Thanks to all who read this and came to Hawaii for the East Meets West 2018 conference (pix here). 

See photos here and more importantly if you are a startup reading this we are accepting applications to Cohort 10 - specific verticals we are interested in include Travel, Gaming, Blockchain, AI, Smart City and Social Impact teams looking to cross the Pacific - so Asian teams that want to go to the US and US teams that want to come to Asia. Apply here but feel free to reply to this newsletter and tell me what you’re doing and I can help see if you’re ready. Also, read this Top 5 tips on how to get in.

Spent a couple of weeks in LA and as you know its one of my favorite cities and this time I was able to see startup traction in real time with Bird - this scooter startup went from a $15mm investment when I got there to $100mm by the time I left. When I heard about it after seeing less-than-exciting bike-sharing in Hong Kong and Hawaii, I just had to try it and I loved using it. Go Bird Go!

I also visited my first MedMen. It’s like an Apple Store for marijuana! everything in this image above is selling MJ in some form: the plant, candy, cookies, chocolates, inhalers, vaporizers - all on iPad’s from red-shirt wearing “Genius” type staff. Incredible! I don’t smoke, but I can sense this Apple-like experience sucking in the cannabis-curious very easily. Incredible market and an incredible market for startups to be in even if you don’t actually touch the plant.

Everyone is tokenizing their startup, VC’s are asking me for intros to new ICO’s the world is upside down and it reminds me of the dotcom era. I’m advising this new company called Blmp Network and I think they actually figured a way to create a useful utility token. 

WTF does all this mean, if you’re in Hong Kong next week I will be attending Token 2049 to learn more and I will also be hosting my first blockchain salon to specifically discuss Blockchain for Startups - it’s for a small group of founders that want to look into ops in blockchain, so register quickly.

I know at least one attendee at EMW18 that reads this newsletter as he downloaded all recommended apps in the last issue and named a folder after me! 😂

Jessica Jones Season 2 - watch it and loved her and the storylines for all the characters.

Live.me - You won’t see me streaming on this just yet but this and all its clones, as well as Musical.ly, are all fascinating.

Zero - Kevin Rose’s intermittent fasting app - no, I’m not becoming Tim Ferriss and while it is for weight loss its also supercharges your energy, memory and increases focus and after using Moment for a week and all the twitchy apps I use I need it.

Boomerang - I try out every email app, and Boomerang is not only a great Gmail extension it’s also a great email app.

Casts - A new podcast app that arranges your podcasts better than the crap Apple podcast app - if you are an avid podcast listener you can up your podcast game - some new shows I like: Too Embarrassed to Ask, Business Wars, Conspiracy Theories, The Entrepreneurs.

And there’s a great segue to…

I get to meet some pretty creative people so I’m turning my hobby into a new podcast series - if you are interested in the world of pop culture subscribe to my new podcast series The Hyper Room by Hyperpop! where I interview the people that make pop culture - comics, toys, books, video games - and learn more about their creative process and their insight into the business side of what’s now become a $250+ BILLION industry mostly thanks to Tony Stark and Anakin Skywalker. SUBSCRIBE HERE.

That’s it for now, see you next month!