Inflection Points Episode 1: Solana, Staking, and the Power of Being First (with Marinade Finance)

For our inaugural episode of Inflection Points, Flipside’s VP of Sales, Jack Purdy, sat down with Hadley Stern, Chief Commercial Officer at Marinade Finance—one of Solana’s earliest and most respected staking protocols.

Hadley’s experience spans TradFi and DeFi. He helped pioneer digital asset custody at BNY Mellon, led early crypto initiatives at Fidelity, and today helps steer one of the most important infrastructure players on Solana.

Their conversation touches on:

• The real value of staking: Why it's more than just yield—staking is becoming a core layer of Web3 infrastructure
• Marinade’s approach to growth: Why they’ve avoided airdrop theatrics in favor of incentive alignment, distribution, and product-led growth
• Liquid vs. Native staking: How different user profiles demand different staking options—and how Marinade’s dual model serves both
• Stewardship at scale: Why network-level incentives and validator health matter just as much as user acquisition
• Solana’s ecosystem ethos: The unique balance of “build fast” and credible neutrality that sets it apart from other L1s

The conversation is thoughtful, candid, surprising even—from Hadley’s take on memecoins as stress tests for infrastructure, to how Marinade uses onchain data to make product decisions, to the internal challenges of messaging a product with both retail and institutional complexity.

Listen to Episode 1 Now

🎧 Available on:

• X
• Apple
• Spotify  
• YouTube

If you're working on sustainable ecosystem growth—or just trying to understand what truly drives user retention and long-term participation—this is one you won’t want to miss.