Zak Cole’s journey to product-market fit is unlike any other—from securing military encryption in Iraq to securing smart contracts on Ethereum. In this episode, he breaks down his early days in crypto, surviving the DAO hack, and how he built Slingshot, Code4rena, and other disruptive projects. Along the way, he shares hard-earned lessons on building in public, testing ideas, and why aggressively forgetting failures is a superpower.

We also get into the real product-market fit of Ethereum—is it really a world computer or just the best financial rail ever? Plus, the truth about audits, AI’s role in shipping faster, and why PMF is all about getting the best out of people while moving at top speed. If you’re building, iterating, or just love a good war story, this one’s for you. 🚀

Doggie B went from aerospace engineering and flight software for helicopters to building some of the most battle-tested smart contracts in DeFi. In this episode, he shares how his background in high-stakes engineering shaped his approach to building, auditing, and shipping code in crypto. As a key contributor to the Viper compiler and Yearn V2, Doggie B explains how he scaled Yearn to $6.5B in TVL, why Python and Viper are his go-to stack, and the secrets behind designing incentives that actually work.

We also dive into AI-powered security, the reality of DeFi go-to-market strategies (spoiler: bots might be your real users), and why building great products means thinking about edge cases before they happen. Doggie B’s superpower? Taking what already works and making it better. Whether you’re deep in DeFi or just figuring out product-market fit, this one’s full of lessons from the trenches. 🚀

Zach Herring has always been a builder—whether it was stapling together comics at four years old, spinning up fan sites for Jedi Knight, or launching on-chain collaborative art projects. In this episode, Zach shares how his love for self-expression and tinkering led to BasePaint, a permissionless pixel art experiment where artists earn from their work. He breaks down mechanism design, why crypto uniquely enables emergent creativity, and how incentives shape user behavior.

We also get into validating ideas the right way, why UX should be magical, and how building simple, delightful experiences beats overengineering every time. Zach’s superpower? Pulling insights from different disciplines to create novel, engaging experiences. Whether you’re into product, crypto, or game design, this episode is packed with practical wisdom on finding PMF through iteration and intuition. 🚀

Joseph DeLong joins PMFers to share his journey from protocol research to leading Sushi during DeFi Summer and building on-chain products that actually get users. He breaks down how he learned to ship, why he optimizes for simplicity over modularity, and what he’s learned about avoiding over-engineering in smart contracts.

We dive into DeFi’s core primitives, why most oracles are a cop-out, and how shipping fast with full test coverage beats waiting for audits. Whether you’re building, experimenting, or just crypto-curious, this one’s packed with real-world insights from a battle-tested builder. Watch now! 🚀