"I have lots of ideas and some of them are good"
Anyone who knows me has heard me say this quote - I'm the first to tell you I have lots of ideas and some of them are good. Some people have recommended that I start writing more about things that aren't necessarily all crypto grants, so here I am with a new blog series called "Lots of Ideas."
"Lots of Ideas" will be whatever I'm diving into, learning about, or thinking through - because I have lots of ideas and some of them are good, and many of those pursuits teach me things worth sharing. Sometimes it'll be technology, sometimes life lessons, sometimes completely random rabbit holes - but always driven by curiosity about how we learn, grow, and connect.
You're used to hearing from me about crypto grants, but I'm going to try something different, and this piece explains why I think it's important. I'm keeping my crypto grants analysis separate under Sovereign Signal - that remains my core professional focus. This is additive, not replacement. You can choose what resonates with you - subscribe to just the grants analysis, just the broader explorations, or both.
If you'd like to give it a chance, I'd really appreciate it. If not, unsubscribe, hear from me nevermore, and just pay attention to my crypto grants work.
Alright, if you are still with me let’s dive in…
There's this pull toward creative work that I've been feeling more intensely lately. I just came off publishing "Based Grants," a comprehensive analysis of how Base approached grants and funding strategies, which might be my most comprehensive and successful post to date (and it seems like many of you agree!)
Based Grants
I've been tracking ecosystem funding approaches for years, and Base's approach has been interesting to see play out. While most L2s wrestle with governance overhead and treasury management, Base took a different path, reshaping how we think about builder-centric funding.
Years ago, I started researching crypto grant programs because no one else was documenting what was happening there. I had no research background - I just woke up one day, saw an opportunity, and decided to give it a shot.
That research got me noticed, and I became a consultant for grants programs, helped builders find grants, worked for different organizations like Questbook and Blockworks in fractional roles, and eventually landed the job as Head of Grants at Gitcoin. All of it related to expertise that started with the crazy idea I would start researching crypto grants.
The realization for me is simple: the things I love most are the things I should be spending more time doing. And the times in my life when I've leaned into that creative process, I've learned the most valuable lessons.
But to understand why this feels significant, I need to tell you how I ended up spending two decades as an operator when I started as a creator.
From Creator to Operator
When I was six, I got my first computer and spent years taking it apart, building Doom levels, messing around on DOS (yes, I’m super old). Around 14, I got my first guitar. I didn't put down the keyboard for good, but the allure of a rock and roll lifestyle was much more appealing than learning how to code.
I was good at it. The kind of good where people assumed I'd "make it" somehow. When they heard me play, they believed I was a young virtuoso, and honestly, I believed it too.
But the sea of failure is mostly littered with musicians who were just as good or better. No matter how talented you are, the barriers to actually succeeding - paying bills and supporting a family - are enormous. Early in adulthood I had limited options, I had to start selling shoes below the minimum wage, hoping to make up the gap in commissions. Many times early on, I wondered if I would actually make it work.
But I persevered. Over the years, I moved up into different positions in retail, eventually running a video game store. In my mid-twenties, I found an opportunity to work for a large computer manufacturer and took it. That's where my professional journey really took flight at the entry level of a big corporation that cut 20% of its workforce pretty much every quarter, especially in sales, especially in the division I was in. It was time to flex those skills I'd learned selling shoes in the most competitive environment possible. I didn't just survive, I thrived - winning multiple trips and consistently finishing in the top percentage of performers, earning numerous awards and accolades.
That performance gave me an opportunity that would change everything: the chance to move myself, the only grandchild, and three dogs 2,000 miles from the only home I'd ever known to the forests of the Pacific Northwest to work for a solution provider.
It was the gamble of a lifetime - I put it all on black and it had to work.
I took the lessons learned from that large manufacturer and applied them to the new role - understanding that for manufacturers, success is when they ship the box or the license, but for a solution provider, success is when what we sold actually meets the customer's desired outcomes.
By my early thirties, I was in outside sales doing partnerships and business development across this new landscape. My performance opened opportunities to move into senior leadership as one day my boss gave me the opportunity of a lifetime - leading an engineering team, despite never being an engineer.
I was super nervous but accepted it anyway. There's a quote I've heard: if you have the opportunity of a lifetime and you're not sure you can do it, you should take it and try to figure it out.
That's exactly what I did, and I was able to pull it off.
But success in these roles over the years came with a cost: I drifted away from my creative pursuits. There were months that would go by where I wouldn't even pick up a guitar. I wasn't writing anything other than emails.
It wasn't until I saw an opportunity to research grant programs - something no one else was documenting - that the creative and operational sides started to converge again. That research, done without any formal background, led me into crypto and ultimately to the work I do today.
Why Now Is Different
So why am I feeling this creative pull now? Two things have changed that make this moment different from any other point in my career.
First, there's the personal shift. As I get older and reflect on the things I actually enjoy, I realize I'm not doing enough of them. That's been a major driver for me - this growing awareness that life is finite and I should spend more time on what fulfills me.
But there's another realization that's equally important: the reason I'm here talking to you now, and I've had the opportunity and pleasure to do something I truly love for the last few years and be paid for it, started with my research. It started with documenting grant programs that no one else was documenting, started with opening myself up to write and build in public. It's a realization that I need to start doing that again.
It's also a realization that if I can do that research again, I can expand the scope of my creative work and learn and grow much in the way I did before. And it's really AI that I believe offers the ability to multiply the impact and the output of that creative work at a pace that I wasn't able to achieve before.
The technological shifts have made this reflection actionable in ways that weren't possible before. I can now work with AI partners like Claude for research and fact-checking, reducing what used to require editorial teams to a few hours of solo work. I can use platforms like Substack to publish directly to audiences without gatekeepers. I'm just starting to explore how AI can help with music production and visual creation - tools that previously required entire teams are becoming accessible to individuals.
Today, you can quickly create a blog and grow to that subscriber count in ways that were unheard of even 10-20 years ago. And that doesn't even take into account all the possibilities that crypto could unlock in creative spaces - direct incentives, new monetization models, and distribution strategies. But I'm not writing about crypto here; I'm writing about something else entirely.
The economics work at a much smaller scale than they used to because the technological overhead disappeared.
The Barbell in Practice
This convergence of personal reflection and enhanced capability has led me to what I call a barbell approach - though honestly, it's been emerging naturally for years.
On one end, I maintain deep expertise in crypto grants ecosystem. This provides income and leverages decades of becoming an expert operator. It's valuable, interesting work that I'm good at, and it grew directly from that creative research process.
On the other end, I'm reinvesting in creative pursuits. This blog represents my return to more regular writing. I'm working on music again - building the band with my kids (and playing weekly on the ENS Public Goods call), exploring how AI tools can enhance rather than replace the creative process. I'm even diving into visual aesthetics and art creation (more to come here on that topic).
The integration works because my operational skills inform my creative projects. My creative pursuits help me see patterns that make me a better operator. That early research on grant programs directly led to the crypto opportunities that now fund the creative work. Instead of separate worlds, they're becoming integrated parts of a larger creative practice.
This wasn't possible for me before. I was either a creator struggling economically or an operator with a steady income. Now, the tools exist to be both simultaneously.
Beyond My Story
I think there's a broader shift happening, though I can only speak from my specific experience. For people like me - creatives who became operators by necessity but never lost that creative urge - new tools are creating opportunities that didn't exist before.
When AI handles the operational overhead of creative work, and platforms provide direct monetization, the barriers that previously forced you to choose between creativity and economic stability start to disappear.
The question for me isn't whether this trend will continue - the tools are only getting better. The question is whether I'm positioning myself to lean into what I love most while maintaining the operational expertise that's served me well.
After two decades of being an operator-by-necessity who never quite let go of the creative thread, I'm excited about what it looks like to be a creator-by-choice.
If you're in a similar position - if you've developed operational expertise out of necessity but never lost that creative thread - the question becomes: what are you doing about it?
Peace,
Sov
A note on process: This piece exemplifies the technological empowerment I'm describing. I started with a 20-minute walk, talking through ideas with Claude. I drafted, researched, and fact-checked with AI assistance, then moved to Lex for final editing. Three years ago, this would have required multiple people - researchers, fact-checkers, editors. Now, one person with creative vision can use AI tools to produce work that captures value directly.