290: ChangeNOW’s Pauline — Building a Simple, Trustworthy Swap Layer for Crypto

Web3 with Sam Kamani

Pauline (CMO, ChangeNOW) joins Sam in Bali to unpack how ChangeNOW carved a distinct niche from big CEXs by serving retail users and wallets with instant, account-free swaps (flash custody, fixed/floating rates). She explains the B2B engine behind their growth (wallets, casinos, travel, payments), why direct traffic + brand beats blunt ads, and how LLM-SEO is changing discovery.They cover CEX vs DeFi UX, security tradeoffs, meme coin mania, stablecoin rails, and what Binance/Coinbase did right in brand and distribution. Practical gems for founders on partner-led growth, API monetization, and real content > AI content.

Key Timestamps

[00:00:00] Intro — Bali session + setup

[00:02:00] Pauline’s start: grad school → crypto → ChangeNOW (6 ppl → 400+)

[00:04:30] What ChangeNOW does: instant swaps, flash custody, fixed vs floating

[00:06:00] Business model, fees, and who it serves (retail, low-commitment swaps)

[00:08:30] CEX UX vs retail needs; why simplicity wins

[00:10:00] Growth levers: brand, direct traffic, PR, product marketing

[00:11:30] B2B to C: wallets, casinos, travel; API rails to monetize wallets

[00:13:00] Partner acquisition: plug-and-play swap/payments/nodes custody

[00:14:30] Market trends: DeFi security, stablecoins, “newbie-friendly” pivots

[00:16:30] Incidents & user protection: pause/rollback vs “pure” decentralization

[00:20:00] Meme coins vs real communities; reputational drag and utility

[00:23:00] Crypto’s real value: remittances, NGOs, private donations

[00:24:30] Ethereum UX, ZK, gas, and why ETH needs PR (and grants)

[00:26:30] Brand lessons: Binance community flywheel; Coinbase legitimacy play

[00:30:00] Social tone without cringe; distribution > cleverness

[00:31:30] The ask: partners (wallets, tokens, exchanges, payments, “crypto banks”)

[00:33:00] Bonus: LLM-SEO tips & why humans must write your content

Connect

https://changenow.io/

http://linkedin.com/company/changenow-io/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauline-shangett/
Disclaimer

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