In episode 6 of the Backdrop podcast, we spoke to Jesse Pollak (Base), Dan Romero (Farcaster), and Rick Bhardwaj (Guru) — three prolific builders who shared timeless insights on how to find early traction for new products. We spoke about defining early users, maintaining quality and speed of product iterations; concluding with their thoughts on the future of crypto and AI.

This episode was recorded as a part of Backdrop Build V2, a four week program to support people building something new in crypto and AI.

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on X - @withBackdrop
• Joey on X - @joey_debruin
• Rick on X - @BhardwajRick
• Dan on X - @dwr
• Jesse on X - @jessepollak
• Guru - getguru.ai
• Base - base.org
• Farcaster - farcaster.xyz

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.

In episode 5 of the Backdrop podcast, we focussed on the art and craft of building at the frontiers. I spoke to Michael Dempsey (Compound), Will Papper (Syndicate) and Aaron McDonald (Futureverse) to explore how founders can toe that fine line between being too early and being too late.

We focussed on how builders can ship solutions to pressing problems today, but also keep an eye out for the unique opportunities presented by new breakthroughs in frontier tech. Unsurprisingly, there is no one right answer to this question. The right approach lies somewhere in the messy middle.

This episode was recorded as a part of Backdrop Build V2, a four week program to support people building something new in crypto and AI.

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on X - twitter.com/withBackdrop
• Joey on X - twitter.com/joey_debruin
• Michael on X - @mhdempsey
• Will on X - @willpapper
• Compound - compound.vc
• Syndicate - syndicate.io
• Futureverse - futureverse.com

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.

The AI space seems to have undergone a Cambrian explosion. From multi-million dollar GPT wrappers, to VC-backed behemoths building proprietary models and exploring new generative formats such as music and video, it's safe to say AI is the most exciting space to be building in right now. In this episode of the Backdrop podcast, Joey chats with three experienced builders with a unique vantage point on what's coming past the current horizon. Miguel Piedrafita is a prolific builder and developer working at Worldcoin. Steven Tey is a developer advocate at Vercel. Rick Bhardwaj is the cofounder of Guru—building video intelligence models for developers.

Besides their thoughts on the future, this conversation also touched on some perpetual problems that all builders face—keeping maintenance costs low, thinking from first principles about AI-native product development, and more. Hope you find this conversation as valuable as we did!

This episode was recorded as a part of 100.builders, a four week program to support people building open tech in crypto and AI.

Chapters | Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 Cold open.
• 00:05:18 Building AI-native apps.
• 00:14:45 The opportunities in AI infrastructure development.
• 00:19:16 Building a profitable AI businesses.
• 00:24:15 The hidden potential of generative audio.
• 00:31:33 Leveraging AI to disrupt traditional domains.
• 00:35:11 The pros and cons of open source.
• 00:46:56 The criticality of user feedback.

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on X - twitter.com/withBackdrop
• 100 Builders - 100.builders
• Joey on X - twitter.com/joey_debruin
• Rick on X - twitter.com/BhardwajRick
• Miguel on X - twitter.com/m1guelpf
• Steven on X - twitter.com/steventey
• Worldcoin - worldcoin.org
• Guru- getguru.ai

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.

It's an interesting time to be building in crypto. On the one hand, we're in the depths of the bear market, with token prices at their all time lowest. On the other hand, there are some promising signs from Washington about regulatory guidance for builders, with new and exciting products like friend.tech reducing the gap between consumer-friendly UX (that we're all accustomed to) and crypto-native primitives (that we're all striving towards).

With things moving so fast, having the ability to predict what's coming next is extremely valuable. In episode 3, Joey talks to three experienced builders who have honed the ability to do so.

Jess, Hadrien, and Patrick have seen it all—from the heights of bull market maximalism to the depths of bear market resilience—they've picked up valuable mental models along the way. This conversation promises to be valuable for builders at all stages of their journey.

This episode was recorded as a part of 100.builders, a four week program to support people building open tech in crypto and AI.

Chapters | Timestamps:

• 00:00 - intro
• 04:34 - the next generation social apps and gaming
• 10:20 - a marketing-first approach to building products
• 16:10 - the potential of ZK and emerging crypto primitives
• 24:40 - why distribution matters in crypto
• 29:02 - new paradigms for social networks
• 37:32 - self-custody of personal data in crypto
• 46:36 - value creation in crypto and open tech

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on X - twitter.com/withBackdrop
• 100 Builders - 100.builders
• Joey on X - twitter.com/joey_debruin
• Jess on X - https://twitter.com/thattallguy
• Patrick on X - https://twitter.com/patrickxrivera
• Hadrien on X - https://twitter.com/dhadrien_
• Seed Club - seedclub.xyz
• The World's Largest - theworldslargest.com
• Sismo - sismo.io

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.

Despite how fast open tech is growing, the mental models for founders trying to build enduring businesses on open foundations still haven’t been defined. Crucial frameworks such as what aspects to keep open versus what to keep closed, how to leverage community and the power of co-creation, etc. are still being formulated.

In this second episode of the Backdrop Podcast, Joey explores these frameworks with three experienced operators. Joseph Jacks, the founder of OSS Capital—one of the few VCs focussed exclusively on open tech, Peer Richelsen, the co-founder of Cal.com—an open source alternative to Calendly, and Sascha Mojtahedi, co-founder of Parallel—a trading card game with an internal economy built on Ethereum.

This episode was recorded as a part of 100.builders, a four week program to support people building open tech in crypto and AI.

Chapters | Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:06:27 The definition of an open tech company definition.
00:09:55 Open source technology
00:11:31 Why Parallel is unique
00:15:49 Product differentiation in open source
00:20:14 Mental models for open source
00:22:55 The Open source renaissance
00:29:25 Information asymmetry
00:34:09 Does code quality matter?
00:36:47 Competition and forks
00:41:13 VC funding and product viability.
00:43:19 Raising money for open source.
00:47:07 Not everything has to be a VC backed

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on X - twitter.com/withBackdrop
• 100 Builders - 100.builders
• Joey on X - twitter.com/joey_debruin
• Joseph on X - twitter.com/JosephJacks_
• Peer on Twitter - twitter.com/peer_rich
• OSS Capital - OSS.Capital
• Cal.com - Cal.com
• Parallel - parallel.life

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.

Backdrop founder Joey DeBruin sits down with Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, Coinbase's L2 and Conner Ruhl, a senior engineer at Stability AI to talk about why open tech matters in frontier technologies. This episode was recorded as a part of 100.builders, a four week program to support people building open tech in crypto and AI.

Chapters | Timestamps:

00:00:44 Intro
00:04:38 On builder energy
00:08:05 Building without writing code
00:16:41 The case for shipping imperfect products
00:22:30 Scalability challenges of open source AI
00:27:25 Embracing open source culture
00:32:11 Hardware accessibility.
00:37:03 Building consumer products on-chain.
00:40:47 AI and crypto revolution.
00:46:19 APIs for getting started.

Joey's takeaways - https://www.flyingpenguins.io/p/small-matters-in-open-tech

Relevant Links:

• Backdrop - backdrop.so
• Backdrop on Twitter - twitter.com/withBackdrop
• 100 Builders - 100.builders
• Joey on Twitter - twitter.com/joey_debruin
• Jesse on Twitter - twitter.com/jessepollak
• Conner on Twitter - twitter.com/connerruhl

The Backdrop podcast is produced by the team at Spectral.