# BaseLayer - Ep 3: Shane Mac (Co-founder, XMTP)

- Channel: [Base](https://streameth.org/base)
- Date: 2025-12-09
- Duration: 04:52
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt--H_KBLYI-p4
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H_KBLYI-p4

## Description

Shane Mac was one of the first developers on Twitter. He built a company to 100 million users, got acquired by BlackBerry, and had Zuckerberg demo his Facebook Messenger chatbot at F8.

Then the platforms changed the rules. API changes. $500K/month fees. 

After 15 years of building on 'quicksand,' Shane co-founded XMTP, a decentralized messaging protocol built on Base that no one can shut down.

In this episode of BaseLayer, Shane shares:
• Starting as an eBay power seller at 13
• Being one of the first Twitter developers
• Growing to 100M users and the BlackBerry acquisition
• Why the open internet died
• Building XMTP on Base
• "Think smaller to build bigger"

Follow Shane: https://x.com/ShaneMac
Follow XMTP: https://x.com/XMTP_