How Carl Landed a BD Lead Role at NAVI on Sui — With a Little Help From Hyphen
“Hyphen streamlined my story and opened doors to the exact opportunities I was targeting.” – Carl
Breaking into leadership roles in Web3 BD is brutally competitive.
Protocols want operators who can think in ecosystems, not just sales funnels. Candidates want real ownership and upside, not vanity titles and logo-chasing.
Carl knew exactly which side of that equation he wanted to be on.
This is the story of how he went from exploring his next move in Web3 to securing a Business Development Lead role at NAVI, a leading lending protocol on Sui, with Hyphen helping behind the scenes on warm intros and context.
Meet Carl: Building a Career at the Heart of Digital Assets
Carl has been around crypto long enough to have seen multiple cycles, and long enough to know where he wants to sit in the next one.
“I am eager to build my career in the digital asset and blockchain industry. My years of working experience have given me the opportunity and confidence to interact with different sectors across VCs, crypto exchanges, NFT projects, and dApps.
My previous jobs have involved different areas of marketing and business development and given me insight into blockchain and the fintech industry since 2017 — which I believe will enable me to become an effective member of any team and an asset to my future employer.”
Instead of chasing hype, Carl was looking for a structured step up: a role where his experience across BD and marketing in Web3 could translate into compounding impact at protocol level.
What Carl Wanted Next: Three Non-Negotiables
When Carl started seriously exploring his next move, he wasn’t just looking for “a BD role in crypto.” He was very specific about what he wanted his next chapter to look like.
1. Ecosystem leadership in a high-growth L1
Carl wanted to join a protocol positioned to capture outsized value during an ecosystem’s expansion phase, not fight for scraps in a saturated market.
“I wanted to join a protocol positioned to capture disproportionate value during an ecosystem’s expansion phase rather than competing in saturated markets. Sui’s trajectory from $1.095B to $2.6B TVL demonstrates the explosive growth potential I was seeking.”
Sui’s growth gave him confidence there was still meaningful upside for builders and BD leaders who got in early and executed well.
2. A real technical edge and composability upside
He wasn’t interested in “just another integration” role.
“I prioritized roles offering ‘win-win-win’ partnership structures enabled by unique technical capabilities, not just generic integration opportunities. Web3 BD success requires protocols that enhance partner ecosystems through composability.”
In other words: he wanted to work with tech that actually unlocks value for partners, not just slaps on logos.
3. Direct ownership and impact on protocol revenue
Finally, Carl wanted his work to be tied to the real scorecard.
“I wanted a role where partnerships directly correlate to protocol success metrics—not vanity partnerships or logo collecting. The data shows BD professionals increasingly prioritize measurable impact and token upside in smaller, faster-moving teams.”
Ownership, revenue impact, and aligned incentives: those were the non-negotiables.
Why NAVI and Sui Earned His First Serious Look
Before Carl even spoke to the team, certain things about NAVI on Sui jumped out.
Exponential ecosystem tailwinds
Sui’s rapid growth wasn’t just an abstract narrative; it was already showing up in ecosystem metrics and DeFi usage.
“Sui ecosystem TVL hit a record $2.6B earlier in 2025, with NAVI capturing ~24% market share in a rapidly expanding pie. As Sui DAU reached 3.5M users (overtaking Solana), NAVI’s lending infrastructure becomes increasingly critical for ecosystem liquidity.”
For a BD leader, that meant strong tailwinds: every new integration, every new product launch, every new user cohort had the potential to move real numbers.
BD as a force multiplier
Because NAVI sits as a core lending layer in Sui’s DeFi stack, Carl saw BD as a leverage point for the whole ecosystem.
“Every successful partnership directly contributes to Sui’s growth while capturing disproportionate value for NAVI through its foundational lending role.”
That intersection—between protocol-level impact and ecosystem-scale influence—is exactly what he had been optimizing for.
Where Hyphen Came In
By the time Carl connected with Hyphen, he already had a strong track record and a clear sense of what he wanted.
Our job wasn’t to “sell” him on any random role. It was to:
- Tighten his story around ecosystem BD leadership
- Match that story to teams where his profile would be a genuine fit
- Make warm, high-signal introductions so both sides could skip the noise
In Carl’s words:
“Hyphen helped me on the warm intro and briefed me about the team.”
We walked him through NAVI’s context, how the founding team thought, and how the role intersected with Sui’s broader ecosystem. That meant he went into each conversation prepared, aligned, and able to speak the same language as the founders from day one.
Inside the Interview Journey: From Call to DevCon
Carl’s path into NAVI was focused and founder-led.
“First and second interviews were with the two co-founders, and the third one was taken in person in Bangkok, DevCon.”
Step 1–2: Founder interviews (remote)
Carl’s first conversations were directly with NAVI’s co-founders—diving into:
- How NAVI was positioned within Sui DeFi
- What “good” BD looked like for them
- How Carl thought about ecosystem orchestration, not just cold outreach
Step 3: In-person meeting at DevCon (Bangkok)
The final conversation happened face-to-face at DevCon. By then, both sides had already validated:
- Cultural fit
- Strategic alignment
- Carl’s view on BD as ecosystem design, not just sales
DevCon gave them the space to pressure-test that alignment in person—something that still matters in a remote-heavy industry.
The “Yes” Moment: Why Carl Chose NAVI
What ultimately pushed Carl from “interested” to “I’m in”?
“I accepted for the exponential growth potential in Sui’s booming DeFi ecosystem. NAVI dominates revenue generation (#1 among Sui lenders and #1 TVL), holds 80% xBTC market share, and offers rare institutional backing ($2M from OKX/Hashed) with first-mover advantage in BTCFi and AI-DeFi convergence.
Variety of product lines like perp DEX, vault and aggregator.”
A few things rolled up into his decision:
- Ecosystem upside: Sui’s growth curve and NAVI’s position within it
- Category leadership: NAVI’s dominance in xBTC and lending TVL
- Backed to win: Institutional support from players like OKX and Hashed
- Surface area for BD: Multiple product lines (perps, vaults, aggregators) giving him more ways to create value with partners
He wasn’t just joining a protocol; he was stepping into an expanding surface area for BD innovation.
The First 60 Days: From Mapping to High-Impact Partnerships
Once he stepped into the BD Lead seat, Carl treated his first 30–60 days as a structured sprint.
Days 1–30: Foundation & assessment
Deep dive and internal analysis
- Understanding NAVI’s differentiation—especially its 80% xBTC market share and isolation market security
- Analyzing revenue trends:
- $2.1M in fees over 30 days (with a recent declining trend)
- $454K in protocol revenue
- Mapping which existing partnerships were actually driving fees, not just headlines
- Studying NAVX token dynamics:
- Bi-weekly unlocks (~3.7M tokens)
- 29% remaining tokens
- Planning BD initiatives around unlocks to help manage sell pressure through real usage and alignment
Days 31–60: Ecosystem mapping & execution
With that foundation in place, Carl focused on:
- Ecosystem mapping – Understanding where NAVI needed deeper integration across Sui (and beyond)
- Strategic positioning – Sharpening NAVI’s narrative as a BTCFi hub and core DeFi primitive
- High-impact partnerships – Prioritizing deals that would deepen TVL, drive real usage, and reinforce NAVI’s position, not just add logos
The work is ongoing—but the direction is clear: BD as a lever for protocol fundamentals, not a separate track.
Carl’s Advice for Aspiring BD Leaders in Web3
For operators who want to step into BD leadership roles like his, Carl offers three concrete pieces of advice.
1. Become a value-first super-connector
“Lead with specific mutual benefits, not generic partnerships. Successful Web3 BD leaders become ‘super-connectors’ who facilitate introductions and provide immediate value before asking for anything.”
In practice: do the thinking for people. Turn “we should collab” into “here’s exactly how we both win.”
2. Design win-win-win partnerships
“Think ecosystem orchestration, not traditional sales. Design partnerships that create three-way value: benefits for your protocol, the partner, and end users through composability and network effects.”
If the user doesn’t win, the partnership won’t sustain. If only one protocol wins, the ecosystem ignores it.
3. Build public credibility and technical fluency
“Your reputation is your resume in trust-driven Web3. Build credibility through consistent public engagement, technical literacy, and community involvement rather than traditional hierarchical authority.”
In a space this transparent, people bet on operators they’ve seen think in public, ship in public, and show up in communities over time.
One Big Misconception About Web3 BD
Carl’s hot take:
“Most people think that Web3 BD operates like traditional sales—focusing on transactional deal-closing through cold outreach and linear sales funnels to ‘pitch and close’ customers.
Web3 isn’t a marketplace; it’s a social machine built on networked incentives, composability, and collective value creation. This misconception treats BD like Web2 SaaS quotas when it should be ecosystem orchestration—mapping ‘money legos,’ forging integrations between protocols, and aligning incentives for mutual benefit.”
If you’re still thinking in terms of static funnels and MQLs, you’re missing the point.
In Web3, BD is:
- Network design
- Incentive alignment
- Composable integrations
…with a sales skillset layered on top—not the other way around.
Carl’s One-Line Summary of Working With Hyphen
“Hyphen streamlined my story and opened doors to the exact opportunities I was targeting.”
We’ll take that.
Thinking About Your Next Move?
If you’re an operator in Web3—especially across BD, product, or growth—and you want:
- Roles with real ownership and upside
- Teams building category-defining protocols
- A partner who can tighten your story and get you in front of the right founders
Hyphen Connect might be able to help.