Norm joins the EDCON 2024 team, supported by the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik Buterin. Set to be a landmark event in the blockchain community, EDCON is more than just a conference; it’s a deep dive into the evolving blockchain landscape. This year, we’re bringing the event to Japan, a country at the forefront of tech innovation and a rising leader in blockchain.

Why EDCON 2024 is Unmissable:

• Seasoned Team: Our team includes one of the co-founders of ETH Denver, ensuring a seamless experience for over 20,000 attendees.
• Decade of Ethereum: We’re celebrating 10 years of Ethereum with a special reunion of the co-founders, looking ahead to the next decade of innovation.
• Local Impact: In partnership with the Shibuya government, we’re bringing tangible blockchain use cases to the Japanese community.
• Global Collaboration: Major Japanese companies like Toyota are keen to explore blockchain integration, opening doors for international collaborations.

With influential figures like Vitalik leading the charge, EDCON 2024 promises to be an inspiring and transformative experience. We’re working closely with the Shibuya government and local organizations to initiate real-world blockchain use cases, setting the stage for impactful discussions and collaborations.

 EDCON 2024 Details:

• Dates: July 26th – 30th, 2024
• Location: Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
• Venues:
  • July 26-29: Community Events (Tokyo-wide)
  • July 27-28: United Nations University – Limited (Shibuya, Tokyo)
  • July 29-30: Yoyogi National Gymnasium – Main Event (Shibuya, Tokyo)

KINO Studios, the new viral app for film fans just landed in the App Store and has rapidly surpassed 700k monthly engagements. The KINO Studios app is where filmmakers and actors have all the tools to monetize their fan communities during production, turning behind-the-scenes content, special merchandising and promotion into direct revenue streams.  And, by its very nature, it grows an army of superfans (and all the in-app data) to better market and sell their films/shows at the box office and to streamers.

Slow Ventures and Sequoia Capital-backed, founded by a team of veteran founders with multiple exits under their belts, including an entertainment lawyer turned founder, executive producer who has created and sold shows with Kimmel, Damon, Stallone, and more, and CTO who created TSA Pre-Check and led other major tech builds.

As you know, gas-powered vehicles are the greatest end-use source of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, even if we started producing nothing but EVs today, the current global stock of vehicle turnover is so slow that we would still emit 300% of the remaining carbon budget for the sector.  I just started working with a company called Blue Dot Motorworks that aims to eliminate that gap with the most cost-effective, resource-efficient, and equitable solution possible.

Ground-breaking technology from Blue Dot Motorworks fills a massive gap in the mobility market. Individual drivers and fleet operators of 1.4 billion conventional vehicles around the world are struggling with rising fuel prices and decarbonization mandates that they cannot afford to meet by purchasing new electric vehicles. Blue Dot’s Plug-in Hybrid conversion kits can be installed on nearly any light-duty vehicle by any mechanic in about a day and will reduce typical fuel usage by 70-80%. This first-of-a-kind, vehicle-agnostic approach, in development since 2015, enables mass production and is a paradigm shift in cost-effectiveness and scalability. Positive ROI can be achieved in as little as two years, and lifetime savings can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

Road-going prototypes of the Narwhal (for pickup trucks, traditional SUVs, and some vans) and the Humpback (for all other cars) have proven the viability and practicality of the technology. Multiple beta customers have signed letters of intent to purchase units for pilot programs in their fleets. First-mover IP, totaling 360 pages of innovations, provides broad protection through numerous alternative architectures. Adjacent hybridization technologies represent a strong product pipeline.

Norm joins seasoned entrepreneurs who are driven by a vision to unleash resilience in people, products, and the planet. They founded Ponto Footwear which reverse-designs and manufactures footwear that makes life lighter on the sole and the planet, for D2C, B2B and B2C applications, made from bio-based and recycled materials, all in a closed-loop supply chain.

Ponto is built on an underlying platform of applied circularly sustainable innovation, to ensure the circular economy is a profit-driving force for the end consumer and the industry of footwear. Using the company’s platform of standards for design to ensure recyclability, its network of supply chain innovations, its fully waterless solar-powered factory, and its built-in technology stack provides consumers with direct financial credit for upgrading & recycling their shoes; Ponto exists to make the tent bigger for the entire footwear industry through their licensable business model.

• Ponto’s owned and operated brand is sold direct-to-consumer, in wholesale, and is an official uniform supplier to Delta Airlines.
  • Their partnership with Delta Airlines emerged following a collaboration with Issa Rae and Delta as a part of LA Fashion Week which Forbes wrote a feature about here.
• Ponto sets the circular & recyclable footwear standard for B2B enterprise uniforms.
• The Ponto tech stack is set to be licensed to major footwear holding companies and brands.

Fieldhouse is an innovative early-stage start-up that uses proprietary data centralization, analytics, and AI to maximize athlete performance and wellness.

We are engineering:

• Home Screen for Your Health – integrates training, performance, and lifestyle data from 150+ digital training tools and stores that data on each user’s profile.
• Performance Coach in Your Pocket – delivers unmatched training insights based on real-time and historical data. We are in a prime position to capture the smart wearable market projected growth (15% CAGR through 2032) because we are device-agnostic.
• Health and Wellness Insights Engine – provides companies with the opportunity to license our predictive analytics and insights to contextualize their existing data.

Our Go-to-Market strategy is to partner with complimentary sports businesses (B2B2C) that have established customer bases.

We will be piloting our web-based application (Home Screen for Your Health) with users, as well as professional athletes, after Thanksgiving, then rolling out our product to two strategic partners and onboarding 10,000+ users. With a conservative 25% ongoing subscription/retention rate, we expect to be cash flow positive in Q3 of 2024.

While we are executing the business model for our consumer application, we will simultaneously be developing our data models, pattern matching, and insights. We are currently in discussions with wearable companies (ie. Whoop), national gym chains (ie. Crunch Fitness), and healthcare organizations (ie. American Heart Association) about licensing the Fieldhouse Engine – predictive analytics and insights to contextualize their existing data.

Profluence Capital is run by Andrew Petcash, a GenZ sports-thematic expert who has built a substantial media company, and Mitch Baruchowitz who has a proven track record founding, managing, and driving returns in funds (10 exits). They have global advisors across sports/venture (with billions in exits under their belt).

Launched in September, they already executed a first close and made 3 investments, an aspect of their value creation model is they expect to receive advisory shares in most deals thanks to their ecosystem and strategic guidance, with LPs getting 100% of this value creation, which will help create outsized risk-adjusted yields over time.

Unlike traditional sports VC funds, Profluence Capital focuses on the complementary asset classes of emerging sports leagues/teams and early-stage sports, tech, and media companies that are on the path to expand globally, and into other sectors beyond just sports. Furthermore, our investment allocation is equally divided between all the verticals in sports/tech/media (with partnerships in place to make sure the portfolio is diversified beyond North America). 

We add value far beyond just a check – from a global sports network, commercialization to millions of viewers, and experts on the team not just in sports, but across technology and media. Profluence Capital seeks to provide exponential growth for both our companies and our LPs.  

Koala Wallet is reinventing crypto wallets as utility platforms, leapfrogging outdated solutions like Metamask by partnering directly with Layer-1s and providing deep ecosystem integration tools. Their team has been developing wallets since 2014 and they growth-hacked their last app (Coinomi) to over 3m+ users and millions in revenue. Now they are launching tools and services around Koala to help users educate, acquire, and utilize new blockchains.  Their mantra is ‘connecting users directly to emerging ecosystems’.

Koala has passed audits by Red4Sec and can only be downloaded from verified sources, ensuring users start safely. Our onboarding educates users in 30 seconds and we provide ongoing crypto education and partner with supported projects to further inform users. Built from scratch with the knowledge of 30+ years of combined blockchain development, Koala provides a single-chain experience in a multi-blockchain product. 

I am working with a group of brilliant entrepreneurs who built the technology, warehousing, distribution and a vast network of distilleries worldwide, and jumped through all the hoops of the complex requirements to allow a liquor Brand to be sold directly to a fan.

As you may remember (maybe not as well as me:-), liquor was deemed essential during COVID so the law changed to allow Distilleries/Producers to sell liquor directly to consumers.

We bypass the traditional, low-margin, 3-tiered alcohol distribution system and allow a celebrity, brand or influencer to create their own blend/brand of Whisky, Tequila or Vodka and we handle all the logistics from distillery to the fan’s door.

Thirsty yet?

Aesop’s core mission is to enhance both human and economic performance. The data indicates that both aspects are currently underperforming, which is negatively impacting real estate, corporations, and cities. Our client solutions utilize our software, tools, and services to address these challenges by enabling highly connected, productive, and creative “problem solving” communities. Our tools have been developed over a decade of learning and have been refined using the psychological principles of Appreciative Inquiry and corporate innovation strategies to align the interests of businesses and individuals. Corporations seek greater profits, while individuals desire a better quality of life. We design with both of these goals in mind.

Our solutions specifically have the power to address: 

Corporate:

• Return-to-Work Solutions
• Talent Retention and Activation Services
• Community Engagement and Talent Identification Tools

Real Estate:

• Building Repositioning
• Activation of Underutilized Spaces
• Assistance with Occupancy Issues to Support Tenant Return-to-Work Strategies and Lease Extensions

Community (Family Offices/Municipalities):

• Counteract Brain Drain
• Boost Tax Revenue
• Foster Innovation Clusters
• Stimulate Real Estate and Venture Capital Deal Flow

When viewed at a macro level, our stack of solutions and products are a “future of work” strategy.