Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of the Aave Companies, was studying law at the University of Helsinki when he first began learning about smart contracts and thus, about the Ethereum blockchain network. This lead to an exploration of how blockchain technology could impact the traditional financial system. In 2017, Stani released ETHLend, one of the first DeFi DApps which allowed for peer-to-peer digital asset transactions. Stani has made it his mission to create tools for an open, transparent, and equitable financial ecosystem through various decentralized financials software protocols—most notably, the Aave Protocol.