Jason Jones is a Full Stack engineer and budding technopreneur. Jones is the co-founder and CEO of a software development startup employing formerly incarcerated individuals on corporate and SME freelance projects. In the last three or four years of his sentence at San Quentin State Prison, Jones began learning computer coding through The Last Mile program. Jones had no previous knowledge of coding and said he was just excited to be able to access a computer. It didn’t take long, though, for him to learn to code and fall in love with it. Like Amanuel, Jason came from challenging circumstances, born and raised in a world with little family or support. He spent most of his adolescence without guidance, parental figures, or mentors. Early in his teenage years, he found himself in trouble with the law which eventually landed him in prison for a 13 ½ year sentence. 

Hiruy Amanuel is a returned citizen and successful tech investor. Amanuel has invested in eight tech startups between the US and Africa and co-founded four companies, including one Venture Capital firm that invests specifically in African tech companies. Amanuel’s life wasn’t always so bright and has been one of trial and triumph. He, too, recalls suffering in the criminal justice system stemming from his adolescence over ten years ago. Amanuel also served time but attributes his resilience in life to his difficult upbringing. The Last Mile is similar to REFORM Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to probation and parole, and is near and dear to Hiruy Amanuel. He believes deeply in the mission of “changing lives through tech” by preparing incarcerated individuals for successful re-entry with business and technology training. Helping to advance the underserved is nothing new to Amanuel, who comes from an immigrant background. “It was hard for us growing up. I was born into poverty and raised in crime-infested neighborhoods. Drugs and murder all around us were what we witnessed growing up in the ’90s in California.” Having been incarcerated himself, Hiruy was able to turn his life around and become a champion of criminal justice reform. In addition to his efforts to support The Last Mile and his successes as a venture capitalist, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur has turned his sights to Africa and is working to build a strong tech sector on the continent while also providing underserved youth with the skills they need to create a brighter future for themselves.

Recently, Amanuel has joined with Jason Jones, a returned citizen himself and a former beneficiary of The Last Mile program, for a mutually-beneficial partnership that will, in part, support Jones’ new business venture — Disrupt to Innovate. The two share synergies in tech and are both champions of criminal justice reform who regularly collaborate in the space. Hiruy’s companies have even contracted Jason’s company to manage and build some of their tech projects and mentor Jason as he scales up his company.

Past Challenges Can’t Hold Us Down

After dropping out of business college in 2012, Hiruy decided to sell cars and middle-man properties to build up enough liquidity to start a brokerage firm. He then began investing across the consumer and financial sectors while studying international capital markets. Tech was appealing, but after making a few failed investments into young startups such as META, he quickly realized that he needed to take his experience into less developed landscapes. This strategy would allow Amanuel to have more opportunities to invest in developing landscapes at lower risk and go on to co-found a tech fund that invests in scaleable African tech startups. Through Gullit, Hiruy continues to bridge the funding gap between early-stage startups and venture capital on the continent. The Gullit team focuses on lean impactful startups that can rapidly scale within the African landscape. In addition, Gebeya Inc., a company that helps to train and eventually employ skilled software developers in Africa, provides education and training in the tech sector to African youth who often don’t have as many opportunities to do so on their own. They also utilize a marketplace platform that outsources less visible tech talent on the continent. This is crucially important, especially as Africa has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Through Gebeya Inc. and Gullit VC, a team of angel investors that funds early-stage tech startups, Amanuel is doing his part to pay it forward.

Jason Jones Overcomes His Past

“I look at coding a lot like music,” Jones says. “You write a song or whatnot; no matter the race, the class, or anything, the song will impact people if it’s good enough. It’s the same thing with technology. You write software, your code, your script, whatever piece of software you put out in the world; if it’s good enough, it will impact people.”

Three weeks before he was paroled in September 2018, Jones signed a working agreement with a San Francisco tech company. It was “life-changing” since it was his first time having a real job, license, car, and insurance.

At the same time, Jones began volunteering at The Last Mile, teaching computer coding to young people. 

Synergies Between the Two

Jones worked his way up to senior manager of partnerships at The Last Mile, where he first met Amanuel, who was already a big supporter of the organization. 

As the two began working together with the organization, they realized they had a lot in common beyond just the fact that they were in tech and were justice-impacted individuals.

Jones said that Amanuel has been instrumental in helping him and his partner structure “Disrupt to Innovate,” helping guide them through the business plan creation and navigating the business world. 

The goal of Disrupt to Innovate, which has an official launch of January 2023, is also to host a platform where formerly incarcerated engineers can access gainful employment through projects sourced by the company. This will allow them to build their work experience through a team instead of being overlooked due to their criminal records. In addition, Jones and his partner want to fill the digital gap in the local population, where people often don’t have the resources to get into the digital space. As such, the company is working on designing a curriculum and workshops to fill the need.

Jones is also supporting Amanuel in many ways, too. For example, Jones was recently hired as the new webmaster for Amanuel’s company.

“Jason is not only a colleague of mine but also a friend,” Amanuel said. “We have both been through the criminal justice system and come out victorious on the other end despite the numerous challenges we faced upon release.

“We support each other, and now I am happy to say we work together, as Jason is our new company webmaster. Not only does he manage our business sites, but he also advises on optimizing affiliate websites as well.”

The Two Champion Criminal Justice Reform

Both Amanuel and Jones believe in criminal justice reform and are champions in the space. 

A significant aspect of this is educating and training individuals who may have been incarcerated long enough to not be familiar with computers and then becoming a returned citizen in the digital age.

Jones is consulting with Google about creating resources for returning citizens and justice-impacted people. In addition, the company’s Grow with Google program teaches people the digital literacy skills they need to get into the space and help bridge the digital divide. And Jones is a big part of that.

As big supporters of The Last Mile, both Amanuel and Jones are working hard to help others overcome similar challenges to what they faced and succeed as they are today. “It is not where you start in life but where you end is what defines you,” says Amanuel.

At the same time, the very unstructured and largely unregulated nature of the internet that was so attractive to early adopters has given birth to an environment where businesses and individuals have been increasingly vulnerable to online attacks on their reputations. Unfortunately, it has become commonplace for disgruntled customers and business competitors to weaponize defamatory reviews, complaints, lawsuits, and other types of harmful tactics to destroy online reputations.

Too often, a company or individual’s online reputation does not accurately reflect the true nature of their history, service offerings, and capabilities in a way that helps generate new business or attract new opportunities. That’s where the artful science of online reputation management comes in. The Reputation Resolutions vision statement reflects this: 

Reputation Resolutions was created to help people and brands around the world realize their full potential by helping them look their best online. 

Online Reputation management is the practice of improving, protecting, and managing the reputation of an individual or brand in search engine results. It is no longer simply the repair of a damaged reputation that has become an essential part of any effective marketing strategy. Marketing executives know you can’t build a successful business in the digital age without a strong and trusted online reputation.

Anthony Will and his close friend, the late Stephen Van Delinder, founded Reputation Resolutions in 2013 when they recognized that a vast number of people and businesses were being negatively impacted, sometimes irreparably, by negative, false, and defamatory content on the internet.

As recent college graduates, Anthony and Stephen sought out investment funds and successfully built one of the leading online reputation management firms in the United States and globally. In those early days, the emerging online reputation industry consisted of only a few companies whose service offerings provided no guarantee of success to customers. 

Out of these circumstances, the vision for what Reputation Resolutions is today was born. Reputation Resolutions was the industry’s first online reputation management firm to offer 100% results-based (guaranteed) services to remove negative, false, and defamatory content on the Internet. This model is still in place today, and clients are only charged for their removal services after the negative or harmful content is removed. 

Now, nine years later, the company has grown to be one of the top online reputation management firms globally, according to four different independent rating agencies, and even was rated by Business.com as the #1 online reputation management firm in the world for helping those dealing with negative content and online attacks

Since those early days, reputation management has evolved in response to the growing importance of a Google search, which has become a “first impression” for the world to see. Over the years, Reputation Resolutions has evolved its service offerings to combat negative online content and proactively improve, monitor, and manage clients’ Google search results. The company now regularly works with individuals and brands of all sizes to create and publish new positive content to help them put their best foot forward in Google search results. 

“We still offer results-based removal services for negative, false, and defamatory content,” Anthony Will says. “However, we have also expanded into PR, branding, and thought leadership-based services to help clients look their best online.”

Reputation Resolutions has sustained its leadership position in the online reputation industry for close to a decade by consistently offering only the most effective and cutting-edge strategies to assist clients with their online reputation needs. It will be interesting to see how Reputation Resolutions evolves in the coming years as your online reputation becomes increasingly important in our digital age.

Olena initially earned a law degree before pursuing a finance degree. She then started her own law business and received a notary license. This allowed for the expansion of relationships since among her clientele were the country’s top IT entrepreneurs.

A few years later, specific customers started to seek guidance on a bigger scale, such as soliciting investments and facilitating M&A deals. During this interaction, it became clear that Olena could contribute to initiatives not just as a lawyer but also as a significant player in various subjects.

This is how UATECH, a corporation that combines all of Olena’s interests as a partner in multiple IT enterprises, came to be.

UATECH’s Early Struggles

The venture capital market in Ukraine is underdeveloped, making it difficult for a Ukrainian project to attract a round. As a result, most entrepreneurs attempt to depend on their own or their friends’ money while also trying to start making money through dividends as soon as possible. 

Creating service firms that don’t need such expenditures is another tactic. In Ukraine, there are more service firms than product firms; if the former can only be reduced to a few dozen valuables, there are hundreds of service firms. IT service providers refer to the outsourcing of software developers for US and European customers.

Analyzing this Ukrainian market trend made it clear that there is already a market for outsourcing firms where it is possible to choose a good or lousy firm and where there are comprehensible measures and multipliers for rating these firms.

In 2015, Olena started looking for a top company. Unfortunately, only four companies reached the shortlist during the process after over 60 meetings with various firms. Eventually, one of them was ultimately accepted. 

Alas, she entered the poorest deal because there wasn’t money for a great one at the time. Nevertheless, she rose to become the boss of 350 workers. However, the business was on the verge of collapse. 

Despite having respectable American clients, the administration was ineffective and had a considerable debt.

What Set UATECH Apart As a Leading IT Company

Olena feels that the capacity to locate the proper partners, acquire money for initiatives, and not overestimate the market are all necessary jigsaw pieces that must be assembled daily.

Following successful transactions with reputable customers, this firm could get enough financing, land some sizable clients, and staff up competent management to handle the operations, all of which contributed to its eventual sale three years later for multiples of its initial investment. Since then, UATECH’s self-assurance has led them to pursue similar deals, this time only with service providers.

UATECH Nowadays

UATECH is now home to more than a dozen companies, which together employ around 2,000 people. Most of these companies are cash cows with modest capitalizations, but they generate enough liquidity to fund new business deals to acquire or develop projects. 90% of the workforce is still concentrated in Ukraine, even though the projects operate globally, and certain verticals are already starting to grow even faster.

To the question: “Does a legal background help you”, Olena replies: “I am often considered a nominal owner in my companies since I am a lawyer and often lawyers or former lawyers act as nominee directors for their clients, each time I have to convince banks and other institutions in the opposite, this is the most fun part of my job.”

All UATECH partners cite Olena’s impeccable reputation as the primary reason for the holding’s booming growth. Notably, UATECH’s headquarters is in Cyprus.

About UATECH

UATECH is a team of serial entrepreneurs who both help founders launch their companies or invest in existing companies by helping them scale. They bring people, ideas and expertise together to put valuable products on the market. UATECH seeks high-potential IT projects with great founders who are in need of hands-on assistance and investment. By complementing each other’s skills, they strive for mutually beneficial results.

The first and unpredicted success

“The hype is overwhelming and unpredicted”, said Arthur Vu. The CEO revealed that there are at least 70,000 users playing Titan Hunters everyday, which accounts for 65% of the game’s population. The number is showing no sign of slowing down. As you may know, Japan has an extremely competitive gaming industry with a long history and legends such as Capcom or Nintendo feared by any newcomers. The country is also known for its scrutiny towards GameFi projects. Therefore, the first success in Japan’s market proved Titan Hunters a competent GameFi in Q2 of 2022. Developed by Rikkei Capital – an incubator whose parent company Rikkeisoft has 10 years of experience in Japan and Topebox – one of the leading mobile gaming companies in Vietnam, Titan Hunters is step-by-step taking over every corner of Japan’s GameFi market. 

Become a trendy topic in Japan

“Everyone is talking about Titan Hunter as if it was Axie Infinity”, the CEO passionately said. Titan Hunters are receiving positive feedback from the Japanese community. Most praised its captivating and addictive gameplay as well as the team’s dedication to user support. 

Lucian, Ambassador of YGGJapan, tweeted he was actually addicted to Titan Hunters gameplay. He also appreciated the easy operability and admitted he had joy when experiencing Titan Hunter’s hack & slash features. 

After that, many players also shared their thoughts with Lucian, praising the project’s capabilities and effort on the early stage, strongly believing that Titan Hunter would rocket “to the Moon” in near future. “In fact, there are so many positive Tweets that Titan Hunters suddenly became a trend on Twitter Japan”, said Community Manager Leila. 

Titan Hunters has won the love of Japan’s GameFi community. Many fan accounts were created on Twitter to support the project. Japanese players even established a Fandom Wiki for Titan Hunters to further bring Titan Hunters to other Japanese players.

What can players expect from Titan Hunters in the future?

“Thank you all for always supporting Titan Hunters. Such a great community is the biggest reward for us”, said Arthur Vu. He strongly believed that the tremendous support from the Japanese community is the main reason for the success of Titan Hunters in its early stage. 

However, challenges will come soon or late. The Titan Hunters team knows that they must not be lazy at this moment. They got bugs to fix, features to develop and potential users to take care of. “We will try our best to perfect our games and to satisfy our avid users!”, Arthur Vu concludes.

About Titan Hunters

Titan Hunters is inspired by the fun gameplay of Diablo, Voxel’s signature look, and the feel of Minecraft. It is a creative and unique game project that combines NFT (Earning Nature) and the best gaming genre of MMORPG (Fun Nature).

Titan Hunters successfully launched IGO on November 18, 2021 and published the Mainnet Version on March 31, 2022. Apart from being one of the few games to launch amid Crypto Winter, the game is also known for staying loyal to the roadmap and constantly improving the user experience. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT TITAN HUNTERS AT Telegram  Twitter

Totem aims to make the web3 environment a smooth experience for individuals as they come onboard. With a social network and community tool dashboard, the SoFi project edges towards creating a space where everyone can collaborate, interact, stake, mint, and trade NFTs, and have access to various tools that will enhance their experience in the decentralized social ecosystem.

With the OS launched, Totem has recently released the XR beta launch on March 31. Totem XR is a gamified environment where players go on missions and receive rewards for their success. According to the team behind Totem, the XR space promises to deliver a full gameplay experience with massive earning opportunities.

Building an Ecosystem for Everyone to Build Within and Enjoy the Full Experience of Web 3.0

“Web3” is a commonly pronounced word that echoes in the world of crypto. However, the iteration of the web is a complicated, scattered world that can overwhelm anyone trying to come on board, especially the newbies. 

Totem OS emerged to get everyone on the same page and empower people to learn and adapt to the ever-changing world of blockchain. By leveraging the opportunity presented by blockchain, Totem intends to unify web3 tools and communities into a single interconnected ecosystem where people can implement their innovative ideas and share experiences. This OS is all about building an equitable and innovative society on Web3.0.

“Imagine a social and financial dashboard that felt more connected, brought you more abundance, and was building it with you, showing you how to get involved, how to build your tools. A space to create things, flip things, build things with your friends.” Totem makes this dream come true, thanks to the team behind the project.

Brands and artists will find Totem’s tools, support, and resources useful, as they embark on a journey to connect to their audiences more seamlessly. Newcomers joining Web 3.0 can leverage the tools to discover how to build and sustain their lives, customize their Totem profiles, stake NFTs and $CTZN (the utility token), mint and trade NFTs, and more.

Exploring the XOiD Axis & Totem XR

The XOiD Axis is the gateway to the metaverse, with features like staking missions, virtual terrain, collectible NFTs, and a P2E gamified system. Axis is a community interface with a native marketplace, organizational tools for the DAO and community, and offerings tailored to a community’s needs.

Participants discover their true purpose in this Axis. In preparation for the explorations of Meka, a strange planet in the metaverse, players will embark on extraction missions to discover XOD Molecules – a rare micro substance of the planet. These molecules have special abilities on Meka and allow XOiDs to traverse harsh environments. Players will be represented by the XOiD avatar. According to the team, this is the initial phase of the journey.

As players explore, they earn and collect resources and intel to prepare for the next stage of the game. Each mission rewards the player with unique varieties, planet characteristics, and resources. Once completed, players earn $CTZN and Meka Kubes, which boosts their chances of excelling in the next phase. Your chances of getting more $CTZN and other game assets depend on how you strategize your XOiD fleet.

Participating in the first mission requires staking three XOiDs. The rarer the XOiD, the higher the $CTZN and NFT rewards. This means you can stake your NFTs to generate passive income and grow your portfolio.

Seeing the potentials of Totem and what they aim to achieve in the web3.0 space, the project has received backing from Polygon, Kucoin Labs, NGC Ventures, Gravity, AU21, and Shima Capital.

Xsolla’s Background History and Objectives

Over 15 years ago, Aleksandr Shurick Agapitov founded the Xsolla on his own in Russia. During those early years, Xsolla flourished by operating regional small and medium payment systems across Russia, giving players and creators more access to the fast-growing gaming business. The company began to reflect what gamers already knew: gaming brings people together from all over the world, across time, and cultures. And when people band together, they may achieve incredible results.

Xsolla which is privately held and headquartered in Los Angeles has offices and R&D facilities around Europe and Asia and employs over 270 people who serve over 1100 developers on over 2,000 projects all over the world. Xsolla assists game creators in getting their games noticed, paid for, and played on a global basis. The company has the objective of providing developers with the tools, resources, and infrastructure that they lack through its product portfolio. Xsolla has partnered with companies like Valve, Twitch, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and PUBG Corporation to broaden its services portfolio, which now includes payments, e-commerce, antifraud, analytics, customer support, content optimization & distribution, authentication, and more. 

Xsolla’s first offering allowed Russian video gamers to purchase in-game items with real money. Thousands of gamers were left out of the entire gaming experience at the time, and Xsolla’s nationwide chain of outlets provided them with a way in.

The significance of the X.LA Foundation

X.LA Foundation is a community-driven venture aimed to aimed at opening its partners and investors to the benefits that the third generation web (web 3.0) has to offer. With the ongoing surge in the value of NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technologies, it’s only inevitable for visionaries and business people to embrace the opportunity to make their imprint on Web 3.0. The most evident advantage of NFTs is their ability to improve market efficiency. 

Converting a physical item to a digital asset can speed up procedures, reduce middlemen, improve supply chains, and increase security. Adjusting to this fast-changing environment, Shurick Agapitov is capitalizing on Web 3.0 by establishing the X.LA Foundation as the next stage in the internet’s evolution. To define, shape, and develop the future of the Web 3.0 economy, contractors, influencers, content providers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and researchers will join forces in the X.LA Foundation. 

The modernized internet will make use of blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, allowing the internet to be sustained by decentralized networks. As a result, website proprietors will no longer be reliant on corporate-owned servers. Even if web 3.0 may have its pros and cons, it does not require the control of a single entity. Larger corporations may no longer have complete control over the internet. As a result, decentralized apps, also known as dApps, cannot be filtered or limited in any way.

While the energy sector is undoubtedly changing before our eyes, there are plenty of ways oil and gas companies can develop a long-term plan to be successful despite these changes.

Demand for Renewable Energy

The desire for renewable energy is strong from a societal and governmental standpoint. People worldwide desire a move away from fossil fuels, and governments agree, putting in place new mandates to force companies to decarbonize.

This is a monumental undertaking, though, and one that will not happen overnight. As such, investors have a strong short-term outlook for oil companies.

Much of the surging prices of energy stocks is due to the rising prices of commodities. Many investors expect these prices to stay high for at least the next few years, which will appease companies in the industry.

Natural Gas as the Transition

In the meantime, natural gas is being viewed as a great transitory energy source between traditional fossil fuels and renewable energy counterparts. In many ways, it’s being seen as the bridge between, say, oil and solar power.

Many oil and gas companies are already working on this transition, shifting their focus slightly away from oil and toward more natural gas. While this may not be a long-term solution — as the true future of natural gas is uncertain — it’s certainly a strong strategy that many companies are adopting for the mid-term.

Creating Long-Term Value

How do traditional oil and gas companies fit in a renewable energy world? That’s the critical question that every company in the industry needs to answer for themselves if they want to remain viable.

A majority of investors believe oil demand will peak in roughly eight years. That may seem like plenty of time to develop an alternative business approach, but it’ll come quickly.

Keep in mind that a shift away from oil to renewable energies will be a multi-year undertaking for most companies. And when the demand for oil peaks, it’s possible that it will drop off exponentially each year.

Energy companies are already working to find their niche in a renewable world. The savvy ones are already making small transitions now. 

In addition to working to meet emissions reduction targets and investing in clean energy, they are also focusing heavily on carbon offsets to play a part in decarbonization.

Recognizing the Change

There is no set blueprint that oil and gas companies should take to respond to the changing world around them. No one knows for sure exactly what the future holds for the industry.

That’s why, as Ferrari Energy explains, oil and gas companies must recognize and accept that change is not just coming; it’s already here. Then, come up with ideas for responding to the change.

It may take a lot of ideas trial and error to see what sticks. So, starting now, if you haven’t already, it will be critical to the future success of oil and gas companies.

About Ferrari Energy

Ferrari Energy, founded by Adam Ferrari, is a family-owned private oil and gas company focused on mineral and leasehold acquisitions. Founded in Denver, CO, with a focus on educating landowners, Ferrari Energy has consistently served the needs of the landowner community in the basins in which it works. Its operation covers several areas throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and ND. Ferrari Energy has provided oil and gas leases to over 850 homeowners and held multiple lease signing events to accommodate the residents of Broomfield, Colorado.

As an automated financial control system, the project brings in the new degree of accountability and transparency not available in cost-management before: namely, Karta.io permits to administer the control over the net of credit cards by setting the ceiling for expenses,  introduces an automated payment ecosystem as well as accommodates data reporting that provides immediate statistical feedback. While taking advantage of the highest degree of precision, automation, and cost-efficiency possible, Karta.io allows members of the corporate team to focus on strategic goals instead of delving into the manual tasks, this way saving time, money, and effort businesses normally spend on laborious work of financial reports.

Attempting to saturate my interest in the project, I invited the CEO of Karta.io, Nikita Zimarkov, for a conversation on the topic. Together, we deep-dived into questions touching the project and its future prospects in this disruptive industry.

1. First of all, could you please elaborate on the mission of Karta.io?

Our mission is to create a new type of next-generation banking product that provides easy and flexible financial management for start-ups and business owners worldwide. Digital innovation makes things more convenient. Traditional banking solutions are the only exception. They’ve always been rigid and slow to change.

That’s why we are building a financial platform of the new decade. First and foremost, our solution is aimed at empowering finance teams; this allows companies to enhance the potential of their spend-management process through consistency, availability, and flexibility. 

In creating Karta, we try to implement the best practices of IT start-ups. Our solution for smarter company spending allows companies to efficiently control, pay, track and report on their operational expenditures. We achieve this through a platform that allows you to see all of the company’s expenses in one place and in real-time. It also gives the ability to prepare financial reports, issue cards for specific purchases in just one click, then set limits on them.

We believe that Karta is the technology that will enable every business to manage their spending more efficiently. With Karta, afford yourself to juggle between fewer tasks and spend your time on activities that really generate value.

2. How does the solution of a centralized cost-management system proposed by your project assist financial teams across the corporate world in attaining their goals? 

Let me provide an example and demonstrate why a centralized cost-management system is always relevant. A typical situation for many companies — no matter whether your company works remotely, or everyone is sitting in the office — it is the time when cards are circulating among employees, which makes it practically impossible to keep track of who bought which item and for what price. In some cases, employees can also pay out of pocket and submit expense claims for each such purchase. Both scenarios here will entail additional unwanted but inescapable paperwork. This will lead the financial team to spend all their time processing those expense claims – which is not the most effective spending of their work time, really. A high level of manual data entry often results in inefficiency and hidden costs for the company. Without question, you can issue a shared credit card, but it will once again make it impossible to track who spent on what, and how much. Once again, this leads to an urgent need for endless reports on operational spendings.

That is why, now it is increasingly important for any modern company to think about improving their spend management through specialized software, the one which would enable you to save some invaluable time of the financial team and instead, leverage your resources on more essential tasks.

3. Could you tell our readers a bit about yourself: what are the main pillars of your career, and how did you come to be a founder of Karta.io?

I’ve been in the advertising business for a long time, I was the owner of one major performance-marketing agency in Europe. At a certain point, I arrived at the realization of achieving the top of my capabilities in this field and decided to move forward. The field of technologies always excited me; I always wanted to bring a better product to society, the one capable of doing a tangible shift in our perception of the market, and the one which would eventually change the industry for the better. During my time at an advertising agency, I came across the problems of automation in the finance sector. I was craving for simplicity which would allow to focus on business growth instead. This way, I arrived at the idea of issuing the net of shared credit cards, which would enable me to bring my aspiration to practice. The more I investigated the financial sector, the more I got reassured in its static and stagnated nature. I recognized a deep ocean of opportunities often not visible from the surface; so I decided to leverage this opportunity for creation of unique solutions to the financial problems, the ones allowing employees to focus on the business core, instead of staying at the periphery. 

4. What was your inspiration behind bringing this project to the market? And which one of your past experiences sufficiently equipped you for implementing this ambitious plan?

As I said earlier, we used to be engaged in affiliate marketing and responsible for the agency in Europe. We stretched our cooperation to the multitude of advertising agents and clients while being responsible for the thousands of affiliates. At a certain point, we confronted the problem of managing the multitude of bank cards we actively employed for our services. For long, we struggled to find a solution to keep it all under control; this gave birth to the idea of our project.  

Most importantly, we realised that the current market of financial products is blunt on innovation; so in order to give businesses the opportunity to realise their potential, we introduced Karta to the market.

5. At the moment, which direction are you planning to pursue in the foreseeable future?

In the light of the faster economic growth than before the pandemic, we see enough potential in laying a solid foundation for our company, where strong culture and flexible processes will occupy a central role. Due to sufficient funding, we will also be able to expand internationally and conquer overseas markets. It is worth mentioning that we are on the ongoing path of product improvement: as our next step, we are planning the enhancement of our market proposition with the most sought-after features designed to bring the maximum benefit to the financial teams. A long path is ahead of us!

6. What is your take on blockchain and DeFi as the newest alternative to the traditional banking sector? How, in your opinion, did the latest technological trends already transform the financial landscape?

While there are currently several obstacles to the development of the technology, it is safe to say that blockchain has the potential to transform the financial and banking sectors by reducing hidden costs and saving on labor. 

Blockchain provides a very high level of security and reliability in exchange of data, information, and money. It also allows users to benefit from a transparent network infrastructure and low operating costs through decentralization. These characteristics make blockchain a reliable, future-proof, and in-demand solution for the banking and financial industry.

7. How has Covid-19 impacted your business journey? For you personally, was it the time of better opportunities of higher threats?

Covid-19 disrupted all industries worldwide – travel, leisure, manufacturing, you name it. Now, the challenge is to get back on track to the results pre-pandemic and ensure stability at times of economic uncertainty.

One positive aspect of coronavirus has been the pace of technological development that inevitably picked up with the transition to the remote work lifestyle. That’s the time when the opportunity for us turned up –  the digital acceleration meant companies will be more open towards decentralized solutions, the like of which we are introducing now. Also, keeping in mind the radical cost-reduction that all companies had to undergo during the health crisis, the cost-efficient solution like that of Karta.io is more welcome than ever. So I definitely see it as a positive pinch to our business.

8. What do you envisage the future ahead of you – and what are the tactical steps for tackling it?

First of all, we are determined to put into practice what we were preaching – innovation and higher efficiency to all. Making our product accessible, we would like to capture the highest market share, which will inevitably lead to international expansion, making sure everyone can access our solution globally.  

For the beginning, we would like to identify potential problem areas based on the customer feedback – we would like to ensure our product stays on the path of continuous enhancement. Next, we will keep on adding innovative features, making sure our market proposition stays on top among competitors. Finally, as the ex-owner of the marketing agency, I have experienced firsthand the value of investing in marketing to facilitate the successful product launch and subsequently to maintain the solid product stance on the market. All together combined, we see this as our own success formula. 

We’ve invested a lot in our platform from the beginning, and now that we’re growing, the challenge is to keep it and make it as good as possible. 

I believe it’s about being ahead in understanding what customers want, and your ability to learn fast and keep up the speed with which you drive innovation in your respective market.

With the emergence of COVID-19, employers are realizing just how valuable the little gestures can be. Now more than ever, they want to give employees gifts that are fun, functional, and most importantly, that might help ease the burden placed on them by the pandemic. 

For example, according to Giftpack, a gifting service that aims to transform the way businesses choose gifts, here are some of the most expensive gifts companies purchased for their employees in 2021 using AI recommendations:

1. Pod Pro Mattress with sensors enabling heart rate variability monitoring and a daily health check report, $2,845 
2. Air purifier Molekule Air Pro, that claims to reduce the concentration of COVID-19 in the air by 99.98% and destroy 99% of the virus on the catalyst in one hour, $799 
3. Photos and NFT crypto-art display: Meural, a stylish digital canvas that brings entire art collections and photo albums to your wall, $599.05  
4. Wireless Bluetooth Speaker Marshall Stanmore constructed as a wooden cabinet to provide a warm, natural sound, $599 
5. The brass KNNOX lighter, hand-polished to a natural shine, $450 

Why were these gifts chosen? Not only do they help employees feel more refreshed and motivated for work, but they also improve mental health and raise morale, especially for those who work remotely.

Speaking of remote workers, since they’re not in a physical office setting, it is essential to choose a gift that shows them how much you value their contributions and how important their success is to you.

Consider choosing gifts that help make their work-life balance easier to manage in a home office, or something to remind them how necessary they are as a member of your team, even if you’ve never met in person. Also, don’t hesitate to take some time to get to know your remote workers a bit better as individuals. Ask a few questions about their lives outside of work. A shallow, thoughtless gift from an employer could stifle motivation instead of boosting productivity: you don’t want to be the company’s version of that one relative who gives everyone socks for the holidays.  

Whether you meet with employees one-on-one, send out surveys, or do anything in between, the information will give you and your employees a chance to learn about each other as people and allow CEOs to pick out more personalized gifts. When in doubt or out of time, opt for an AI solution that can analyze each employee’s preferences across social media accounts and come up with a personalized gift option.

It’s a great idea for CEOs and business leaders to give their employees holiday gifts. This small gesture makes employees feel appreciated and keeps them motivated. If you want your gift to keep on giving, don’t forget the personal touch.  

An NFT project called Pumpkittens (as in Pumpkin + Kittens) is bringing a novel profit-sharing model to its collectors. This new NFT’s creators have put forward a concept of sharing 50% of all the future NFT projects of theirs with the collectors of the first series.

The website of Pumpkittens’ NFT project is https://pumpkitten.com

Pretty cool idea to involve the community members with the project. And only 100 NFTs are being offered. These are going to outdo bitumans which has got a massive interest in Fantom at the moment.

The team has a discord channel at: https://discord.gg/Gj7JqN2mXZ (Another project called BloqBall is hosting this NFT project on their server – Fantom’s developer community is just amazing – they are helping each other and building a positive community and making it grow so quick)

Announcement thread & NFT showcase: https://twitter.com/pumpkittens/status/1441640839122407424

Artion (fantom’s official nft market place) says “Pumpkittens is the first of its kind NFT project with a 50% revenue sharing concept for its collectors. It’s a collection of 100 rare and unique Pumpkitten NFTs living on the Fantom blockchain.” Link to Artion: https://artion.io/explore/0xF185cf59c710a0E83362fb7B8813b633Ba073600/1 but it’s not yet on sale there though.