About Northstar
A specialized DeFi advisory firm. Built for the gap most teams face.
Most DeFi teams are technically strong. The gap is rarely the product. It is the operating experience required to translate a strong product into a measurable growth, liquidity and incentive model. Northstar exists to fill that gap with senior advisory capacity that fits the project phase.
The firm
Northstar DeFi Consulting is a specialized B2B advisory firm focused on DeFi growth strategy, liquidity, incentive design and ecosystem development. It is not a marketing agency, a tokenomics modelling boutique or a smart contract development firm.
The advisory work operates in the space between abstract strategy and technical execution — where teams need experienced DeFi judgment to define the right growth path, design the right incentive mechanics and activate the right partner and liquidity relationships.
Northstar works with a focused number of clients at any given time. That is a deliberate choice. It allows every engagement to receive genuine senior involvement — not a junior team working from a methodology template.
Who Northstar works with
Founder profile
DeFi strategy · incentives · analytics
Philipp Bunke is the founder and principal of Northstar. He brings senior DeFi operating experience together with structured financial analysis and a practical understanding of how protocols, partners and ecosystem teams make decisions under launch pressure.
Before founding Northstar, Philipp was DeFi Lead at Build on Bitcoin (BOB), where he helped grow the DeFi ecosystem from zero to more than $250M in total value locked. His background also includes portfolio management, a Master of Finance and the CFA designation, alongside strong Python, data-analysis and KPI skills.
$250M+ TVL
Built at Build on Bitcoin (BOB) from a standing start as DeFi Lead.
Product & Partner Launches
Led protocol integrations, partner launches and DeFi product activations at ecosystem scale.
Incentive Architecture
Designed and managed incentive structures, liquidity programs and ecosystem campaigns from end to end.
Strategic Stakeholder Alignment
Operated across technical teams, founders and external partners to translate DeFi strategy into executable decisions.
Selected operating outcome
From zero to $250M+ TVL at Build on Bitcoin
At BOB, Philipp led the DeFi function through the work required to build an ecosystem from a standing start. The outcome — more than $250M in TVL — came through a connected operating model across product launches, incentive structures, partner integrations and ecosystem strategy.
Product launches
Bringing new DeFi products and protocol activity into the ecosystem.
Incentive structures
Designing the mechanisms and programs used to support liquidity and participation.
Partner integrations
Working across external partners and protocols to turn ecosystem relationships into live activity.
Ecosystem strategy
Connecting the individual launches and programs to a coherent growth direction.
Operating principles
Commercial clarity over advisory abstraction
Northstar does not produce strategy decks that require interpretation. Every engagement ends with structured, decision-ready outputs that the team can act on.
Fit over volume
Northstar works with a focused number of projects at any given time. This is not a high-volume advisory model — it is a quality-first model where every engagement gets genuine senior attention.
Honest scoping
If a project's challenge is outside the scope of what Northstar does well, that is communicated directly. The goal is to be genuinely useful — not to oversell a mandate.
DeFi-native judgment
Advisory quality comes from having operated inside a DeFi ecosystem at senior level — not from generic consulting experience applied to a Web3 context.