Podcast Episode: TN Lee from Pendle Finance

Scaling TVL 30x in six months.

Pendle is one of the fastest-growing DeFi protocols in our industry. Its TVL sits at $6 billion as I write this. An increase of 30 times from the start of the year. The market capitsalisation has risen four times in the same time frame. Those unfamiliar with Pendle might see it as an overnight success. But it is the result of three years of preparation, experimentation, and relentless commitment to finding the ever-elusive product market fit. 

This week, we’re joined by Pendle’s co-founder TN. Our conversation offers a glimpse into how Pendle survived a crypto winter and came out swinging. As one of the founding members of Kyber in 2017, TN went through a bear market and saw the evolution of DeFi over multiple cycles. He shares what it takes for a protocol to survive the worst of times.

He attributes a large part of Pendle’s success to its investment in marketing and staying on top of trends. TN breaks down how Pendle built machinery that helped it communicate what it was building to a larger market. The ability to manage both narratives and distribution was crucial in helping them land partnerships that helped scale their TVL over the years.

TN breaks down what it takes for operators to survive a bear market and why investing in relationships helps build competitive advantages. Tune in for lessons from one of the few operators that have scaled multiple DeFi protocols to billions of dollars in value.

Studying Bitcoin L2s,
Saurabh Deshpande