How BaseCamp won at ecosystem development.
First night of summer camp requires a fire, between a few dozen kids, a little homesick. Remember the song about black socks and how they never get dirty? The longer you wear them, the blacker they get. Remember, singing, with chocolate in your teeth, and clapping, with marshmallows sticky on your fingers?
At Basecampers Late Night we had billiards and margaritas, instead of campfire and smores, but we we’re still in the woods midsummer and it was only a few dozen of us.
BaseCamp 2024 was ecosystem development as brilliance. Let’s walk through why.
- Include the entire flywheel.
If I’m building an app and looking around to see which protocol to build on, I’m doing due diligence to see who I should bet on. Docs, APIs, and SDKs are necessary. Grants are nice too. But, what I want most of all is revenue generating users.
BaseCamp attendees included app developers, product experts, influencers and creators. The whole flywheel was present. Every conversation I had during BaseCamp, including while drinking margaritas at the local cantina, was relevant to me personally or to a friend of Chones.
Lesson: Don’t be selfish and only think of what you want. Think also of what your user wants, which also includes what their user wants. It’s users all the way down.
- Celebrate your champions.
Not everyone was accepted to BaseCamp. I was, even though I’m a Base optimizer, not loyalist.
Considering that Base rewards the entire ecosystem development flywheel, it’s easier for me to find opportunities with Base than other protocols.
Yes, there were logistic challenges with hosting 400 people in a small mountain town, but we received complimentary lodging, shuttles, meals and, of course, swag. We gathered and shared conversations with Base team members, our internet friends and new connections, building the things we’re actually excited about. Aerodrome and GM Farcaster were there!
Lesson: Tell people who are nice to you when you appreciate them. You’re not too precious to make new friends.
- Share learnings with anyone who wants to learn too.
BaseCamp Summit was blasted across the internet. Thousands of people watched the livestream. It was nice in the air conditioned auditorium, sitting with friends, but I could have stayed at the airbnb and watched the summit from the hot tub.
During the pandemic, I attended almost every virtual education stream from Blockchain NYC. I learned what a DAO actually is, what are blocks and how do they connect in a chain, what’s a nonce, what are roll ups, and lots more. I don’t even live in NYC, but am inclined to play nice with that community, like whenever-forever!
Lesson: Don’t be greedy; it turns people off. If you share, the sharing might spread. Note: This does not apply to artists and builders who are asked to provide free work in exchange for exposure.
Last summer was tough! No one was funding community or creativity in crypto. Developers were still being compensated, but even that was limited to protocols and their favorite offspring. It felt like covid, when we realized our colleagues didn’t consider us essential.
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