Sharda
Caro Del Castillo
Chief Legal & Business Officer at Catena Labs
"The Third Path: Innovating Ahead of Regulation Without Losing Trust"
"The Third Path: Innovating Ahead of Regulation Without Losing Trust"
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Session: The Third Path: Innovating Ahead of Regulation Without Losing Trust
Across the last two decades, many of the most consequential technologies in finance and commerce -- from digital wallets and instant payments to global marketplaces and, now, AI agents -- have launched well before clear regulatory frameworks existed. In these moments, leaders are often told they face a binary choice: slow innovation until rules catch up, or move fast and risk eroding trust. Sharda Caro Del Castillo argues there is a third path.Drawing on her experience shaping payments and compliance strategies at PayPal, Square (now Block), Airbnb, and Affirm -- and now building AI-native financial infrastructure at Catena Labs -- Sharda will share how trust, privacy, and accountability can be intentionally designed before regulation is settled. She will unpack how early engagement with regulators and partners can transform perceived risk into shared understanding and durable systems.
Through real-world examples, including unlocking instant payments at Square by persuading banks to adopt existing card-network rails in entirely new ways, Sharda demonstrates that the most successful breakthroughs do not come from bypassing regulation, but from reframing it. By designing controls, governance, and consumer protections alongside innovation -- rather than after the fact -- leaders can move quickly and build technology that earns trust, scales globally, and lasts.
Key Takeaways
- How to design privacy, accountability, and risk governance into new technologies from day one, so innovation can scale responsibly even when rules are still evolving.
- Proven approaches for engaging policymakers early, aligning on shared goals, and helping shape standards that enable durable, trusted infrastructure.
- Cross-functional patterns for aligning legal, policy, product, and security teams—applicable from payments and marketplaces to AI-native and agentic systems.
Bio
Sharda Caro Del Castillo is Chief Legal & Business Officer at Catena Labs and a fintech and policy leader who has shaped the regulatory and operational foundations of some of the world’s most influential technology and financial platforms. She has led legal, compliance, and business operations at Affirm, Airbnb, Square, and PayPal—developing frameworks for breakthrough products like Affirm’s Pay in Four and guiding initiatives such as Airbnb’s expansion into Cuba. At Catena Labs, Caro Del Castillo is designing the legal, compliance, and business architecture for a regulated financial institution built for stablecoins and agentic commerce.