Summary

Susruth, CEO of Garden Finance, shares how his background in cybersecurity and early work in DeFi led him to launch a cross-chain liquidity protocol focused on user custody and seamless UX. He explains how Garden leverages atomic swaps and HTLCs to enable trustless trading across blockchains, with a special focus on Bitcoin. Susruth emphasizes the need to simplify user workflows, listen to community feedback, and target specific user profiles to drive product-market fit and sustainable growth. The conversation also dives into the competitive DeFi landscape, Garden’s philosophy of building fundamental rails, and plans to expand across chains.  

Takeaways

– Susruth’s crypto journey started with a cybersecurity interest and early exposure to Ethereum and DeFi  

– He worked on foundational DeFi projects like Republic Protocol and REN before founding Garden  

– Garden Finance focuses on solving cross-chain liquidity fragmentation while preserving user custody  

– Atomic swaps and HTLCs are key primitives for enabling trustless trades, especially with Bitcoin  

– The Garden philosophy draws from global financial systems, emphasizing interoperability  

– A great user experience and safe, simple workflows are core to the product vision  

– Differentiation in the crowded DeFi space comes from targeting niche users and building defensible rails  

– Community feedback is crucial to iterating the product and identifying the “one ideal user”  

– Sustained volume growth depends on strong customer engagement and retention  

– Garden aims to expand to multiple chains and become a core infrastructure layer in DeFi  

 Timeline

(00:00 ) Intro to Susruth and Garden Finance  

(03:09 ) How cybersecurity led him into crypto  

(06:10 ) Early work in DeFi with REN and Republic Protocol  

(09:02 ) Founding Garden to address cross-chain fragmentation  

(12:07 ) Global finance as inspiration for Garden’s design  

(15:00 ) Designing a better DeFi user experience  

(18:01 ) Bridging Bitcoin and other assets trustlessly  

(22:40 ) Improving HTLCs for UX and security  

(24:02 ) Competing in a crowded DeFi ecosystem  

(25:40 ) Building safe and simple infrastructure  

(27:32 ) Finding product-market fit through niche audiences  

(31:04 ) Engaging users to grow volume  

(33:53 ) Defining the ideal user to guide development  

(37:05 ) Using community input to shape the roadmap  

(39:58 ) Long-term vision: expansion and ecosystem growth  

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