Lesson From A Top Rated Crypto Investor— James Sowers

James, it’s great to do a follow up with you and to learn more about what you have been up to since we last spoke.

Gene: So what have you been up to in the last year?

James: I’ve been advising a few Blockchain projects such as Empire Hotels , Crowdforce, Spiking , Ecoinmerce , Siglo and Brightcoin.us A platform for building Security Tokens. I also became an advisor for

New York City startup Compound (formerly Stay awhile )they are re-imagining the real estate fund industry for the next generation of investors. Letting millennials Invest with cash or Bitcoin.

Gene: A little birdy told me that you have been starting in a new syndicated TV show on Fox Business. Can you tell us a little more about your role and the concept of the show?

James: Exploring The Block produces multi-part series following the goals and achievements of featured companies such as Docademic (MTC) The only cryptocurrency that is making free basic healthcare a reality and LQDEX an Inter-Blockchain trading platform. Docademic announced Doc.com on the show and also debut the app Cool emotions. LQDEX, a decentralized exchange, announced on the show LQDEX Bridge, a new service enabling cross-chain asset trading on Ethereum exchanges. Users stake money to enable the service, which uses a collateralizing process to create a stablecoin on Ethereum, which then enables trading of BTC and LTC pairs on the DEX. The show also has a diverse group of celebrity guest such as Chris Bukowski (Crypto influencer and Reality tv star of Bachelor Nation), Cassandra Vnook ( Million Dollar Realtor).
I have the privilege of helping Vince Caruso CEO & Founder, Stephen Simon President & Co Founder, and Adam Becker COO/Executive Producer cast top tier companies with real products for the featured segment . Exploring The Block also has a potential game changers segment the goal is to educate the public on the potential future innovations in blockchain technology. Many of these companies will not become a featured company in the show and many may fail . Although with a little guidance, luck, and hard work a few of them will disrupt sacred cows and change the world as we know it.

Gene: Forbes recently named you one of the top 50 Angel investors. (I believe you are like 1 spot below Tim Draper). What is your secret sauce ? Have any of those investments really taken off?

James: The good investors work for the founders the bad investor think the founder works for them . I invest in founders that I would want to work for free for the next 6–10 years . I also invest in founders that their startup is their life’s work and if they only had 5 years to live they would be doing this regardless .

These investments are very early. It generally takes years before an exit and confirmation of success or failure. 95 percent of all startup exits are for $100 million or less. The only measure of success is progress and growth . It’s my thesis if you invest in founders that are relentless , frugal and have an unhealthy obsession to build what they are building with a little luck and the right timing you will have exceptional results! A few of what in the venture community are known as Dragon Eggs (future potential unicorns) are:

ShearShare launched less than 2 years ago and has quickly grown to 380 cities and 11 countries. The cofounders are a relentless husband-and-wife team . ShearShare serves the B2B needs of a growing number of freelance stylists and barbers. Today the company has $25 million of inventory assets under management.

Deepscience they have pilots launching with 3 of the biggest names in retail: Dollar General, Signet Jewelers (Kays, Jared, etc.), and GameStop. They also have Active Shooter Pilots with: Fortune 500 corporate campuses and college campuses in the pipeline .

Numina a data utility for cities is the only sensor system that can measure all modes of transportation (cars, bikes, people, scooters, wheelchairs) and provide intelligence without surveillance. Numina is about to to deploy in 10 cities.

Sagewise recognized as the leading company working on dispute resolution for the blockchain ecosystem.

Chirps Chips Is at the forefront of bringing cricket protein mainstream they recently got into 400 Kroger locations and are now in 1200 stores nationwide .

Elyse28 has recently launched She Well this milestone will help as many Women as possible become confident ,happy and healthy.

FORTË.fit is transforming the fitness industry, by Streaming live and on-demand boutique fitness classes from top studios worldwide directly to your laptop, tv , tablet or phone .
They have developed top fitness partnerships and are now set to have a very impressive future .

Marlo’s Bakeshop just got placed in 240 Meijer stores in several states in the Midwest and they also work with Silicon Valley pantry accounts like Facebook HQ where they consume thousands of cookies per month.

Lastly strypes.co You could say is going to make a big splash in 2019 is Strypes. They’re drastically improving e-comm experiences 3D tech that integrates with existing platforms like Demandware and Magento.

Gene: I have noticed that you seem to invest in female founders more than the average investor ? Why is that ?

James: It has been my observation that female-founded companies have out performed male founded companies. While it is true all of the monster outcomes such as Amazon , Facebook and Google have been male founded. The future will have numerous female founded startups that become 10–100 Billion Dollar companies. The reason for this occurrence is female founders are finally getting the chance to prove themselves.

Gene: Speaking of cryptocurrencies, are you currently bullish or bearish on making Bitcoin investments?

James: First let me clarify I’m not a registered investment advisor so I cannot give investment advice. I think that Bitcoin needs to get through $10,000 for the bull market to continue. Before we get mass institutional participation we need a custody solution that
Institutions can trust . I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bitcoin fall to $2000 before this happens.

Gene: What advice would you give to a company that is preparing for an ICO? How would they get the word out?

James: An Ico is not free money!
Unless the additional resources needed to build the blockchain and incorporate it in your business are adding value by making your goods or services cheaper, better, faster or more reliable. There is no legitimate reason to incorporate blockchain into your business. With the exception of a security token, an Ico is a way of distributing a token to as many as possible in the network. ICOs allow the community and developers to share in the success of the company in a way that survives the hype and brings real world value.
Getting the word out takes marketing dollars and a good Fintech Law Firm to do this successfully and to stay regulatory compliant you need to spend $500,000 to $1,000,000.

Gene: What website is your, “go to” ,for crypto related updates?

James: I have been looking at CoinMarketCap to follow prices and see what exchange tokens are trading on, trading volume etc. I use GitHub to see the number of commits and other information to gauge developer interest and community participation.

Gene: What’s your opinion of social media pages like Facebook, blocking crypto related advertisements?

James: I’m sure they have their reasons and It’s very difficult for them to know which projects are legit and which projects are not.

Gene: Lastly anything exciting happening in the near future!

James: . I’ll be participating on the Lion’s Den panel which will be streaming live on Friday, Sept 28th, 2018, from Catalina Island during the Catalina Film Festival. The panel is made up of accredited investors and industry executives who will be taking pitches of film or tv projects from independent filmmakers and content creators.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, looking forward to catching up again soon.