ICO Start-ups: Meet the Founder of Lala World
MLG Blockchain Consulting is committed to supporting unique and upcoming ICOs on their journey towards successfully integrating their blockchain technology. And we know many of you are curious to dive deep in the minds behind these novel blockchain startups.
That’s why we decided to kickstart ICO Startups — Meet the Founders Series. In this series, we aim to support your learning progression of upcoming and current ICOs by asking insightful questions to the founders themselves! Today, discover the charismatic architect behind that founded Lala World — Sankalp Shangari, an ex-banker from Deutsche Bank & JP Morgan that has worked in the US, London and Singapore.
How did you first get involved with the blockchain century?
We were exploring various technologies that would help us alleviate the plight of migrants. We experimented many different prototypes of solutions with participants, but none of them quite worked as we envisioned. Of course, we made mistakes in these experiments, but we were able to learn from these. We never gave up because we were determined to do something good for humanity and somewhere along the line, we stumbled upon blockchain technology.
What did you do before? Do you have prior expertise in the blockchain industry?
As well as being a former banker, I have always been an entrepreneur at heart, an author, an investor and a prolific speaker on Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Who is in the team and why are they are awesome?
Our core team consist of Ranjit Kumar (CRO), Juri Kopytko (CTO), Nitin Bhatia (Head of Strategic Partnership) and Vivek Kumar (AVP Technology). Their experience, passion and dedication has created the perfect atmosphere galvanize Lala World globally.
We are also extremely well guided with our advisory board, formed by Ari Paul (co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital), Thomas McAlister (founder of Digital Mining Corporation Australia, Bankcoin Reserve Australia), Han Kyul Park (former COO of BOScoin), Ajay Bhatia (chairman of Learning Largest Wings Remittance Network) and Dato’ Rathakrishnan (Managing Director of Bestinet Sdn Bhd), Dato’ Sri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor (Founder and Chairman of Bestinet Sdn Bhd), and Prakash Somosundaram (Vice Chairman of Action Community for Entrepreneurship and a Board Member of SCAPE).
What inspired the idea of your blockchain startup, was it spontaneous? Was it an idea you had for a long time?
With over one-third of world suffering at the hands of capitalism and having seen the plight of migrants first-hand, it was always my dream to do something about financial happiness. It’s also very personal for me because my parents migrated to the US when I was young and I come from a family of migrants.
The region of India that I come from is full of migrants. It’s almost unbearable at times to see how much they suffer at the hands of brokers, intermediaries and operators when all these migrants want in their hearts is to improve their lives and provide for their families. It’s disheartening to see that often, after 10 years of living as migrants, their situation is almost identical to that of when they started. Whether in their home countries or in strange new lands where they have no support system, these individuals continue to suffer the same plight decade after decade.
Knowing what we knew, there was this series of questions that always bothered us:
Why does one human being have to suffer so much when they work so hard?
Why can’t their lives get better?
Why do their children have to go through the same hardships?
LALA was born out of this frustration that constantly plagues my family and my network, and a resolve to help alleviate their plight. I just needed to capitalize on the tools that were readily available: technology, a willingness to make a difference and support from the government. Someone just had to stand up and put it all together, and sometimes, you just have to be that person. The team at LALA World is that ‘person’, and without each of my team members, the project would have been impossible.
What problem does your blockchain startup plan to solve?
Through LALA, we are working to alleviate some of the woes of the 2.4 billion people around the world who lack financial services and basic rights. The lack of access to financial services sometimes stands in the way of their effort to better their lives, leading to problems with corruption, crime, slavery and human trafficking. In particular, migrants and their unbanked families in emerging markets have been suppressed for ages without access to basic services, financial or otherwise.
Often, banks and financial institutions do not participate in these emerging markets because they are unable to adequately assess price risks and identify individuals.
The lack of reliable identification systems, financial data, reliable intermediaries, credit histories and unpredictable legal systems limits the capital available for financial inclusion at grassroots levels. We are trying to use blockchain to alleviate some of these problems by focusing on improving access to financial services.
Who are you current non-blockchain competitors?
Our main competitors are traditional money transfer companies such as Western Union Money Transfer, MoneyGram, UAE Exchange.
Where is your blockchain country registered? Which country?
We’re based out of Singapore.
What is your favourite blockchain that was created and why? Do you use it yourself?
Ethereum is definitely my favourite blockchain so far because of the scope of its practical usage and adaptability. We decided to build LALA World on the Ethereum blockchain for the ERC20 token listing and for hyperledger which we will use for transactions.
If you had the opportunity to meet the mysterious Satoshi Nakatomo, what is the one thing you would want to ask him?
Since this is a hypothetical question, I would simply ask him to invest in LALA World so as to put his spare bitcoins to good use (pun intended).
Here’s how you can connect with Lala World and stay updated on their upcoming ICO:
Join their Telegram channel: https://t.me/LaLaWorldWebsite: https://lalaworld.io/
Twitter: LaLa World
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyLaLaWorld
Email: hello@lalaworld.io
