With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that gaming was next on the list. Lately, blockchain has made a splash in the gaming world thanks to GameFi. This new way of gaming leverages blockchain-based tools like NFTs and the metaverse to create a new gaming experience for players. 

One of the most prominent new GameFi projects in the space, Monsterra, has attracted a plethora of support from top Venture Capitaland with its recent $2 million raised in its Private Sale Round, shows that the GameFi space has staying power.

Within 5 months from the starting point of fundraising, Monsterra has been   invested and supported by strong backers including Hashed, Shima Capital, Huobi Ventures,  Icetea Labs, Salad Ventures and more than 30 other partners. In total, $2 million was raised which will go towards the further development of the game and the launch of new and improved features. 

This was not the only successful fundraising effort that Monsterra has taken on this year as in February 2022, it held a Mystery Box Sale on the Binance NFT Marketplace. During the sale, 20,000 boxes were sold out in 10 seconds, a record for the industry. Another set of 600 boxes was listed on GameFi and 300 boxes on Metaverse Starter and these were sold out within an hour. 

“Monsterra is the first freemium P2E game of Fizen Game Studio – an integrated component of  Fizen Ecosystem that brings world-class P2E projects with immersive gameplay and a balanced in-game economy to fuel the GameFi revolution. With this support, we aim to build  a sustainable product and enhance our users’ gaming experience.”

Today, we have an interview with Mr. Leo Vu – CEO of Fizen.io, mother company of the project, about Monsterra and the GameFi sector.

• Usually, blockchain products take a while before they are fully accepted into the market. GameFi, on the other hand, has seen a quick acceptance. Why do you feel that is?

There are many reasons why GameFi convinced the market at launch when gamefi is a great combination of Gaming and Finance. From a personal perspective and market research overview, the most important factor is timing. GameFi launched when blockchain was relatively popular, accepted, and had undeniable long-term potential.

Besides, since Covid-19 seriously affects the world, people have to stay at home and start coming to P2E games as an entertainment practice and alternative source of income. The greatest example, Axie Infinity, has appeared and brought both elements to many people around the globe and became a great inspiration for later projects.

We firmly believe that the Play-to-Earn Game model powered by NFTs will continue to rise and open a new era in the blockchain industry.

• What was the inspiration for Monsterra?

The gaming sector is expanding at a rapid pace. With that hasty growth, encountering tough obstacles and backlog problems is inevitable. After conducting research on popular games, Monsterra team found out that there are several problems faced by both gamers and games publishers including: 

– High Entry Fee

– Poorly Designed Gameplay

– Imbalanced Tokenomic Model

– High gas fee rate

That’s the motivation for us to build Monsterra, the first freemium game in our Fizen Game Studio, with various innovative solutions to the existing problems above.

Coming from the traditional gaming market with strong background in blockchain space, in our short introduction, Monsterra NFT Game is inspired by the Axie Infinity game’s pet world and the gameplay in Clash of Clan or Boom Beach of Supercell. 

• Both your private fundraising have been met with a lot of support? What do you think drove the appetite for GameFi content so much?

Right from the start, our top priority was to build a world class product for the community. We strive to deliver a revolutionary existing P2E game that transforms Play-to-earn games into the fun zone with well-structured gameplay and stunning graphic design with various addictive in-game mechanisms.

Drawing the lesson from other game developers, the Monsterra team used MSTR (the native token) and MAG (the reward payout token). We increased the utilities of the tokens in various ways to keep the supply amount and burning demand perfectly balanced. Thus, Monsterra can achieve the sustainability & scalability of the ecosystem over time.

More importantly, we have great support from the project’s executive advisor, Mr. Thi Truong – the Founder and CEO of PolkaFoundry, Red Kite launchpad, and Icetea Labs, plus with the immense potential from a few quality gamefi projects, we have step by step built a relatively favorable start with a right vision and orientation to win strategic investors for the private round.

• How exactly does Monsterra work?

The game sets foot in a fictional world and revolves around farming, property building, and battling with other lands with the magical creatures named Mongen. The revolutionized design of Monsterra is a combination of free-to-play and free-to-earn models which allows millions of gaming enthusiasts to enjoy fun and have a high-profit stream with no prior investment.

There are 5 key components of Monsterra including the Gameplay, Dao Treasury, Marketplace, Portal Games and Guild. In addition, I must emphasize the USPs that will definitely make Monsterra a revolutionary P2E Game potentially attracting a thousand new players:

Unprecedented Breeding Mechanism

Customizable Land Shaping Mechanism

Diverse Land Themes

Innovative Token and NFT Staking, Yielding Farming Mechanism

I suggest the gamers experience the public testnet of Monsterra and get ready for the mainnet officially launches in mid-May.

• Why is there so much emphasis on passive income creation within the game?

The entertainment industry will continue to flourish with the support of blockchain in the coming years and the unexpected events will also often take place with their unpredictable nature. People will gradually return to daily life and a full-time job, but at the same time maintain the habit of entertainment. Creating an extra source of passive income has become an essential part of any individual and definitely, it is great achieving two goals at the same time: having fun and having money in a long-term potential project.

• What’s next for Monsterra beyond your Q3 roadmap?

At the moment, we are wrapping up all of our activities for important events this Phase 2 as follows:

• IDO
• Farming Game Launch
• Battle v1: Adventure Mode  
• DAO Treasury & Staking  
• Battle v2: Battle (Boss Challenge & Battlefront)  
• Multi-chain (Add Terra chain support)  
• Fusion (Optional)  
• DAO Governance

For the upcoming Phase 3, we will concentrate on building better gameplay with new mode upgrades as listed in our Roadmap published on Monsterra website. The activites are focusing on:

• Community events
• Partnership Expansion
• Battle v3 (PvP Mode)
• Arena Mode
• Clan War

Our team is working hard day and night to speed up all steps. We will frequently announce loudly on all channels of the project so that our partners, community members are all aware of the journey of Monsterra.

• Where do you see the GameFi sector going in the next few years?

When starting Monsterra, we did our own research which based on that,  the game industry is predicted to be worth more than $200 billion by the end of 2024 and on the cusp of a dramatic evolution.

The future is a surprise and I am sure that gamefi will have various new directions in the coming years. Not only for entertainment purposes, a full-time job but beyond that, the world can be connected flexibly and closely. On the side of Monsterra, we strive to build a sustainable project for gamers, crypto enthusiasts for many years to come and beyond.

Further, we can allow time to answer and look forward to the surprises ahead!

The quest of the Octopus Network has been described as “ushering in Web3.0.” What is Web3.0 and why is it important?

This is a long story, which I could talk about for at least an entire hour. But, in a nutshell, Web3 is a vision for a freer, more open, more secure, and more equitable next-generation Internet. 

The general public may not be aware of this, but even though the evolution of Web3.0 depends on the successful implementation of cutting-edge innovation, its roots stretch back long before the Internet existed. 

I’ll spare you a novel, but you can trace the philosophy behind Web3.0 from Karl Popper’s ideas of 1945 in his The Open Society and its Enemies, primarily because of the parallels of its tenets with the ideals of the Cypherpunk Movement — a group of active IT geeks that aimed to defend personal privacy, the cornerstone of an open society, in the Internet age.

It was the Cypherpunk movement that led to the birth of Bitcoin, which is undoubtedly the forerunner and guiding light of Web3. When you consider the timeline stretching from Popper’s ideas of The Open Society to the Cypherpunk Movement, through to Bitcoin to Ether to Polkadot — the foundations of Web3 development are clearly discernible.

Presently, Web2.0 platforms are owned and run by companies whose goals are directly aligned with maximizing shareholder value. They extract as much profit as they can from the economic activities they coordinate. 

Web3 is an Internet made up of cryptonetworks with lower transaction costs and faster transaction speeds. It’s made possible by decentralized applications running on blockchains

owned by the user community —  not the profit extracting corps. Web2.0 platforms simply have no defense against eventually being replaced by cryptonetworks as minimally extractive coordinators. 

How does Octopus help usher in Web3.0?

Well, first we have to be honest and acknowledge that Web2.0 platforms are fantastic for Internet users. For a Web3.0 application to replace a Web2.0 application, it has to be a great Web application in the first place. It has to provide a user experience that is at least comparable with its Web2.0 counterpart.

If you can’t provide a good user experience, your platform will never be able to achieve the more durable and grandiose network effects required to guarantee your survival. Web3.0 application development typically has to sacrifice user experience because distributed ledger technology involves more complexities and increased costs than Web2.0 — which results in downgraded UX. 

But a cryptonetwork innovation wave is clearly upon us and it’s bringing promising Web3.0 application solutions in with the tide, so to speak. Blockchain frameworks such as Substrate and Cosmos SDK can now provide an unprecedented colossal design space to Web3.0 application developers.

Developers are now able to deliver a fully optimized Web3.0 application by building an appchain. At Octopus, we wanted to create a unique multi-chain network. Not just to be different, but to experiment with other possibilities, and to create conditions for finding a suitable infrastructure for Web3.0 as soon as possible.

While Substrate and Cosmos SDK have decreased the development cost of appchains, appchain bootstrapping is still a technically complex and capital-intensive job for developers. We created Octopus Network to solve bottlenecks in the ecosystem as well as accelerate the process because we believe that all public blockchains and multichain networks will eventually be interconnected — forming the Internet of Blockchains. 

“For a Web3.0 application to replace a Web2.0 application, it has to be a great Web application in the first place.” — Louis Liu, Founder Octopus Network

You mentioned Polkadot, which is also developing multichain, interoperable networks for Web3.0. How is Octopus different? 

Let me preface by saying that we see a Web3.0 future where Octopus, Polkadot, Cosmos, and perhaps many other protocols all exist concomitantly to provide multichain options for all types of Web3.0 developers. However, one of the key design considerations for Octopus is making Web3.0 accessible to all developers by solving the problem of how to lower the cost of both bootstrapping and operating an application-specific blockchain.

Compared to Cosmos, launching an appchain on Octopus Network is easier because validators sets don’t need to be bootstrapped for each individual appchain from the ground up. Compared to Polkadot, Octopus Network offers appchains a significantly less expensive security lease and doesn’t have a limit on the number of appchains capable of being launched. This is important because the Internet of Blockchains will not be realized with just a few dozens blockchains — There will be thousands if not more blockchains in the future. 

What is an appchain and why is it important?

An appchain, or application-specific blockchain, is an independent blockchain specifically used for a certain set of custom-designed applications. Appchains allow developers many options for optimization in the design of their application chains, such as governance frameworks and economic models — including those at the bottom of the technology stack. 

An appchain also provides a highly customized and low-cost infrastructure to deploy user-friendly applications with few overhead costs — while giving people complete control. Also, appchains can evolve rapidly while maintaining legitimacy. Each appchain has a native token and ready-to-use on-chain governance. 

Can you tell us a bit about the team behind Octopus?

The Octopus team (previously known as Cdot) has been working on universal blockchain interoperability protocol IBC and cross-chain integration for quite a long time, so we have an insight into the bottlenecks which can impede the development of Web 3.0 — such as technical and commercial barriers. 

The Octopus Team has successfully built IBC for Substrate and has also offered Substrate online training courses in China. These courses trained the first batch of Substrate developers in China. It was the genesis of the Chinese Substrate Community. We are also the organizers of the Rust community in China (including RustCon). 

Why did you name the project Octopus?

An octopus is a very different intelligent creature from a human. Instead of having a centralized nervous system as humans do, two-thirds of an octopus’ neurons are spread throughout its body and distributed amongst its arms. Those arms can make decisions on their own without input from the brain — essentially making the octopus a decentralized intelligent life form. 

The Octopus Network is a multichain interoperable cryptonetwork that emulates an octopus. Like the arms of an octopus, each connected appchain is empowered with its own intelligence and decision-making mechanisms to adapt to ever-changing environments. When connected as a whole, all members benefit from significant network effects and economies of scale — creating an Internet of Blockchains.

When will investors be able to support Octopus Network?

Interested investors will be able to support the Octopus Network on Skyward finance between August 22-28. We chose Skyward as it enables fair distribution and price discovery while being resistant to front-running, price manipulations, and sybil attacks for projects built on NEAR Protocol. Skyward Finance’s goal is to provide an efficient mechanism for initial price discovery and distribution through streaming time-based auctions that are accessible in a decentralized way. 

To achieve this goal, 01Quantum has entered into a partnership with Ats (Ambassador trading system) Sharing Ltd and CFX Quantum, a cryptocurrency company that uses Fujitsu’s quantum computing technology.  01Quantum is a combination of blockchain applications that use technology to execute online banking operations. It is an ecosystem that less experienced users in the financial world can easily “interact” with in the course of their transactions.

You are welcome to this interview, and it’s a great honor having you. People would like to know who Marco Mottana is. So, who is Marco Mottana?

Marco is the CEO of 01Quantum and the founder of CFX Quantum. I come from more than 30 years of experience in money management, especially in stock market financial analysis. In fact, I was the person who introduced 30 years ago the stock market technical analysis in Italy. Over the years, I have trained a good number of private and institutional investors in Italy. In my long career, I have written and published several articles and two successful books on money management. 

So, tell us Marco, what is 01Quantum all about? Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Many people find it very difficult to invest and leverage the opportunities available in the financial market like the stock market, crypto market, etc. 01Quantum is part of an ecosystem that eliminates the complexity and allows even beginners to exploit the new trends of financial technology.

What was the inspiration behind the creation of 01Quantum?

I have been involved in money management for more than three decades. One of the significant things I learned is that there is a huge gap between most private investors and institutional investors due to a lack of the right technique or information about the financial market. It became my desire to create a level playing field for all players in the market. 01Quantum will be that level playing field. 

That’s very thoughtful of you. So how does this 01Quantum work?

01Quantum is based on a blockchain platform that allows transparency and speed in transactions. The ecosystem includes, thanks to CFX Quantum, the most sophisticated solution of quantum inspired technology allowing thousands of calculations executed at speeds hundreds of times faster than the last generation computer. Arbitrage trades with this technology obtain zero market risks. 

Every digital financial marketplace thrives on liquidity. 01Quantum is a relatively new entry into the market; how do you plan to get people onboard your platform?

Our model makes 01Quantum enticing to potential users that we have little or nothing to do to bring them on board. We have a strong referral marketing system thanks to ATS Ambassador, with the innovative products in the ecosystem everyone will be happy to share with friends and the market will grow by itself.

There are currently a number of platforms offering the same service as 01Quantum in the digital financial marketplace. How are you different from them?

Beside the inner quality of the mobile APP and simple transactions, that are in itself worth to try, our ecosystem allows anyone, even the less sophisticated, to understand new technologies and enter promising markets with a very low or near to zero risk. 

Things like “Stablecoins” and “Decentralized Finance”, where you can obtain a premium through “staking,” will no longer be a fact of tech traders.

Does 01Quantum have any partners? 

We believe that partnerships are the fuel of fintech projects, we do cooperate with leading companies in blockchain technology, decentralized finance, etc. Our two major partners are CFX Quantum and Ats (Ambassador trading system) Sharing Ltd.

As a new project, what has been the biggest challenge so far?

Our biggest challenge so far has been liaising amongst our different partners and trying to reach a consensus on the best approach to serve our users. It is not an easy task to get international corporations together to align with your vision and offer their services in that regard. I thank everyone at CFX Quantum and Ats Sharing Ltd; they really did great in their support. 

Does 01Quantum offer global services or is it localized?

Since every area has its licencing laws, by now we provide EU and UK localized digital financial services. We are working for the development of both America and Asia that should be ready by end of year.

What should people expect from 01Quantum in the next few years?

That’s a wonderful question. Truthfully, with the dedicated team working on this project, the enormous support from our partners, and our novel business model, 01Quantum will become a global financial service provider in the next few years. 

Hello Rudy, welcome to Startup Fortune can you please tell us a little bit about yourself, for our readers?

Hello, thank you. I’m on a mission to help 1000 real estate agents to grow and develop their own teams. There is a problem in real estate today, where each real estate agent juggles over 200 tasks to help the consumers. I’m very passionate about re-defining the job of a real estate agent.

The fact is, there isn’t much more to the average agent than the agent themselves. Most agents operate a one-person show – and they’re probably breaking their backs trying to do a good job for their clients. Most agents couldn’t really work any harder than they’re already working.

We know, because we used to do it this way.

But we don’t anymore because we found that our client’s suffered from our good intentions. The fact is, you may be sympathetic to the fact that your agent is working as hard as humanly possible, but if the quality and profitability of your home sale suffers as a result of them trying to do everything themselves . . . well,

. . .you have a right to feel cheated.

The simple explanation is that we built a team of professionals to help us be in 10 places at once, and therefore greatly enhance the quality of service we can deliver to our clients. This is basically how other professionals like your banker or lawyer operate. And on top of this, we’ve used cutting edge technology to dramatically improve the speed, efficiency and innovative capabilities of every part of the service we deliver.

We don’t expect you to care about the fine-details of the inner-workings of our office. What you should care about is simply this. Because of the highly unique way we’ve structured our real estate office .

Our client’s homes sell for more money in less time!

And because our Team sells a lot of homes, we have extensive homeselling experience that puts more money in our client’s pocket.

How did your career in the real estate industry begin?

I just got married and was looking for opportunities to make money and have time with my wife and kids. I started as a door-to-door salesman, and one of my clients was a real estate broker. He introduced me to this real estate industry. 

Is it difficult to run a business in the US, being an immigrant from Indonesia?

The United States of America is a land of opportunity. As long as you persevere and surround yourself with mentors, you will find a way. You are the average of the five people that you spend most of the time with. One of my mentors , Charlie Tremendous Jones, once said that “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Most importantly, always pray for God’s purpose in your life; He will open doors of opportunities as long as you live your purpose driven life. 

You have a brilliant tagline for your business, “your home sold guaranteed, or I will buy it”. What gives you that much confidence?

Every month, thousands of homeowners are faced with the stressful dilemma of whether to buy first or sell first. You see, if you buy before selling, you could run the risk of owning two homes. Or, just as bad, if you sell first, you could end up homeless. It’s what insiders in the industry call the Real Estate Catch 22, and it’s an extremely anxious position to find yourself in.

This financial and emotional tightrope is one you usually have to walk alone because most agents have no way of helping you with this predicament. But our Guaranteed Sale Program which solves this dilemma. This program guarantees the sale of your present home before you take possession of your new one. If your home doesn’t sell in 120 days, i will buy it from you for the previously agreed price ensuring that you never get caught in the Real Estate Catch 22.

We have a corporate investors database of over $50 Million in order to be able to do this. 

In an earlier interview, you’ve mentioned that a percentage of the salary of everyone in your company is used for community development, can you tell us more about it?

For every house we sell this year, we are donating a portion of our income to the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. We are on a mission to raise $100,000 for the Children’s Hospital.

More on this online at https://yourhomesoldguaranteed.com/2020/07/31/on-a-mission-to-save-kids-lives-at-childrens-hospital-los-angeles-your-home-sold-guaranteed-realty-sets-out-to-raise-100000/ 

In addition to that, we partner up with World Harvest to help kids around the world, including Indonesia, India, Africa, and many others by building schools and providing medical clinics. 

More on this available online at https://www.worldharvest.cc/team-nuvision and this is the most recent to help families during this COVID – 

https://yourhomesoldguaranteed.com/2020/08/03/yhsgr-has-partnered-up-with-world-harvest-to-help-kids-and-families-worldwide-during-this-covid-19-pandemic/

What makes your company stand out from the competitors?

There’s No Real Difference in Brokerages, just brands and logos: If any Brokerage is racing around trying to get every agent that has a license and is breathing… that is PROOF positive the company has NO EXCLUSIVE SYSTEM to help agents grow their job into a business. If they did, they would have to LIMIT the number of agents the same way ANY franchise limits the number of franchisees in the marketplace.

People get into real estate, look around at what everyone else is doing and copy them vs copying those who have actually achieved the highest levels of success (Seven Figure Income Business).

According to Research and Surveys 69% of consumers DO NOT GO BACK to the same real estate agent for another transaction citing poor communication as the #1 reason.

Agents pretty much just send buyers emails of homes active in the MLS, the same listings a buyer can find on their own, on the internet, thereby limiting the buyer’s selection of homes.

Buyers agents defer setting and negotiating their fee to the agent representing the seller, so there’s lack of transparency for the customer and uncertainty of what the buyer’s agent will get paid – making it impossible to run and grow a business.

Agents commoditize a seller’s home when they go to sell it by listing it in the MLS. It shows up like everyone’s home, filling out a template. They are taught to Sell the Address and its features vs The Story, Advantages and Benefits.

Agents are forced by law to promote the brokerage over them, all the online templates position the agent as just another agent, with no USP and consumer benefit.

Consumers want to know what Worthy Causes/Charities/Non-Profits a business’s supports and why. Agents are not taught or guided to that – only to sell the house or help the buyer find one.

88% of real estate professionals fail to plan and invest in their retirement. Those who do must go outside of their Brokerage to learn what and how to do it.

The coaching and training provided by most real estate companies, if they offer it at all, is to help the agent sell a house vs grow a business. Inconsistency, Unpredictability, feast and famine is BUILT into that model. The teaching is either Manual Grunt Prospecting or Buy Leads from a Lead Generation Company – or both. NO proprietary Direct Response Marketing Systems.

The majority of brokerages exist as a place to hang a license vs a mentor to learn how to go from job to business.

You can read more about us online at https://yourhomesoldguaranteed.com/2020/08/14/your-success-is-our-duty/ 

What was your biggest failure? What did you learn from it?

My team reached a plateau in 2018. The biggest learning lesson is the importance of leadership when you grow and develop a business. 

John Maxwell once said that the Law of the Lid is the idea that your own leadership capabilities put a “lid” on the future success of your business.

How did COVID-19 impact the real estate industry, especially in the US?

We have to adapt how we do business with no in-person meeting. 

Rudy Lira Kusuma and each real estate agent at Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty carry out the sale of houses in three steps:

• They find out the value of your home and put together the perfect strategy for getting it sold during COVID economy
• They evaluate and share with you the custom 10 marketing plans
• They look for interested buyers, including over 60,000 buyers-in-waiting in their exclusive YHSGR Database.

The agents carry out the purchase of your home in three steps:

• They search for the perfect houses for you that are available for sale, which includes homes that are hard to find online.
• They negotiate the best values and prices in a location that suits your interests.
• They offer reality-based sale and purchase with the help of an experienced team with a good record of accomplishment.

You can read more about our COVID business strategy online at 

https://yourhomesoldguaranteed.com/2020/05/14/your-home-sold-guaranteed-realty-the-real-estate-office-of-the-future-innovate-during-the-covid-economy-to-help-the-consumers-written-by-susan-chace/ 

How do you differentiate doing business in the US compared to Indonesia?

I was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and attended elementary school there. Then, I attended high school in Singapore. In 1997, I attended a community college in Los Angeles. So, I never did any business in Indonesia. 

As a successful realtor what advice would you give to those who are just starting with the industry?

Find someone who is successful in what you plan to do, and model what they do. 

More details about Rudy L Kusuma can be found at: 

www.YourHomeSoldGuaranteed.com

https://www.facebook.com/YourHomeSoldGuaranteedRealtyCalifornia

https://www.facebook.com/RudyLKusuma

Hello Kim, welcome to Startup Fortune. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? What’s your story?

Hello! Thank you for having me. My family immigrated to the USA in 1997, when I was only 3. I learned english and relearned Vietnamese. I can speak both fluently. I believe in working hard to achieve the American dream. We started over in America and my parents had to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet. Their hard work created a flame inside of me and pushed me to become the entrepreneur that I am today. I graduated from University of South Alabama with a marketing degree and was offered a marketing job in Vietnam. I went back there and worked for their event planning department that they just added. I was able to work with representatives from Mazda, Honda, and national makeup brands in Vietnam. 

I was able to learn a lot in the marketing and event field as well as the culture when I was there for 6 months. They wanted to renew my contract for 2 years, but I was not ready to live in another country that long so I declined and moved back to the US. My family decided to build a fancy nail salon and I ended up marketing and managing the salon. When covid hit and our business had to close. I steer towards ecommerce. I got into insurance, merchant services, and diamond business with partners. In my free time I love to travel and try many types of foods and drinks. I’m working on launching my own  skincare company in the near future.

That’s wonderful. What inspired you to become a model?

Modeling was never something I imagine I would be doing as much now.  I became more invested in modeling after my work experience in Vietnam. I was offered to model for various boutiques in Vietnam, and I took the job to make extra money for my fun travels outside of my marketing job. Modeling allowed me to become more expressive and fashionably daring outside of normal life. This has added more flavor to my creative side while working on marketing events. I now incorporate the modeling to keep my mind fresh and updated with the dynamic businessworld. 

Can you please tell us more about your business ventures? 

I have tried many business ventures and failed a good amount of times! However, each time I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience which fueled the businesswoman inside of me. My current ventures are merchant services, e-commerce diamonds, and skincare. I am working on my own skincare line for 2021. I hope my many failures will help me create that one big success. 

How do you find life in the USA, being someone who’s migrated from Vietnam?

The language barrier presented the toughest challenge when I migrated to the USA at the age of 3. However, I was blessed to have guidance from caring teachers and friends, so I learned the language quickly. I ended up excelling in my English and grammar classes throughout my highschool and college years. I believe my parents struggled the most because they came over in their 30s and started everything from ground zero. Overall, I love it here because this is the land of opportunity as long as you work hard and never give up.

As a woman in business, did you face any difficulties when you were just getting started?

I believe the difficulties I have faced any gender would face going into new fields you have never tried. As a business person, you need to learn how to adapt quickly and efficiently. America has less of a glass ceiling than most countries, and I believe people would see that if they actually venture out of the American market. A lot of businesses now need to provide value to their consumers rather than making a sale. The focus needs to be tailored towards the consumers’ needs and wants for the business to thrive long term.

What was your biggest failure? What did you learn from this mistake/failure?

My biggest failure was collabing with friends and family. We trust the closest people to us to carry their weight and be dependable, but that is rarely the case in reality. I learned not to do business with close friends and family unless there is a contract involved and everyone knows their part. 

How did COVID-19 impact your business? 

My family owns one of the biggest nail salons in our area, and we were forced to close from April to late May. The rent is high and I had to figure out other options to keep my family afloat and be able to pay for the rent. Luckily, many online businesses offered work, so I took the opportunity to learn new skill sets. This was how I got into the merchant services and diamond business. Additionally, I have been able to focus more on my skincare line for 2021. Covid may have negatively affected one of my businesses, but it has given me more business opportunities in other sectors. 

What are your goals and future plans?

The following is my 5 year plan:

1. Launch my skincare line in 2021
2. Invest into more stock and real estate
3. Open my dream Boba Tea shop
4. Retire my parents
5. Acquire more connections and enter the Thai and Vietnam market by 2024-2025

What advice would you give to aspiring women who wish to become independent entrepreneurs?

Believe in yourself and be unique. When you are your authentic self, things will unfold effortlessly. Never allow other opinions to affect your choices and always strive for the best version of yourself.

More details about Kim can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/kimphung.luong.58

https://www.instagram.com/kimnhi911/

They shared with us how their innovative blockchain platform is helping to enable solutions for Covid-19 through groundbreaking partnerships and global collaborations.

Can you tell us about BurstIQ and the Covid-19 data challenge you launched along with the American Heart Association and Hitachi Vantara. 

The challenge is designed to provide researchers with access to the resources and tools for collaboration and shared learning, so that we can accelerate the pace of discovery, create more effective treatments, build critically needed technologies faster.

As of June 22, over 9.3 million people around the world have tested positive for COVID-19 with over 479,000 deaths.  

The most prominent and concerning trend is the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has on people with underlying health conditions and people of color. “People living in under-resourced communities, particularly African Americans and U.S. Hispanics, appear to be dying of COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates,” said Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., chief of data science for the American Heart Association. “They’re more likely to have underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.”

Two recent reports by the CDC have borne this out, indicating that African-Americans and Hispanics, as well as people with underlying medical conditions, are significantly more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to die from COVID-19

Given that chronic health conditions are more prevalent in people of color, largely due to disparities in socioeconomic status, people of color carry a compounded risk with regard to COVID-19. This is layered with a deeper and more systemic trend regarding racial disparities in the healthcare system, as outlined in the landmark 2003 Institute of Medicine paper, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. 

The challenge before the medical community today is to understand whether the current statistics regarding underlying health conditions and people of color are a direct extension of broader risks and disparities, or whether there is something else going on. And most importantly, regardless of the cause, our challenge is to fix it.

Can you tell us more about this and how it came about?

Several weeks ago, in response to the COVID-19 Crisis, we launched Research Foundry with the support of an international coalition of researchers, public health officials, organizations, and inventive minds.  All of whom believe that large-scale problems can only be solved collaboratively.  That we need to work together to have a profound and sustainable impact on our world.  As a starting point, we offered Research Foundry as a free service supporting this global community and we initially populated Research Foundry with a significant number of health data collections, including specific COVID-19 data sets to accelerate research activities.  

As we prepared for the launch, we began discussing collaboration opportunities with Hitachi Vantara.  The Hitachi team made the connection with the American Heart Association based on their work assisting AHA with the development of the AHA Precision Medicine Platform.  Additionally, AHA had recently published a grant initiative focused on COVID-19 research. We all felt this was a natural and very complementary initiative; one that required the respective strengths of the three organizations along with attracting the broader innovation community to participate.

What is the impact you’d like to have with this data challenge?

The goal behind the COVID-19 data challenge is two-fold. In the near term, the challenge seeks to accelerate and incentivize research around COVID-19 and produce solutions that reduce the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has on people of color and people with underlying health conditions. 

In the longer term, the goal of this challenge is to support the medical community’s shift into a new paradigm of research. The healthcare industry is acutely aware of how interconnected our broader world is and the strong impact that non-medical factors have on medical outcomes. We are also acutely aware of the need to bridge medical data together with non-medical data to begin to understand their relationships. The COVID-19 data challenge seeks to create a framework for achieving that, and for enabling diverse research communities to connect with each other, collaborate, and create.

Why is it so critical that this data challenge become a global collaboration between researchers?

The knowledge gained from the COVID-19 data challenge will have impacts that extend far beyond COVID-19. Both Precision Medicine Platform and Research Foundry are helping to reshape how the medical community approaches research. Together, we are ushering in an era of secure, transparent, and global collaboration that will accelerate our understanding of health and positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide.

What role does Blockchain play in this collaboration?

BurstIQ provides secure data management solutions that use blockchain-based technology to build multi-dimensional profiles and connections between many different kinds of data. We provide researchers and innovators with the tools to access data, share data, and collaborate with each other easier and more efficiently. We are also making global COVID-19 datasets available through our open data network, Research Foundry, to aid researchers and data analysts in learning why the virus disproportionately impacts certain communities more than others.

Why will collaborations such as this one become increasingly important as we usher in a new era of health care?

This collaboration represents the type of collaboration we need both now and, in the future, to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.  This challenge requires that we bring together many different types of data and areas of expertise. Underlying health conditions and health disparities for people of color have both been linked to many different factors: socioeconomic status, lack of access to services, implicit bias, and much more. This suggests that gaining a deep understanding of why COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people with underlying health conditions and people of color, and more importantly, how to solve it, requires not just an examination of clinical and personalized medicine data, but also operational data, social determinants of health (SDH) data, environmental data, and even human behavior data. It requires us to view these data sources not in isolation, but as an interconnected web of factors that influence and are influenced by each other.

This type of interdisciplinary analysis requires collaboration between experts in each of these areas, so that we can learn from each other and build a more complete understanding.

What are some of the other collaborations that have emerged from Research Foundry?

We are very excited about our collaboration with HeroX, the crowdsourcing and collaboration platform developed by the founders of XPRIZE.  Through our collaboration, HeroX’s crowdsourcing tools will be available to users on Research Foundry.  Innovators participating in challenges on HeroX’s platform, including COVID-19 Central, will be able to leverage data and application development resources through Research Foundry to expedite discovery and development. An expanded set of services will be rolled out to all users in the next phase.

“HeroX believes in the power of human ingenuity, and by working together, there is literally no problem we cannot overcome,” said Christian Cotichini, CEO of HeroX. “Integrating with BurstIQ brings safe and secure access to key health data to the near-limitless problem-solving power of the global crowd.”

“The COVID-19 Central resource hub, an ever-growing ecosystem of more than 50 organizations, is just one example of an initiative that will benefit from this partnership,” said Cotichini. “This powerful combination will speed up the global response to the pandemic.”

We believe this partnership will foster collaboration between the HeroX and BurstIQ global communities, providing the tools and cross-promotional activities to foster connections, knowledge sharing, and discovery.

How has the innovation community responded to Research Foundry?

We have experienced a tremendous response from the innovation community.  We have seen a significant increase in the rate of adoption of the platform to create new solutions.  For example, one problem the community is tackling is contact tracing and tracking capabilities that balance both the public health need to manage this ongoing crisis but still respect and protect the privacy of the individual.   

An unexpected benefit that has arisen is how the innovation community and the research community have come together for a common purpose.  We have and continue to receive a number of requests from researchers willing to volunteer their time and expertise to mentor innovators and help accelerate their product development.  Their regulatory and scientific experiences is invaluable to many of these startups. 

This post is tagged with: BurstIQ, Frank Ricotta, Brian Jackson

Guest post by Nikhil Acharekar.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Startup Fortune or its members.

Hello, I’m Jacob Newman, an entrepreneur, investor and aspiring politician. I was born in Detroit, MI, currently resides in Virginia Beach. I spent most of my professional career in the automotive industry, running multi million dollar dealerships for some of the largest private and publicly traded groups in the world since my early twenties.

You have been widely known as an entrepreneur and investor who brings unique investment opportunities in the cannabis sector, how did it all begin?

To tell you the absolute truth, with cryptocurrency. I spent the vast majority of my twenties really zeroed in on my profession in the automotive industry, outside of a few basic vanilla investments I was too preoccupied to look for opportunities outside of my day to day life. Luckily I happened across a customer one day that was trying to make a large purchase in bitcoin. Which of course at the time I had never even heard of, once I did and had the concept of crypto/decentralized currency put into my head i couldn’t get away from it. Especially once I realized how much money there was to be made in it. It became a point of frustration that I felt like I had let the early years of that opportunity slip away, so I became obsessed with finding a way to fully capitalize on what I believed would be the next breakthrough industry. 

What inspired you to choose this niche, considering the legal infrastructure is quite confusing and complicated in and around the US? 

That’s what makes it so exciting in my opinion, with such a large amount of grey area to operate in it really allows us to make cutting edge moves and attempt things that may have been regulated in a more established industry. I like to think of it as being ahead of the curve.

Your initiative, Invest Green, how does it stand unique compared to other similar ventures?

We consider investgreen to really be one of the pioneers in the cannabis industry, not in the sense that we allow mainstream consumers into the market. We all know that access has been on the rise for the past few years, but what makes us unique is our sector is our focus on crypto assets and how we can use them to further our consumers investments and offer a greater rate of return.

What gave you confidence to invest in cannabis stocks?  Did you ever consider it a risk

I’m a big believer in investing, the next amazon or bitcoin is always just around the corner and if you aren’t trying/looking for new things or ideas then the chances are you’ll be left out in the cold. I would much rather roll the dice and potentially lose out then to have never tried at all.

You have a strong point of view on our day to day political affairs and have been quite vocal about it lately, are you on your way to become a politician?

I am, and I’ve been lucky enough to be pointed in the right direction so far by a few much more experienced individuals. But to be honest we’ve only just begun laying the groundwork for what we’d like to do and how we’d like to do it. There are a myriad of laws restricting fundraising for political parties that aren’t mainstream, what we’re in the process of doing is fundraising for a movement that would give us the financial backing to start the legal process to level the proverbial playing field. 

In your opinion, especially when the world is fighting a pandemic, how should be our way forward?

Without touching on one side of the political spectrum or the other, the easiest answer is together. Whether you’re for or against all the current restrictions, people need to come together. Having a society where we’re so against and always up in arms against each other is not only bad for current relations in the country but if we don’t see things improve then we could be looking at long term societal damage. People need to realize, no matter your race, religion, outlook or political opinion we aren’t all that different and it’s time we started realizing that for the greater good.

You are often mentioned as a futurist and philanthropist, could you elaborate on some of your other initiatives?

I’m a firm believer that the current global banking and economic system is defunct, its impact on government and people moving forward is probably what I’m most focused on right now. I’ve tried to combat this by educating the masses about crypto and what a world with a decentralized currency would look like. As far as philanthropy I take a more traditional approach, I’ve been involved most notably with St Judes, Parents Without Partners and Big Brother Big Sister of America.

Being a highly experienced entrepreneur and investor, what advice would you give to others who wish to get started with investing on cannabis stocks?

The single most important thing I would tell anyone getting involved is to make sure you research and understand exactly what you’re getting into. Too many people make investments off of quick decisions and what they think looks and sounds good. This is an exciting time not only in the cannabis industry but for the entire financial sector, with the rise of cryptocurrency and the mainstream banking making moves to combat it along with wallstreet I think there is potential for huge growth over this coming decade. Don’t be afraid to take risks, find someone you can trust and be ready to roll the dice. 

Mr. Jacob Newman is very active on Instagram and can be followed at: https://www.instagram.com/jdnewman89/

This post is tagged with: Invest Green, Jacob Newman, Invest Green USA

My initial approach towards university and academics was to become a psychiatrist. But due to family’s disagreement to study abroad, affected by cultural reasons, I had to follow my father’s path and study business. I am Persian (Iranian) and I studied in a Persian school until my fifth grade, and later switched to American Curriculum school as per my family’s decision. I completed my studies in American and Australian University. I write and speak 4 Languages Arabic, English, Hindi/Urdu and My mother tongue Persian(farsi).

When did you join your family business? How did it all start?

I officially joined my father’s businesses at the head office in my second year of University in 2006. In school everyday we were being taught about the importance of the real work environment and how stressful and challenging it could get. So I couldn’t wait to face that challenge.  At first I was not treated as the daughter of the chairman but just as a normal staff like all the others and that’s what I loved about it. Because you Learn more under pressure.

I always loved being active and updated with the world around me. So before this I had many internship experiences working at KLM Airlines for 2 weeks, Air Arabia for 8 weeks and at an Office of Canadian immigration for 12 weeks. Later I joined my father’s business and have been there ever since. In 2014 I launched and started my very own business Sultana Products, in the food industry and manufacturing of food products.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur instead of choosing a conventional corporate job?

For the sake of the experience I made sure I do a corporate job but I immediately realised that I am a person that Needs to pursue her own dreams, vision and missions which are very similar to my father’s.  As a dynamic engineered brain and type of values I have, I chose to stay independent and free to experience every real business aspect and industry, from manufacturing to retailing. 

What gave you confidence to be doing business in a community where the majority of business ventures are owned and operated by men?

By reading Magazines, business books, and autobiographies of notable Business leaders I would say. Thus the confidence just built up and came from myself only. My family never stopped me from doing anything I’m doing today, but neither did they cheer me to do it. So I would say reading other successful women entrepreneurs’ inspirational stories, is what gave me the gut which I needed. 

I read a lot and follow the stories of notable women from around the world.

As a woman in business, what difficulties did you have to face when you were just getting started?

Honestly almost nothing, Dubai is an amazing place for every single human being. If you have a real dream, Dubai or the UAE is the ideal place to pursue your goals, it is still cherishing and keeping the rich tradition alive, but it gives a great space to women to pursue their dreams. When I first started,  I had a little difficulty within my own community and relatives but I never bothered to look back and see them because I knew and had recognized my exact path and goals. Yet this is still an unfortunate matter to consider that women entrepreneurs are not taken as seriously just yet. This does not include my first family members, they are in fact extremely supportive, let it be my brothers or sisters. My mother and brother Jasem Abdollah Aboonajmi are the constant supporters of my ideas and dreams at all times. This doesn’t make it any less regarding the rest of my family members.

In your opinion, what makes Gift Land unique? Could you tell us about the features that make your venture stand out from the competitors?

Our prices! The stores give absolutely low prices, without compromising on quality! We are constantly fighting against high prices. Since 1979, these stores have been the favorite shopping hub and the one stop shopping station for every member of any family of any nationality. The shop compiles extremely valuable products from thousands of different brands all under just one roof. It’s also a favorite hub for every American, European or Middle Eastern tourist entering the UAE.

All products are displayed beautifully and customers are welcomed with a warm customer service. Our core value is customer service and keeping the prices as low as possible compared to other competitors, the discounted rates you see at Gift Land shops, you can’t find anywhere else.

What do you think of the impact of COVID-19 in doing business, especially because you operate physical department stores? 

I think businesses are experiencing the biggest economical crisis of the century. Right now, we are all living in a historical moment of the century. I believe we are not the only one hit by this crisis and here onwards absolute hope and faith comes handy. Those pessimistics will very soon be cleared out of the industry but those who know how to change and adjust their business strategies according to economic emergencies will not only stay in the market but also will grow better than before. One must know how to turn even the worst crisis into bigger opportunities.

Do you have plans to transform Gift Land into an e-commerce platform?

Absolutely. A great amount of budget and efforts is dedicated to our e-commerce platform and is already under process. Due to the nature of our customers, online selling was not really an option to be considered before. But currently this is namely one strategy that is being adjusted as an impact of covid-19 occurrence. Starting soon, we will be selling and trading worldwide, not only in the UAE. 

Apart from heading Gift Land, have you established any other business ventures?

As I slightly indicated earlier, in 2014 I started my own venture, to manufacture Sultana Products, especially the now popular Sultana Saffron. Sultana means Queen.

Sultana Saffron sounds really interesting. Could you tell us more about it? 

We import and export the finest Persian Saffron and Saffron tea. It didn’t take long for us to enter the major supermarkets in the country (UAE) and placed my own brand of products on their shelves. More products of Sultana Brand are to be added to the line of the production in the future such as Sultana Pistachios, Sultana Caviar and etc. This Brand and line of products aims and targets a special type of customers who are looking for the finest quality, luxurious products.

As a self-made, successful entrepreneur in the Middle East, what advice would you give to aspiring women from the Arab community who wish to become independent?

Ever noticed how smartphones work? Be smart and filter that negativity before entering your ears. Let it be your own family members! Believe in yourself and make calculated risks all the time. No guts, no glory. Keep working hard because trying is lying. Just do it. Do it starting today! Do it NOW!

It’s nice to have people around you with the same vision and ideas as you, but if you couldn’t find some, DO IT ALONE. Be your own supporter & cheer for yourself. Let your success and efforts speak for you. Cut out those friends holding you back from achieving and pursuing your dreams. You are the CEO of your own life. Hire, fire and promote accordingly. DO NOT depend on others; you are responsible for your own actions. Try to learn everything yourself from the scratch. Read and learn all the time, believe me, ever since I lost hope in others; I achieved more. Just work hard and most importantly work smart. 

Have faith in yourself and God, those who leave everything in God’s hand will eventually see God’s hand in everything. As a famous saying says: everything must be okay at the end, if it’s not okay, it is an indication that it’s not the end; try other routes. Of course, and most importantly don’t forget to enjoy your journey and have loads of fun!

More details about Samira can be found on her Instagram account Samira Abdullah.

Gift Land store’s website: www.giftland.ae

This post is tagged with: Samira Abdollah Aboonajmi, Gift Land, Sultana Saffron, Sultana Products, Sultana UAE, Gift Land Stores, Gift Land UAE, Jasem Abdollah Aboonajmi, Samira Abdullah

Hi, Steven. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m 27 and my world consists of nightlife and digital marketing. I grew up in Italy helping out at my dad’s club where my parents instilled a hard-working work ethic in me.

What motivated you to start your own company?

The international exposure from nightlife business made it clear that I needed to diversify so I leveraged my contacts to launch a new digital company dealing in e-commerce and social media management.

Why did you choose this industry?

I was attracted to the online business for its potential and worldwide scalability

What’s the biggest challenge when starting a business from scratch?

Finding good people whose business goals aligned with mine, companies are only as good as the people who run them.

How much does an entrepreneur’s mindset contribute to success?

Absolutely crucial. Results are determined not just by our abilities but our approach towards our goals.

What do you want your legacy to be?

To help people achieve their dreams which is why I started Drop Evolution.

What keeps you going when times get tough?

When you don’t give up, you can’t fail.

The best advice to someone starting out?

The right entrepreneurial mindset is the most crucial factor which is what I coach about in Drop Evolution courses.

How do you differentiate yourself from your competition?

I believe that there is no competition. A customer chooses you based on the value you bring him, not the price.

What are you working on right now?

I am working to further expand my digital marketing and e-commerce company with the aim of traveling around the world.

Any plans to retire?

Like any true entrepreneur, I don’t think about that day because I’m fully focussed on the present.

This post is tagged under: Steven Basalari

Now, from Ayushmann Khurrana, Ananya Panday to Dharma Productions and YRF, major celebrities as well as biggest influencers have come to recognize this company and praise it for its creative ideas and outputs.

Well, this isn’t all, the company has a very interesting founder who’s got an eye for skills and a brain full of revolutionary content ideas, here are some snippets of conversation with the lady behind this successful endeavor, below:

What’s the story behind the startup of Popdiaries Media Company?

Well, they say somethings are better unplanned and so there was no real plan in place, it was created out of love for good content. Started doing what I love the most and Bollywood is something that runs in my blood, so yeah, that love for good content and Bollywood created PopDiaries and that’s what is helping me run it until now.

What was one of the biggest challenges you had to face when building this company from scratch, without even financial assistance other than your own initial investments?

When you start a business, the money does matter but what matters, even more, is the efforts you put in. When I started PopDiaries, I knew I had to create a mark and give my audience something that will connect to them. I worked on the content, the photos, the graphics and presented the audience with the packaging of their daily news and updates in a manner they will like and, it won’t be negative. This helped me make my mark, once you make your mark, I believe money also follows. I still believe your growth will be slow without an investor but it will be the best kinda growth with your own creative freedom.

Ironically, the media industry has a lot of prejudice, judgments, and critical eyes towards the females taking over a business and making it successful in the industry. What are your thoughts on the same?

Sexism exists everywhere, the media industry is more male dominant and for me that was not a major roadblock cause I am very secure about my gender. I have been raised to believe that as a woman I hold greater strength than men and therefore when the so-called insecure men pass a sexist comment or do something out of insecurity, I feel they come from a place of weakness and out of pity I let that pass. On a good note, I have met some incredible men who have supported me in my journey and, I am thankful there exist such men in our world.

What were those personal experiences that helped you shape up as a strong, independent, and successful entrepreneur, today?

I have met so many people in the journey of entrepreneurship but it turns out that not everyone comes with good intentions. In the business world, no one is your friend and not everyone is your enemy, believe only in self and try to always be cautious about every smallest thing that’s happening. You should even know what your interns are doing, you should even know what your managers are doing. Employees are your biggest support system, treat them like your family, don’t believe in the worldly facts of distinguishing and differentiating your employees just because you are the ‘boss’. I believe that people who are helping you build your dream are at least better than traitors you might deal with in the form of a friend. Just be yourself, everyone’s journey is not the same.

What’s that one advise or lessons of life that you’ve never forgotten, and want to pass on to other women entrepreneurs trying to achieve something in their lives?

People will judge you no matter what. If you go for that party and network, people will think of you as a charmer who is using her looks/body to get through. If you stay aloof and be cold, people think of you as manipulative and cold-hearted, so no matter what, you will be judged. Be yourself, wear your heart on your sleeves, cry if you want to, laugh if you want to, and more importantly shout if you want to, you are the boss and you are here to rule.

Lastly, how are you planning to bring about a social change through Popdiaries Media Company?

Right now we are constricted to just news and updates and good funny content but with PopDiaries I wanted to change the face of media reporting news to people. I don’t wanna boast about it but from the time since we were in the market, we created our niche with a positive way of reporting news, we broke the norm of putting sleazy, cheap headlines to grab eyeballs and following our footprints, major big portals have done the same, ever since then people can compare, there is hardly much cheap gossip headlines.

We are here to appreciate art and cinema and do healthy criticism and so we are doing that. We have introduced concept interviews and now every media channel is following it. So yes, in the future I am planning to talk about social issues in a positive way to influence masses to take up positivity in dealing with extreme negative situations and express anger or criticism in a healthy way.

Well, it seems like Pallavi Mukherjee is indeed the perfect example of intelligence and hard work, she knows the in’s and out’s of this industry and, while facing a lot of hurdles, she’s determined to set PopDiaries on a higher pedestal soon in the future! This creative genius is something to watch out for, and definitely someone who will bring quite the change in our media industry.

Follow her work and her passion through her own social media handles and you can go follow her creative space that’s PopDiaries Media Channel here https://www.instagram.com/ipopdiaries