E85: CowSwap’s Anna George: Coincidence of Wants, Intent-Based Trading, and the Next Wave of DeFi UX

This episode is with Anna George, co-founder & CEO of CowSwap / Cow Protocol (originally built inside Gnosis, spun out in 2022). What’s wild is Anna spent about a decade in humanitarian/UN work before getting pulled into crypto in 2017 - partly because she wanted impact, and partly because UN bureaucracy will make anyone want to run away and build something.

We talk about the real CowSwap origin story: the early DEX experiments that didn’t work (including six-hour auctions… lol), the liquidity chicken-and-egg problem, and how CowSwap finally hit product-market fit with intent-based trading, MEV protection, and “you only pay gas if the trade actually executes.”

We also cover where they’re going next: cross-chain swaps that don’t feel like bridging hell, deeper DeFi integrations (including Aave), and a bigger push to make crypto UX not terrible.