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How Base has built the GTM stack for startups

Tridog

Growth

Nov 17, 2025

A few weeks ago, I posted a simple thought on X and Farcaster:

"What gets me excited is how Base is becoming a full-stack startup ecosystem where anyone can go from idea → funding → launch → scale, all onchain."

That tweet captured what many builders have been feeling lately. Base isn't just a blockchain where you deploy contracts. It's becoming a full startup ecosystem that handles everything from your first idea to your first million users.

For founders and marketers in crypto, this changes the entire playbook. Base is no longer just the platform where you build. It's the platform where you go to market.

The New GTM Stack for the Onchain Era

In Web2, your go-to-market stack looked something like this:

Incorporate in Delaware
Open a bank account
Raise a seed round
Buy ads
Launch on Product Hunt
Hope it works

In Web3, especially on Base, that stack is being rebuilt onchain.

Instead of LLCs and ad spend, you have DAOs and composability. Instead of waiting for "launch day," you grow from your first transaction.

The playbook has evolved, and Base is the ecosystem writing the new one.

Why Base (And Why Now)

Here's what most people miss: Base isn't winning because of lower gas fees or faster transactions. Every L2 can claim that.

Base is winning because of three compounding advantages that create a GTM moat:

1. The Coinbase On-Ramp Effect

Base has something no other L2 can replicate: direct integration with Coinbase's 108M verified users. When you launch on Base, you're not just deploying to another chain. You're deploying into an ecosystem where your potential users already have wallets, already have funds, and already trust the infrastructure.

Compare this to launching on Arbitrum or Optimism, where your first hurdle is explaining to users how to bridge assets. On Base, the friction is nearly zero. That's not a feature. That's the distribution strategy.

2. Farcaster as Your Native Social Layer

Base projects don't need to "build community" from scratch because Farcaster is the community. Over 500K users, most of them onchain-native, most of them already on Base.

When you launch on Base, you can:

Use Frames to let people mint directly in their feed (no website needed)
Run channels as your community hub (no Discord server needed)
Airdrop to engaged Farcaster users with verified onchain history (no bot farming)

This is the first time in crypto where social and economic layers are natively integrated. You're not marketing to the community. You're marketing with them.

3. The Memetic Velocity

Base has cultivated something rare: a culture that rewards building in public and moves at internet speed.

When DEGEN launched its token on Base in January 2024, it went from idea to $1B market cap in under 60 days. Not because of paid marketing, but because the entire Base ecosystem rallied around it. Channels launched, integrations shipped, memes proliferated. The chain itself became the campaign.

That's the difference. On other L2s, you launch a project. On Base, you launch a movement.

Stage One: Idea → Build in Public (The Right Way)

Let's be clear: "building in public" doesn't mean tweeting progress updates into the void.

On Base, building in public means creating onchain artifacts that your community can interact with before you launch.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

Week 1-2: Mint Your Manifesto Instead of a landing page, mint a manifesto as an NFT on Zora (Base's native NFT platform). Make it free. Make it shareable. This becomes your first marketing signal and your first community filter. People who mint are people who care.

Example: Higher, the social token project, minted their "Toward a More Elevated Onchain Society" manifesto before launching anything else. It set the tone and attracted aligned builders from day one.

Week 3-4: Launch a Farcaster Channel Create a channel for your project (not just a generic "announcements" vibe). Share prototypes, design decisions, governance questions. Let your first 100 members shape the product.

The goal isn't to "market" yet. It's to build co-creators who will become your loudest evangelists.

Week 5-6: Ship an MVP on Testnet Put a working prototype onchain. Even if it's rough. Let people break it. Reward bug finders with NFTs or early access tokens.

At this stage, every interaction is a data point. You're learning what resonates before you spend a dollar on growth.

Your narrative at this stage:

Why your project needs to exist onchain (not just "crypto is cool")
Why Base is the right foundation (specific technical or cultural fit)
How anyone can participate now (not "join our waitlist")

This is pre-launch marketing that compounds. Every mint, every channel member, every testnet transaction becomes part of your origin story.

Stage Two: Funding → Ecosystem First

Here's the insider move: on Base, you don't raise capital then build community. You build community then raise capital.

Traditional funding is extractive. You give up equity, you take on obligations, you answer to a small group of suits who may not understand your vision.

Base funding is participatory. Your community becomes your cap table.

Option 1: Base Ecosystem Fund Coinbase has committed over $300M to Base ecosystem projects. The application process is straightforward, and unlike traditional VCs, they're optimizing for ecosystem growth, not just returns.

The trick: don't pitch them a product. Pitch them a category. "We're building the first X on Base" is more compelling than "We're building a better version of Y."

Option 2: Community Raises via Zora or Juicebox Skip the VC meetings entirely. Launch a public fundraise onchain where anyone can contribute.

Real example: Several Base projects have raised $100K-500K this way in under 48 hours. The contributors aren't just investors — they're your distribution network. Every person who funds you becomes incentivized to see you succeed.

Option 3: Ecosystem Partnerships with Revenue Share This is the most underrated option. Partner with established Base protocols (think Aerodrome, Extra Finance, or Morpho) and structure deals where you share revenue instead of giving up equity.

Why this works: these protocols have liquidity, users, and distribution. They want to expand their ecosystem. You want to grow. It's a natural fit.

The marketing play: Every funding announcement is content. But here's what separates amateurs from pros:

❌ "We raised $500K to build X"

✅ "The Base community just backed our vision with $500K. Here are the 247 people who made it happen [link to onchain contributors]"

The second version creates social proof, celebrates participants, and makes your raise feel like a movement, not a transaction.

Stage Three: Launch → The Chain Is Your Channel

Traditional product launches are theatrical. You build in secret, then unveil on a specific day with a press release and hope for TechCrunch coverage.

Base launches are gradual and composable. You don't "go live," you grow live.

Here's the playbook:

Phase 1: Airdrop to Your Pre-Community (Week 1) Remember everyone who minted your manifesto, joined your channel, or tested your MVP? Airdrop them tokens or NFTs first.

This does two things:

Rewards early supporters (building loyalty)
Creates onchain activity that signals momentum to others

Pro tip: Don't just airdrop to wallets. Use Farcaster Frames so people can claim directly in their feed. This turns your airdrop into viral content.

Phase 2: Launch an Onchain Quest with Layer3 or Coinbase Quests (Week 2) Create a quest that requires users to:

Mint your NFT
Make their first transaction
Refer a friend
Interact with a partner protocol

Each step should teach users about your product while giving them skin in the game.

Real example: Virtuals Protocol ran a Base quest where users interacted with AI agents, minted memories, and earned tokens. Over 50K participants in the first week. Zero paid ads.

Phase 3: Partner Launch with Another Base Project (Week 3-4) This is the secret weapon. Find a complementary Base project and do a joint launch.

Examples:

NFT project × DeFi protocol: Stake your NFTs to earn yield
Social token × game: Use tokens for in-game purchases
DAO × creator platform: Governance token holders get early access

Why this works: you instantly tap into their community, they tap into yours, and you create a use case that neither could build alone.

Phase 4: Create a Farcaster Frame for Viral Distribution (Ongoing) Frames are the most underrated marketing tool in crypto right now. They let users take action without leaving their feed.

Launch a Frame that lets people:

Mint your NFT in one tap
Swap tokens instantly
Vote on governance proposals
Claim rewards

Every interaction gets broadcast to their followers. Virality is built into the format.

The marketing insight: Each of these "phases" isn't a campaign. It's a layer of your product. Launch day becomes a process and because everything is onchain, each phase compounds on the last.

Stage Four: Scale → Composability as Growth

Once you're live, scaling on Base looks nothing like Web2 growth.

In Web2, growth is linear. You pay for ads, you get customers. You stop paying, growth stops.

On Base, growth is exponential because of composability. When other projects build on top of yours, you grow without spending a dollar.

Real Examples of Composability in Action:

DEGEN's Liquidity Loop DEGEN started as a Farcaster tipping token. Then:

Aerodrome added a DEGEN/ETH pool (giving it liquidity)
Multiple projects integrated DEGEN for governance (giving it utility)
Creators launched DEGEN-gated channels (giving it social capital)

Each integration brought new users and volume. DEGEN didn't pay for any of this. They just built hooks that made it easy for others to plug in.

Friend.tech's Composable Keys When Friend.tech launched on Base, it created tradeable "keys" to access creator content. Within weeks:

Marketplaces emerged to trade keys
Analytics dashboards tracked key prices
Bots automated key trading strategies

The product became an ecosystem. That's composability.

How to Design for Composability:

Make your contracts public and well-documented. The easier it is for devs to integrate, the faster you grow.
Create economic incentives for integrators. Share revenue, create referral rewards, or airdrop tokens to protocols that build on you.
Build APIs and SDKs from day one. Don't wait for "later phases." Composability should be part of your MVP.
Partner with protocols that have distribution. A DeFi protocol with $100M TVL or an NFT marketplace with 50K users can 10x your reach overnight.

The Growth Loop:

More integrations → More use cases → More users → More liquidity → More attractive to new integrators → More integrations

This is the flywheel that Web2 companies dream of but can't achieve. On Base, it's the default.

The New Crypto Marketing Principles (How to Market in the Base Era)

Here are the principles that separate projects that fade from projects that compound:

1. Lead with Mission, Not Features
Users don't care that you have "the fastest swaps" or "the lowest fees." They care about what you unlock.

❌ "We're a decentralized exchange with optimized routing"

✅ "We're making it possible for anyone to access institutional-grade DeFi strategies"

The second version gives people something to believe in.

2. Make Every Campaign Onchain
If your marketing doesn't create an onchain action, it's just noise.

Replace:

"Sign up for our newsletter" → "Mint our community pass"
"Follow us on Twitter" → "Join our Farcaster channel and claim your role"
"Share this post" → "Refer a friend and earn tokens"

Onchain activity creates data, ownership, and incentives. Social media impressions create nothing.

3. Partner Widely, Not Deeply
In Web2, partnerships are slow and exclusive. On Base, they're fast and abundant.

Don't aim for one "big partnership." Aim for 20 small integrations that each bring you 100-500 users. The compound effect is stronger.

4. Reward Participation, Not Attention
Airdrops are not just giveaways. They're incentive design.

The best Base projects reward:

People who interact with your product (not just hold tokens)
People who refer quality users (not just any users)
People who contribute to governance (not just vote)

Design your rewards to create the behavior you want to see.

5. Sync with Ecosystem Moments
Base has natural momentum cycles. Time your launches around them:

Onchain Summer (June-August): The biggest onchain cultural moment of the year
Base Week: Quarterly ecosystem showcase
Major Protocol Launches: When big projects launch on Base, ride the wave

Marketing isn't about forcing attention. It's about amplifying momentum that already exists.

6. Don't Market On Base. Market As Base.

This is the subtle shift that matters most.

Stop thinking "We're building a product that happens to be on Base."

Start thinking "We're part of the movement that is Base."

Contribute to ecosystem initiatives. Support other builders. Show up in channels. Build in public. When Base wins, you win.

From Startup to Movement

The strongest Base projects aren't just companies. They're movements.

Look at Higher. It's not just a token — it's a philosophy about elevating onchain culture. The community has created art, music, events, and derivative projects. It grew beyond the founders' original vision.

Look at DEGEN. It started as a tipping bot. Now it's a full economy with its own L3 chain, dozens of integrated apps, and a culture that rivals any crypto community.

These projects succeeded because they gave people something to join, not just something to use.

The formula:

Clear mission + Participatory culture + Shared onchain identity = Organic growth

When you combine these three, you don't need to "do marketing." The community markets for you.