1/  Jesse Pollak is one of the most influential figures in crypto. 

But his story? It is far from ordinary:

— Dropped out of college

— Lived on $1700/month in SF

— Delivered bagels for $35/week

Here are 11 little-known facts about Jesse (aka the Base God): 👇

@jessepollak

@base builder #001; onchain cities w/ OAK & city3

2/ Jesse was born in Washington. He went to a Quaker school — I wasn’t familiar with this term. In fact, this is what it means:

In Quakerism, there are no religious leader. Instead the core principle is quite simple. 

It is known as SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship. Jesse often credits these values for his grounded yet ambitious approach to life.

Farcaster Development Boutique @ https://dTech.vision 💜 in love with tech 🤓decentralization, fitness and oldschool rap 😎

3/  After dropping out of college, Jesse moved to SF with one goal: build something meaningful. 

He launched a startup and lived under $1700 per month.

He cooked his meals and didn’t buy anything new. All he wanted? Just $20k per year to survive. Talk about being reasonable!

Read his journey (from 2014):

3/  After dropping out of college, Jesse moved to SF with one goal: build something meaningful. 

He launched a startup and lived under $1700 per month.

He cooked his meals and didn’t buy anything new. All he wanted? Just $20k per year to survive. Talk about being reasonable!

Read his journey (from 2014): https://medium.com/@p/what-ive-learned-in-my-first-year-as-a-college-dropout-23c5e5316a12

4/ Around the same time, Jesse was also into photography and writing. 

In 2012, he published 70+ articles and saw the power of online writing. He claims “writing is a powerful tool” — and I 100% agree here. 

Fast forward to today:

— Jesse has 35000+ tweets
— 200,000+ followers

Very few can demonstrate this level of consistent execution.

5/ Jesse is a true hustler.

Even while running a funded startup, Jesse delivered bagels at 6 AM.

Every morning he would hop on his bike, pick up 50 bagels from Beauty Bagels, and then drop them at a cafe. In return? He would earn $35 every week (and free coffee).  

Why would he do this? Perhaps to stay grounded and connected to the grind. That’s the kind of grit that builds empires, imo.

6/ Life is full of twists and turns.

After 5 years of hustling, Jesse’s startup was later acquired by Authy. After this, his new life began: Joining Coinbase.

Here Jesse became the go-to guy for consumer products like Coinbase Wallet and Pro.

7/ So how was Base born?

Jesse toyed with several ideas:

— Turn Coinbase into a DAO
— Create a decentralized app marketplace

There was always an underlying problem here: How to work at scale? How to reach 100 million users?

They needed to rethink the entire problem. The answer? A seamless Layer 2 solution was born — Base!

8/ Today, Base dominates the L2 space:

- Highest revenue-generating L2 — $106 million in one year…
- Billions locked in TVL (and growing)
- Thriving #BuildOnBase community
- Highest daily active users on any L2

And much more…

8/ Today, Base dominates the L2 space:

- Highest revenue-generating L2 — $106 million in one year…
- Billions locked in TVL (and growing)
- Thriving #BuildOnBase community
- Highest daily active users on any L2

And much more…https://x.com/nansen_ai/status/1899422610750062922

9/ Jesse’s mission is clear: onboard millions onchain. This is where creativity is required.

 You see, I found this interview fascinating where Jesse gave up drinking and found consuming “weed” an incredibly generative experience.

It unlocks creativity. His unfiltered response: 👇

10/ All in all, if there’s one thing to learn from Jesse? Be real, vulnerable, transparent, and humble — with relentless communication. 

I have interacted with Jesse a couple of times. We even sent an open letter to @jessepollak
 and 2 weeks later a full blown residency was born @ETHDenver. How powerful, right? 

@luciano @rafi

11/ What stands out the most to me: Jesse is not just a builder. He is a teacher. Through his posts, his hustle, we can see his willingness to onboard millions to the onchain world. 

That’s the real “Base God” vibe — disciplined, real, and all in. He downplays this and takes no credit though:

11/ What stands out the most to me: Jesse is not just a builder. He is a teacher. Through his posts, his hustle, we can see his willingness to onboard millions to the onchain world. 

That’s the real “Base God” vibe — disciplined, real, and all in. He downplays this and takes no credit though: https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1891988794007507204

12/ Hell, in fact, I often see Jesse tweeting, creating content, and going all out crazy even on Instagram and Tiktok — to fulfil his mission. 

That’s god-tier hard work right there!

His relentless activity is also the reason why I am building http://dtech.vision and want to ship quality frames on Farcaster.

13/ In short: Jesse Pollak didn’t start a chain. He sparked a chain reaction. ⚡️

His journey from bagel deliveries to building Base is a masterclass in grit — revealing a hustle mindset that worked earlier and continues to work even now! 

As always, it is a delight to witness his journey, write about him, and be part of the onchain revolution he’s fueling. 

More power to @jessepollak
 🚀

Nice
I hope to live on $1700/month soon then go higher

This was beautiful and inspiring to read.

A leader that leads through service 💙🙌

great thread! nice to learn more about jesse 20 $hunt

Great story, didn’t know Jesse grew a large following at the same time as doing his first startup

I wonder if and how much his personal audience factored into the startup success

This was an awe inspiring and motivating read that’s for sure. Thank you for this.

Wow! Thank you for the lore ser!

100 $DEGEN
10 👏

Well worked @samuellhuber.eth. Can appreciate the efforts here and would be all over a 10-cast bio series of good folks around here if ever the mood took you.

i already liked jesse a lot, this just reaffirms it and explains why he's a good dude

can easily see that with his output, he'd be successful at anything 

thanks for this thread it's a banger 🔥

Never knew this much about him. Thanks for sharing

Nice seeing Jesse with his long hairs🙂

Nice thread mate 
Good to know more about Jesse