Doran@doranmaul
Friday was my final day at @defiapp.
Back in May 2024, I was a few weeks removed from a public exit at @wormhole. The tweet went semi-viral. My DMs filled up. One of those DMs was from @merovingian0101 - he'd seen the tweet, said they were building something, thought I should hear about it.
I was talking to four or five teams at the time. Called a friend whose opinion I actually trust and asked for his honest read on each one. He paused on one of them and said the team behind it was legit. Said he trusted them.
That was enough.
I think I literally had one or two interviews with Mero. He went back to the team with my number. A few days later I get a response from him in TG DMs that the offer was approved. I called my wife, she nudged me towards accepting, and the rest is history.
I didn't even meet any of the cofounders - Dan, Ken, Aaron - until I was already onboard.
Totally crypto, I know.
The first thing I noticed about this team wasn't the product. It was the vibe.
A few weeks in, Ken drops a message in the marketing chat - no context, totally unprompted - "Have a date tonight. Usually only try to do the girlfriend thing during bear markets but wish me luck." I remember reading that and laughing out loud and thinking: okay. These are my people.
What followed was the most intense and rewarding stretch of my career.
I joined pre-launch as the first community/growth hire. Built the community, social, and support functions from zero. The X account literally had 1,000 followers when I joined. It peaked at over 200k with me at the helm. I managed all socials from Day 1 and since then touched everything we scaled - multi-video series on TikTok, YouTube, and beyond. Helped scale Defi App to 1M+ registered users, $30B+ in trading volume, and $7M+ in annualized revenue within a few short months of going public with the product. We ran a $1M trading contest at the end of 2025 that was one of the most fun things I've ever been part of executing. I got to work alongside awesome people like @JD0x2e, @bigironchris and @shreddydefi - three of the sharpest people in this space - and learned a ton from everyone along the way.
S/O to Shreddy, @0xUxDesign, and @0xdcota RE: the Miami trip. 🚗
I got to discover and lock in generational talent like Paulo, whose animated video work over the last year set a standard I'm genuinely proud of. And I got to be guided, challenged, and trusted by Ken, Aaron, Dan, Ajdin, and @freshPizzaDev who is just, genuinely, one of the good ones - plus many more names than I have room to share.
I want to give a massive shout out to every member of the community, every KOL and partner I've grinded with, and every protocol team I've had the pleasure of collaborating with. You know who you are.
Defi App is in great hands. The product is real. The team is serious. The road ahead is long and I'm rooting for them hard. Got to work on some things the team will share when ready - grateful to have had a hand in what's coming.
As for me - taking a short break. Summer is coming and it feels freeing to think about enjoying that with my wife, who's a schoolteacher and has summers off.
Then, something new.
I've spent the last two years inside one of the fastest-growing DeFi startups in the space. I've seen what scales, what breaks, what the unglamorous middle looks like, and what it feels like when things actually click. If you're building something and need someone who's lived it - not consulted on it, lived it - my DMs are open.
And if you're early in your career and want to ask about any of it - the wins, the chaos, the stuff that doesn't make it into the highlight reel - AMA. I'll do my best to be brutally honest and genuinely helpful.
Godspeed and God bless.
fin.
