POD OF JAKE

Jesse is the creator of ⁠Base⁠, an Ethereum Layer 2 incubated by Coinbase, where Jesse has worked since 2017. Less than one year since its mainnet launch in August 2023, Base has quickly become the leading L2 by many metrics as of the time of this episode's release. Prior to Base, Jesse led all of Coinbase’s consumer-facing engineering from 2017 to 2021. Jesse originally joined Coinbase through the acquisition of Clef, a passwordless identity solutions company he started. Follow Jesse @jessepollak on both ⁠X⁠ and on ⁠Warpcast⁠.

0:00 - Jesse’s story and path to Coinbase
7:02 - How a sabbatical led Jesse to build Base
13:30 - How Coinbase's culture enabled the creation of Base
16:48 - Taking iterative shots with a talented team
21:06 - The importance of persistence
26:27 - How Base's builder-focused culture came to be
29:05 - Navigating when to move fast and breaking things versus when to make decisions carefully and deliberately
34:46 - Why Jesse believes many L2s will be successful
43:19 - Coinbase Smart Wallet & Onchain Summer II

For more episodes, go to ⁠⁠podofjake.com⁠⁠.

Previous guests include ⁠⁠Mark Cuban⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Brian Armstrong⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Keith⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rabois⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Ali Spagnola⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Raoul Pal⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Julia Galef⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Jack Butcher⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tim Draper⁠⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠⁠OpenAI⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Coinbase⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Solana⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Polygon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠AngelList⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Oura⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Replit⁠⁠, and investors from ⁠⁠Founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Fund⁠⁠, ⁠⁠a16z⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Union Square Ventures⁠⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy.

Thanks to ⁠⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠⁠ for the music.

Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠⁠jake@blogofjake.com⁠⁠. Thank you!