Self-actualization, as Maslow described it, is the pursuit of achieving one’s highest potential. I don't see it as a final destination, but a continuous unfolding. It’s about living and working in alignment with your values, your truth, and persistently contributing to a mission bigger than yourself. Working at Base has been that process for me. It wasn’t about climbing ladders but carving my own path where I can make the most difference. It’s been a mirror, a crucible, and a launchpad.

Here’s how it unfolded for me

The Unlikely Hire

Base attracts exceptional talent. Our hiring funnel is one of the most competitive in the industry, with less than 0.1% of applicants making it through.

So, statistically speaking, I shouldn’t have made it. This is not a Base specific issue. I’m a non-technical builder, whose first language isn’t English, with neither Ivy League credentials nor a résumé filled with big-name tech companies. My multiple college degrees or my past roles, even my leadership experiences from Turkey, while impactful there, aren't recognized in the U.S.

But Base is for everyone! What Base values the most isn’t on a résumé, it’s the real life contributions, the persistence, and the loyalty.

statuette.base.eth

@CryptoStatuette

Someone asked me if @base doesn’t like memes, so I shared this screenshot—my initial job inquiry to @jessepollak

68

3:33 PM • Sep 16, 2024

Initially, Jesse saw potential in how I showed up and gave me a chance to prove myself. I took that chance and carved out my own path.

Bootstrapping My Path

My journey at Base began without a defined role or roadmap. It wasn’t about ambition; it was about wanting things to work better for everyone around me who wanted to learn more about Base.

Next, I started to notice some gaps that were slowing the team down and started filling them by solving issues no one had assigned me.

Gap #1 - Scaling Community Engagement

Jesse has always been an exceptional community builder. He leads with kindness, makes himself accessible, and embodies the “Base is for everyone” mindset in every interaction. But Base was scaling fast, and the number of people flooding into the ecosystem with inquiries was outpacing what Jesse could manage.

I knew this approach wasn’t sustainable, and from experience, I also knew that in crypto communities, when expectations aren’t met in real time, frustration snowballs quickly.

So I decided to step in. Even though I wasn’t technical, I began teaching myself everything I could, reading docs, tracking updates, asking questions, studying how Jesse explained things and I trained myself to be the 'non-technical subject matter expert'.

With my self proclaimed intern title, I started answering questions along with him.

Once that wasn’t enough, I knew I had to scale myself, so I hosted workshops.

Once that wasn’t enough, I created Farcaster Frames.

Once that wasn’t enough, I created educational documents.

Once that wasn’t enough, I hosted IRL events.

I kept growing as the Base team recognized and amplified my contributions.

What started as 'community contribution' evolved into 'close collaboration'

I knew I didn’t need permission to be useful. I just needed the courage to build which was generously offered by Jesse along the way.

Gap #2 - Support for the Long Tail

The Base team is full of some of the sharpest, most driven people I’ve ever worked with. As Base grew, the team locked in on high-leverage strategic priorities.

But I saw another wave forming, the long tail: solo builders, creators, degens, students, tinkerers, dreamers. People from every corner of the world who weren’t well-connected, didn’t have the resources but the energy, vision, and the will to contribute.

So I made it my job to advocate for the long tail. If their frustration flared up, I didn’t shut them down. I listened, deescalated, educated, and held space.

This is finally where I was able to leverage my psychology related background. I started to use the radical kindness method. (a method I developed over years of working with crypto communities and the reason behind my beloved nickname, “degen tamer”).

But behind the humor was a serious thought and function. I was trying to fill a systemic gap, connecting the growing mass of long-tail contributors with our core ethos: Base is for you, too!

Later on these methods became the core principles of our community building efforts.

Gap #3 - The Global Movement

The moment that changed everything came when Jesse posted a call to action.

It was a bold experiment. Could we turn Base and Onchain Summer into a truly global movement?

In less than 48 hours, over two dozen country/language-based channels popped up. It was beautiful and chaotic! I really loved this explosion of enthusiasm, but there was no one to coordinate these builders or help them thrive.

I knew this was my calling. It was finally time to draw on my strengths as an immigrant, a non-native English speaker, and someone who knows firsthand what it’s like to contribute from outside the center.

I intuitively knew what these global community builders needed. So I started by making a list.

Next thing I knew, I was creating systems and a ton of resources. I was setting up calls to coach, and turn their enthusiasm into impactful projects and building a global playbook.

The experiment became the seed of a coordinated global community movement and marked the official beginning of my journey as a Base core team member.

From Community Member to Builder of Communities

When I finally joined Base core team, I was a part of the marketing team, a high-velocity environment that taught me a lot. Base didn’t yet have a formal community function, and I was hired to build it while also supporting our GTM efforts.

I continued onboarding, vetting, training, and supporting community builders worldwide. Together, we built the OG Based Global Builders. The local channels Jesse initiated became the seed of Based Global Communities, which eventually scaled into 200+ community ambassadors across 110+ local channels.

BGBs made countless contributions, from translation and creative projects to moderating community channels, hosting hundreds of IRL and virtual events, supporting our buildathons, onboarding thousands of builders, and helping projects built on Base.

statuette.base.eth

@CryptoStatuette

Over the past month Based Global Communities, @baseafricaa @BaseSEA_ @BasedIndia & @baselatam have worked tirelessly alongside the @base team, contributing to our buildathons and onboarding builders.

25 Based global events (totaling 40 IRL Hack Days)
1252 Based

197

4:17 PM • Oct 25, 2024

The BGB movement helped set the tone for Base’s true builder culture. It wasn't top-down, it was fully decentralized, open source, and builder-agnostic. It wasn’t driven by paychecks or incentives, but by genuine belief in the mission.

I’m deeply proud of everything we’ve built with BGBs, and I’ll always be grateful for the journey and the people who made it possible.

Becoming Base Mom

From day one, my goal was to build an online presence that felt approachable and human. I intentionally chose a lighthearted tone, wrote in clear, non-corporate and non-technical language, and I wasn’t afraid to share some memes and cheesy jokes.

I also spent a lot of time in the DMs, calls, events, wherever builders needed encouragement, guidance, or accountability. I wanted to be the community leader anyone could reach out to without hesitation.

I listened to their pain points, learned what they needed to thrive, and celebrated their wins. Eventually, the builders gave me a nickname that stuck: Base Mom.

Among other things...

Becoming “Base Mom” turned into a kind of superpower, one that was handed to me by the builders themselves. They taught me how to spot patterns early, understand their needs intuitively, anticipate issues before they arise, and scale solutions that serve the entire ecosystem.

I’m deeply grateful to the builders who taught me how to be the Base Mom they needed and, in doing so, helped me grow into my role.

I carry this nickname proudly as part of my identity because it means more to me than any title ever could.

Growing Base Beyond Nurture

Every great community begins with nurturing; through hands-on care, guidance, and connection. But large ecosystems like Base must eventually grow beyond nurture.

Sustainable community growth means keeping people at the center while creating scalable systems designed for resilience. My work within the Base team focuses on building these systems driven by culture-led innovation that empower builders to take ownership of Base’s mission.

statuette.base.eth

@CryptoStatuette

Weekends are for building: As I was discussing @base community programs with the team this week, I realized that community growth is best explained with the tree analogy. It perfectly captures the ‘give first’ philosophy that has guided my work for years.

Trees don’t start

182

9:19 PM • Sep 20, 2025

When working with a community like Base, you can’t only be the gardener and nurturer, you also have to be the architect. Success comes when members no longer need you to start building; they just need to know you’ll be there, cheering them on when they do.

If you’re looking for tips, here are the main pillars that guide everything I build:

• Infrastructure: Building foundational systems that teach people how to initiate and sustain growth. The foundation must support scale, autonomy, and shared learning, so that new builders can enter and contribute without starting from scratch.

• Decentralization: Empowering leadership and distributing power across the network. Growth is healthiest when ownership is shared, and when every member has the ability to lead within their context.

• Credible Neutrality: Making opportunities transparent and fair with a builder-agnostic approach. When systems are open, impartial, and accessible, communities can thrive based on merit, not proximity to influence.

• Composability: Making sure progress is reusable, collaborative, and cumulative. Every success becomes a building block for the next, allowing innovation to compound across teams, projects, and regions.

• Innovation: Creating space for experimentation and continuous learning. Builders need the freedom to explore ideas, test limits, and learn through doing, because that’s how breakthroughs happen.

• Creativity: Keeping culture at the heart of technology. The human element, stories, art, humor, expression is what transforms an ecosystem from a network of tools into a living community.

Final Reflection

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I hope my story inspires you to build your own.

For the TL;DR crowd, here’s a quick rundown of how you can jump in and get involved with Base.

1. Don’t wait for a role to be handed to you. You build it. Figure out where your strengths meet Base’s needs. Then start solving.

2. Start doing the job you want, even if it doesn’t exist. Mine didn’t but I acted like it did. Titles are given. Impact is earned.

3. Set your own goals. Decide what success looks like for you. Track it. Show it. You can’t fake real contributions and impact.

4. Check your entitlement and pressure test your vision. Ask yourself if you’re solving a real problem. Is it scalable? Does it align with Base? Be radically honest, iterate if the answer is no.

5. Stay persistent. You won’t see results overnight. I worked in the shadows for a long time. You have to be okay with building without external validation.

6. Spark the movement. Don’t just join the community, amplify others and get loud on social media. This isn’t about clout, it’s about contribution. 

7. Keep showing up with integrity, creativity, and conviction. That’s how we stay based.

If you want to help build an open global economy that increases innovation, freedom, and creativity, the Base community will welcome you with open arms.

And if you’re reading this wondering whether you belong here, let me tell you — yes, you do!

Base is for everyone 🟦

~BaseMom

Whether you're a beginner or a veteran, everything here is built to make your path to onchain success smoother and more fun. Here’s how to get started building on Base:

Step 1 - Get Based

Set up your home base and start building on Base. Whether you're deploying to mainnet or testnet, these tools will help you get started quickly.

• Review Base Website and the Base Builder Website created for you

• Use Base Mainnet or Base Sepolia Testnet

• Get access to free RPC endpoints available through these Node Providers

• Bridge assets from Ethereum using Base Bridge

• Testnet ETH is available via a large selection of Faucets

• Start building with the Base quickstart guide

Step 2 - Learn

No matter your experience level, Base has learning pathways to help you grow as an onchain builder.

• Base Learn: Your go-to learning hub for smart contract development. Whether you’re new to coding or expanding your skills, Base Learn offers guided lessons across EVM-compatible chains. Complete modules to earn NFTs that showcase your progress.

Step 3 - Use Essentials

Whether you’re learning smart contracts for the first time or debugging production apps, these guides and tools meet you where you are.

• Base Documentation

• Coinbase Developer Platform APIs

• Base.dev: Register to get app analytics, paymaster credits, builder rewards, and apply to be featured on Base app.

• The Builder Services Hub: Discounts on software and services that help Base projects ship faster, scale growth and build onchain.

• OnchainKit: Frontend components for wallet connection, balances, and transactions. Anyone can build an onchain app in 15 minutes with OnchainKit. No blockchain experience required.

• MiniKit: MiniKit is the easiest way to build Mini Apps on Base, without needing to know the details of the SDK implementation.

• Agentkit: Everything needed to create autonomous agents that can perform sophisticated blockchain operations.

• Paymaster: Let your app cover gas fees for users, perfect for onboarding

• Smart Wallet: A passkey-enabled smart contract wallet with no seed phrase required

• Onramp: Embed fiat-to-crypto checkout directly in your app

• Flashblocks: Build low-latency apps with access to pre-confirmation block data

• Basenames: Onchain usernames like you.base.eth to make onchain identity easy

• Coinbase commerce: To accept crypto payments on your app

• Base MCP: A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides onchain tools for AI applications like Claude Desktop and Cursor, allowing them to interact with the Base Network and Coinbase API. 

Infra and Analytics

• BaseScan and other Block explorers: Inspect contracts and transactions

• Dune and Artemis and: Analytics platforms for onchain metrics and insights

• Pinata and NFT.storage: IPFS storage for media, metadata, and NFTs

• Chainlink and other Oracles: Decentralized oracles for prices, randomness, and external data

• Account Abstraction tools

Identity and Social Tools

• Neynar: Powerful API for working with Farcaster social data, ideal for building social or mini apps

• Farcaster: Permissionlessly build and distribute social apps.

Guides

• Base Launch Playbook: Whether you're launching your first smart contract or scaling a big idea, the Launch Playbook is your friendly companion for going from zero to onchain. It walks you through everything from tokens to full apps, with step-by-step support, no-code tools like DappBuilder, and community-backed strategies to help you succeed. It's approachable, empowering, and packed with real-world insights from builders like you.

• AI Prompting: Leverage AI tools effectively in your coding workflow. These strategies will help you get better results and integrate AI smoothly into your development process.

• Baseline: Based Builder Ideation Framework

The Power of Building Onchain with Base

Building onchain with Base gives you powerful tools to create apps for your local community or a global audience. It helps you build with purpose and impact. Before you start, keep these points in mind.

🔵 Ownership and Transparency: Build apps where users own assets or content (e.g. NFTs, digital items) and where smart contracts execute transparent logic. Base’s low fees make frequent onchain interactions practical.

🔵 Automation and Composability: Replace traditional intermediaries with smart contracts and compose with existing DeFi and identity protocols on Base. This lets you build faster by integrating proven infrastructure.

🔵 Bridge Web2 to Onchain: Use tools like Smart Wallet and Onramp to create apps that feel Web2 but function Web3 under the hood. Think onboarding with passkeys, names like you.base, and gasless UX.

🔵 Local Solutions: Builders can solve real challenges unique to their communities. Whether it’s improving remittances, digitizing informal economies, or building social tools for underserved groups. Base’s flexibility can help you deliver tailored solutions that matter.

Use this framework to start with purpose and build for the long term.

THE BASELINE QUESTIONNAIRE

Building onchain isn’t about being perfect, it’s about starting with clarity and creating something that lasts.

The BASELINE Questionnaire is a simple and practical tool for builders who want to create successful onchain apps. It helps you pressure test your idea by focusing on four key areas:

1. Ecosystem Fit: Does it align with how things are built on the Base ecosystem?

2. User Fit: Are you solving a real problem for a clear audience?

3. Product–Market Fit: Will people use it more than once, even without incentives?

4. Accessibility: Can someone new to crypto actually use it?

🔵 Step 1 - Anchor in Based values

Base isn’t just infrastructure, it’s a cultural movement. 

Question to ask yourself: 

• Does it reflect any Based values?

Then, check your idea against these values:

• Onchain first: real utility and transparency

• Permissionless: no gatekeepers

• Composable: make it buildable for others

• Community powered: build with and for real people

• Positive sum: contribute to the ecosystem, don’t just extract from it

• Build for the long term: sustainable, resilient projects that grow with the ecosystem

🔵 Step 2 - Start with people

Every great product idea begins with understanding the people it's meant to serve. Before thinking about tech or features, focus on the humans behind the use case and solving real problems for real communities.

Questions to ask yourself: 

• Who am I building for?

• What problem are they struggling with today?

• What’s painful, expensive, slow, or inaccessible in their current experience?

Helpful Tip: Look for underserved communities or workflows where onchain tools could help, especially in emerging markets.

🔵 Step 3 - Think about product–market fit

Great ideas stick because they solve a clear, repeatable need. We build things people actually want, not just for hype.

Questions to ask yourself: 

• Is this something people will want to use more than once?

• Does it create new value, not just replicate what already exists?

• Would this still be useful if the incentives disappeared?

🔵 Step 4 - Make it globally accessible

The global onchain economy thrives when tools are open and usable by anyone, anywhere. Default to inclusion. Build for the 99 percent.

Questions to ask yourself: Is your product

• Mobile-friendly?

• Low-fee and stablecoin-compatible?

• Simple enough for first-time users?

• Language-agnostic where possible?

Other Helpful Techniques:

If the Baseline doesn’t work for you, here are a few other techniques to unblock your creativity:

• Painstorming: Start with frustration. What’s annoying or inefficient for users today? Solve that.

• What if chain: Ask “What if X was onchain?” Then ask “What would that unlock?” Repeat 3 to 4 times.

• Day in the life mapping: Pick a real person (like an artist, student, or merchant) and map their day. Where could onchain tools help?

• Mashups: Combine two concepts that don’t usually go together (like stablecoins and education) and see what happens.

• Real world first: Think about physical world problems in your local community and imagine how onchain tech could solve them.