he made the difficult decision to leave the Ethereum Foundation after 5 solid years.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Hudson Jameson.

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Find Hudson on Twitter: @hudsonjameson

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Nick Mudge is an Ethereum blockchain developer who prides himself on seeing around corners before others have even looked up. He has written several ERC and EIP standards that seek to improve Ethereum’s efficiency, most notably EIP-2535, otherwise known as Diamonds. It was with this EIP that he became the CTO of Pixelcraft to work on Aavegotchi, one of the more complex NFTs of Ethereum.

In this episode Nick reveals why he fell prey to the gravitational pull of Ethereum and discusses the logistics of writing an EIP and how he put EIP-2535 to work when building Aavegotchi. With experience as both a CEO and a developer, Nick dissects the opportunity costs of choosing between these two positions and explains why he prefers to choose the latter. As a developer Nick has had the opportunity to work on the frontier landscape that is Ethereum development.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Nick Mudge.

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Find Nick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mudgen (https://twitter.com/mudgen)

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

TM Lee is case in point that you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to create a wildly successful business, you just need perseverance and determination.

Growing up in middle-class Malaysia, TM Lee went against the grain of what his parents and peers expected. From starting Coingecko as a side project with only $100 bootstrapping it, to meeting with Silicon Valley VCs and being a member of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2019, TM Lee has learnt many lessons on what it takes to grow a project to achieve mass adoption.

In this episode, TM Lee walks us through his unorthodox journey propelled by CoinGecko’s success to shed light on the key moments, lessons learnt, and important considerations.

Join this Koji Conversation, with TM Lee.

Join the Conversation:

TM Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmlee (https://twitter.com/tmlee)

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Nick Johnson is someone who is magnetised by the road less travelled.

Hailing from Christchurch New Zealand, it was not long before Nick caught the attention of Google and crossed the ocean to begin his career. As the years unfurled, Google grew larger and Nick grew restless. He left to follow his curiosity, leading him to the startup world.

Here, he learnt how impactful leadership was indispensable to success. But, it wasn’t long before Nick met again the forked tongue of fate. A little rabbit-hole called Ethereum called.

Fuelled by his infatuation with problem-solving Nick founded Ethereum Name Service. ENS allows blockchain users to interact using human-readable names, pivoting away from obscure cryptographic identifiers.

Nick has lived up the good times and learned a lot from the bad times.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Nick Johnson

Join the Conversation:

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Like all of the guests on Koji Conversations, DeFi Dad has a serious appetite for new knowledge. It was only a matter of time before his desire to make a mark and help others make their mark led him to DeFi.

After finishing a chemistry PhD, DeFi Dad pivoted into a completely different world by establishing a cookie baking business on the West Coast. Over 3 years he grew that business to 20 people before the haunting aromas of global change overpowered the smells from the oven. Always up for a challenge, he immersed himself in DeFi podcasts and literature, often studying from when he got home from work to the early hours of the morning.

His persistence paid off when he landed a job at Consensys and took charge of the Ethereal Summits. Within a short space of time he had journeyed from being a bewildered attendant at the conference to its chief organiser.

Now the host of Yield TV and a core member of Zapper, DeFi Dad’s meteoric rise mirrors that of the DeFi world. Somehow, through all of this, the Dad of DeFi still finds the time to be a Dad at home.

Join this Koji Conversation, with DeFi Dad.

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Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Aaron Wright believes that you usually get the best answer to a problem when you speak to a lot of people. Aaron has certainly spoken to a lot of people throughout his journey.

Those conversations began on the streets of New Jersey during a working-class upbringing. Shovelling snow and delivering pizza gave Aaron the spare change he wanted and the ox-like work ethic he needed to play ball with some of the great minds in the tech space.

After graduating law school and successfully building and selling his first venture, Aaron’s conversations took him deep into the DeFi world. He was at the early Bitcoin meetups, usually hosted in dingy backrooms of New York Chinatown and was instrumental in Ethereum’s early days.

He loves history, economics, law and technology. Topics many find dry, but magnetise him due to their vastness and importance.

From peering over his Dad’s shoulder and witnessing the earliest prototypes of the internet in the 1970’s to building Ethereum in dimly lit coworking spaces with Vitalik, Aaron has lived a few lives already at the age of 40.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Aaron Wright.

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Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Equipped with a curiosity forged around the family dinner table, our latest guest is a pioneer of DAOs, LAOs and NFTs.

Priyanka Desai was destined to be at the tip of the spear of any frontier of discovery. Her childhood home was an epicentre of learning and intellectual curiosity, principally orchestrated by her polymathic father.

In between loungeroom PowerPoint presentations, fiery dinner table political debates and travelling the globe, a little thing known as the Bitcoin Whitepaper caught the eye of Priyanka and her family. That Whitepaper sewed the seed of curiosity.

Increasingly disenchanted with the sluggish bureaucracy of Capitol Hill, Priyanka Desai sought pastures new when she pivoted into the cryptographic ecosystem.

Her love of digital art and fervent desire to see a world where people have unobstructed access to communities of their choosing made her and DeFi a splendid match.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Priyanka Desai.

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Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Uncertainty. Inflation. Corruption. How might you combat such existential challenges?

Purchasing US dollars on the blackmarket might be one option. Purchasing physical assets, another. These challenges were very real for Argentines.

One Argentinian was awoken to the potential of a new technology, and made the decision to be part of the solution.

In this episode, we learn about Mariano Conti’s journey. He relives the events that shaped his mindset, making it clear why he became involved with MakerDAO: a decentralised autonomous organisation which maintains and regulates DAI, a crypto stablecoin.

His passions, fears, sacrifices and future ambitions are brought to the forefront.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Mariano Conti.

Join the Conversation:

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: http://koji.capital (koji.capital)

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Cultivating conversations around crypto, with Koji. Cut through the signal for unfiltered access to innovators building the Web3 ecosystem and inviting their community to join the conversation.

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Join the Journey

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: Koji.capital

Email: [email protected]