Summary
Overview
Work History
Skills
Timeline
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Jacob McCarthy

Washington D.C

Summary

Operator and 3x founder with deep experience across DeFi, Credit Infrastructure, and Institutional lending. I specialize in building zero-to-one systems across product, operations, go-to-market, and team development, with a track record of execution in fast-moving, early-stage environments. Highly adaptable and cross-functional—often stepping in to align teams, solve critical gaps, and drive sustained momentum from ambiguity to traction.

Overview

4
4
years of professional experience

Work History

COO

Credible Finance
06.2024 - Current
  • Spearheaded the end-to-end operational design and rollout of a decentralized credit infrastructure, bridging stablecoin liquidity with real-world lending in emerging markets, addressing a $5 trillion SME credit gap.
  • Scaled protocol to over $18 million in stablecoin deposits within nine months of launch, across diversified vaults, and underwritten by real-world receivables from more than 100 SMEs.
  • Scaled credible from whitepaper to protocol deployment, leading a 20+ person cross-functional team across product, engineering, credit, and partnerships—spanning 5+ time zones and 6 emerging markets.
  • Built and executed Credible’s go-to-market strategy across emerging markets, resulting in 300K+ account creations and 70K+ fully KYC’d users—driven by key partnerships with market participants like Circle, targeted incentive programs, and stablecoin-native onboarding flows.

COO

Sharky Finance
San Francisco, CA
03.2023 - 06.2024
  • Led post-acquisition operational integration of UGS Labs into SharkyFi, driving product-market fit, multi-team cohesion, and strategic realignment around product roadmaps.
  • Scaled the protocol’s user base to over 80K wallets and activated more than 1.4M NFT-backed loans, surpassing the likes of Blur by almost 2x.
  • Forged strategic partnerships with DAOs, NFT collections, and DeFi protocols to drive adoption, liquidity, and community engagement—positioning SharkyFi as a core utility layer in the Solana NFT ecosystem.
  • Built internal operating systems for a lean, remote-first team—including KPI dashboards, partner funnels, and cross-platform coordination via Notion, Jira, Slack, Telegram, and Discord—streamlining execution and improving visibility across product, growth, and BD.

Founder and COO

UGS Labs
Dubai, UAE
10.2021 - 03.2022
  • Co-founded and launched Solana’s first Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) protocol for NFTs, enabling users to acquire digital assets with as little as 33% upfront, through custom risk and repayment logic.
  • Led product strategy, UX/UI design, and technical architecture for the BNPL platform, integrating pricing oracles, repayment enforcement, and real-time risk modeling for NFT collections.
  • Built the founding team across engineering, marketing, and community—establishing lean execution processes and async workflows to ship quickly across Solana’s ecosystem.
  • Developed and executed a grassroots growth strategy, leveraging Twitter, DAOs, and NFT influencers—driving early adoption and viral protocol awareness without paid media.
  • Negotiated and led the acquisition of UGS Labs by SharkyFi, aligning vision, tech, and team in a full integration deal that transitioned UGS into Sharky’s lending infrastructure.

Skills

  • Smart Contract Fluency & Protocol Design
  • Partnerships & Ecosystem Development
  • DeFi, Lending, & Real-World Assets
  • Go-to-Market Strategy & Execution
  • Product Architecture & UX Design
  • Cross-Border Credit & Fintech Infrastructure
  • Team & Culture Building in Early-Stage Environments
  • Highly Adaptable

Timeline

COO

Credible Finance
06.2024 - Current

COO

Sharky Finance
03.2023 - 06.2024

Founder and COO

UGS Labs
10.2021 - 03.2022

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Jacob McCarthy