​Now Media Podcast

​From ConsenSys and a $750M Acquisition to Bringing Clear Options Yield to Solana: Building Mori Finance

​Options in DeFi have a reputation for being confusing and risky.

​This episode is about building Mori Finance to change that bringing covered calls and structured products with upfront premiums and no liquidation risk to Solana, from someone who's already scaled a company to a $750M acquisition.

​Participants

• ​Brian Kolton – Host (Now Media)

• ​Pavan Katepalli – Founder, Mori Finance (@pavankat)

​About the guest

​Pavan Katepalli is the founder of Mori Finance, a Solana-based DeFi volatility yield protocol enabling covered calls and structured products for upfront premiums with no liquidation risk.

​Before this, he was a Blockchain Architect at ConsenSys, an ML Instructor at UC Berkeley, and CTO at Trilogy Education, which he helped scale to a $750M acquisition by 2U.

​He's also an active angel investor, writing and investing in startups, and stays closely engaged with the crypto ecosystem through events and community activity in Seattle and beyond.

​Format

• ​Type: Google Meet / Riverside (riverside.com)

• ​Date: September 7

• ​Time: 2:00 PM UTC

• ​Duration: 35 mins

• ​Tone: Founder-focused, technical, direct

​Topics of discussion

​From ConsenSys to a $750M acquisition
What did scaling Trilogy Education as CTO to a $750M acquisition by 2U actually teach Pavan about building and growing a company, and how does that experience carry into Mori Finance?

​Why options yield has been confusing in DeFi
What makes options products historically hard for everyday users to understand and trust, and what does Mori Finance do differently?

​Building covered calls and structured products with no liquidation risk
How does Mori Finance's model actually work upfront premiums, no liquidation risk and what tradeoffs come with that design?

​Who this episode is for

​DeFi users and traders interested in clearer, lower-risk ways to access options yield.

​Founders and operators curious how enterprise-scale experience (like a $750M acquisition) translates into building in DeFi.

​Anyone following volatility and structured products emerging on Solana.