(upbeat music) >> Live from Toronto, Canada, it's theCUBE, covering Blockchain Futurist Conference 2018. Brought to you by theCUBE. >> Hey, welcome back everyone, here's theCUBE live here in Toronto, Canada in Ontario for Untraceable presents Blockchain Futurist Conference. I'm John Furrier here with Al Burgio, Julie Lyle for the wrap up of the show. Special guests, industry legend Al, serial entrepreneur, Julie, CMO, Barnes and Noble. >> (laughs) >> Great career you've had and you're here new to, first time, we're going to have these big events. At the wrap up we try to get a handle on it and I think the big story here, for me at least, was, during this week, you got a futurist conference, while the price of crypto was plummeting to an all-time low for the year. Yet everyone's upbeat, 'cause they're talking about the future, not about prices. This has been a big part of what we see, build out durable companies, real entrepreneurial activity. Sure, they want to make profit. People scrounging a little bit here and there but most of the time upbeat. >> It's hard to judge things or understand things from afar, John, and people tend to look at prices all day long but that doesn't necessarily give you an indication of what's going on with blockchain technology with some of the organizations out there. The team at Untraceable by far a leader, not just in Canada but internationally with people that are able to try out the entrepreneurs and what have you and it's events like this with just a couple days you get yourself brought up to speed and keep your finger on the pulse. >> Big names. >> Yeah huge names. >> And a futurist event, you got to have some players, some whales on the money side, check, got whose actually inventing the future, entrepreneurial hustle, pitch competitions happening, so all this is blending together. Julie, your perspective, first time seeing a crypto culture community, what's your observation? >> Well I would echo what Al has said about the event itself, it was really well organized and what I was impressed with, surprised actually, but impressed with was the combination of both the technologists as well as the investors and those that are trying to understand how to build these commercial communities and commercial applications out. For a marketer like myself, it's difficult enough to see around corners, but to understand this technology and to have people here who are really trying to target it at solving a specific real-world business problem, it seems like a natural extension of the march on towards bigger and greater, more powerful communities. >> And the technology is interesting, because in previous jobs you've had, you've innovated with data, real-time user data, user experience. Now the shift of token economics potentially could have a huge slingshot advantage to create new opportunities, instrumentation, targeted experiences. Seeing that big time here but the plumbing's not yet in place. It's like the roads aren't paved out. When is blockchain going to be good? >> Yeah, so everyone, there's a clear sentiment: blockchain's the future, the visions are amazing. Ironically, the name of the conference is the Blockchain Futurist Conference and so you have some visions of this that are maybe five to 10 years out, but many of what others are working on, it's the here and now, right? >> Yeah. >> You have opportunities that can demonstrate product market fit today. Others maybe within the next 24 months and they're working hard to do that, fostering their communities of early adopters, businesses perhaps, consumers. In the market in general there's this concern, when's the use going to happen. Quite frankly, we're seeing early stage projects, companies going to market extremely quick. Normally this is the stuff that private companies do. You don't hear the successes and failures; most fail. >> Irrational exuberance certainly happening, going on, but that's ending, you're starting to see that with some of the bubble popping a little bit. It's not so much a mega pop, it's more of a big air coming out of it. But I want to ask both you guys, as senior industry players, because I see couple things happening that are eye level: Token economics is driving a new business model innovation. Blockchain is infrastructure, making things go immutable, having advantages of decentralized infrastructure. And the middle between the two is interoperability. These are the core themes. How do we get all those working together and what would be the benefits of all those working together? Interoperability is a big theme of this event. >> Yeah, it starts with obviously having a forum where you can collaborate with like-minded individuals and you're hearing a lot of these conversations happening and getting a sense of what people are working on as well. It's a new emerging technology. In terms of interoperability, I tend to look at integration as perhaps more important than a focus around interoperability, looking at pre-existing systems in the market and really identifying ways where they can slowly, gradually use aspects of or features of blockchain to really start this shift and this movement and this evolution towards web 3.0. >> Julie, your observations about business model innovation, opportunities that marketers and senior people should be thinking about, mindset-wise? >> Loyalty, obviously, would be a great application, but I think there's far more sophisticated business models around actually, again, the communities, the power of networks, right, and artificial intelligence, blockchain and just what the internet and technology is doing to drive those communities and to empower those consumers. That's where this is headed. It seems to me like a very natural extension. I would also say though, that there's a lot of work to be done in corporate America, private or public businesses. There's a lot of infrastructure to build that interoperability and to make it a seamless experience that will either drive value and adoption or won't, and we've seen that with other technologies fail as well. >> We've seen the same classic adopts, cloud computing, same thing >> Absolutely. >> Amazon, no one's ever going to use it. Oh my God, let's make it consumable and easy. Boom, usage goes up. >> Absolutely. >> Same kind of thing going on here. >> Yeah, user interface is evolving for all things blockchain. >> Alright, guys, thanks so much for coming on. Final predictions, you want to dare make a prediction, Al? >> Before a prediction, one of the things I'd really like to highlight for this event really was having the opportunity to share the stage with someone like Larry King. >> Take a minute to explain what happened. Larry King, the legend-- >> Legend. >> Was here, explain what happened. >> The CNN Larry King. We had fellow legends on the stage and I was humbled to be in their presence. Larry King really was here. He had the opportunity to interview some of the brightest minds in blockchain and in a lot of ways help bring legitimacy to this event, let along the space. Conversations that we'd hear in the hallways of people having conversations with people that they know and sharing with them that they were attending this event and oh, is it blockchain, is it bitcoin, you're going to one of those conferences and then mentioning that one of the headliners was Larry King, is all of a sudden-- >> What was he like, what was your impression of him? Certainly getting up there but-- >> I would say it's exactly the Larry King we know. His questions were phenomenal, really engaging and he knew how to direct those questions. Each question he had for the right fellow attendee on stage. It was awesome. >> Awesome. Well, congratulations, a great job. That's a wrap here, live in Toronto, Canada in Ontario with the Futurist Conference CUBE coverage. Special guests, Al Burgio, Julie here at theCUBE. Thanks for watching, see you next time. (upbeat music)

(electronic music) >> Live from Toronto, Canada. It's the Cube. Covering Blockchain Futurist Conference 2018. Brought to you by the Cube. >> Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Cube coverage here in Toronto, Canada. We're in Ontario to the Untraceable Blockchain Futurist Conference. This is day two of two days of coverage. I'm John Furrier, your host. Our next guest is serial entrepreneur, Chris Harper, the CEO of Jereki and Mapogo Ventures. Welcome. >> And ZippedScript. >> And ZippedScript. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Hey, lot of balls in the air, a lot of irons in the fire. Welcome to the Cube. >> Hey, good to have me, man. I'm excited to be here. This is awesome. >> So before we get into, you're a serial entrepreneur, what are you working on now? Take a quick minute, explain. >> Yeah. >> Where the names came from, what do they mean, what are you doing? >> So, first things first, we'll start with Jereki. Jereki is a Japanese proverb which means to achieve enlightenment through one's own efforts. So Jereki is a shell company and we currently run this company, it's called Chase your Drink. It basically is replacing pop and juice as a mix for any hard liquor. No sugar, no calories, nothing artificial and the kicker, we got 90 vitamins in these to combat your hangover the next day. So if you're not drinking with Chase, you're drinking wrong. (laughs) >> It's a chaser. >> Chaser, exactly. >> Yeah. >> And these are in stores like, it'll be in Sobeys, Farm Boy in Canada, GNC soon. And it's going really well. >> Okay, how 'about the venture firm? >> Yes, so the next company is Mapogo Ventures. Mapogo is actually, it comes from a group of lions in the African Savanna that were only six lions, but they dominated the savanna for their whole life span, which is super rare, and they took down animals like giraffes, rhinos, and became legend. It was a folk legend about these Mapogo lions. So Mapogo is a venture firm. We specialize in food and beverage companies. If you're doing something epic, we want to talk to you. And then we also specialize in blockchain cryptocurrency and anything that's on the forefront of what's going on in the tech space. So if anybody's interested, they think they have a great idea, you can reach out to us wherever you guys put contact information, I don't know. >> We'll put it up there. >> Yeah, yeah, definitely. >> What's the website? >> Mapogoventures.com >> Okay, got it. >> Yeah, Mapogoventures.com. >> And how much are you guys investing? What's the kind of round size you guys do? >> So it totally depends. We almost don't have a limit or a minimum. It's all about the team, the idea, where you're going, and what you need. We'll get you what you need. >> Is it a new firm, are you making business? >> It's a new firm, it's a new firm. So we have two companies that we're looking at right now, but we don't have any companies in the portfolio, we're looking to add. >> Great, awesome. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Well any great ideas, check it out. How about crypto? What's your seeing, what's your thing, what are you seeing on crypto? What kind of deals? Obviously the flight to quality right now is starting to see the ICOs kind of burning out here and there, but the ones that are solid are standing and growing in a build-out mode. >> I mean, the whole space right now, everybody's worried about it, right? If you're an outsider, you're looking at it like it's all down. But one thing I did want to say during this interview was this is a great event. Untraceable, they sent up an incredible event and even if you're not into cryptocurrency, if you're a business person, crypto's only been around for, you know, six, seven years. So everybody in this room did something before crypto. Right? So they're all multi-faceted individuals and if you're not in crypto, if you're scared of crypto, if you're hesitant about crypto, if you don't understand it, you should be here. You should be at these events because it's priceless networking and who knows where you can go. >> Plus, starting companies on a down, on down the bottom of the market-- >> Yeah. >> Is when the best companies get built. >> 1000%, you know. What did Warren Buffet say? Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful. Looks to me that the market-- >> Yeah. >> Is incredibly fearful. So maybe you should consider being greedy right now. >> For the people that aren't here, what's the vibe of the show? What's your take, what's the hallway conversations like? >> Yeah, I mean, the vibe of the show. This is actually one of the best conferences I've been to. I've been to a few in New York. This one is incredible. Everyone's so friendly. You can come here, don't know anyone. >> Yeah. >> People will say hi to you. They'll introduce themselves to you. Next thing you know, you had an idea, now you have funding. But it's up to you to make this situation a great situation. >> What's interesting is this sector, blockchain and crypto. >> Yeah. >> Attracts alpha entrepreneurs, alpha engineers. >> Okay. >> You mentioned-- >> Mapogo. >> Smart people are in this world. They've done things before, so this is really interesting. >> Yeah, like people always forget that. They see crypto and they get nervous 'cause like I don't know anything about it. Remember guys, this is a new industry. And we're only in, you know, the first couple innings. This is going to be huge. So come, learn, and surround yourself with killers. >> Alright, what's the coolest thing you've seen so far here? >> The coolest thing I've seen so far. You know, I'm going to be completely honest with you. Larry King. I was so happy to see Larry King and it's awesome that a guy like that is supporting the community, you know. >> Yeah. >> Because this is really a revolutionary technology, the blockchain technology. >> You've done a lot entrepreneurial things since you were 10, you were talking before we came on. >> Yeah. >> How does that help you right now navigate this scene and looking at deals and your own deals and you're building out, you're investing. Other entrepreneurs are coming in, sometimes first time entrepreneurs, how does that help you and what advice would you give other entrepreneurs? >> So I started really young, not knowing where I was going to go. It was kind of just like in my blood. But, you know, you got to get out, you got to talk to people, you know. I always say no deal happens on your couch. You got to jump off the porch. You got to go out, you got to network, you got to meet people. And I started doing that at a young age which got my conversation skills a lot more advanced, so now I can go in and close a deal in 10 minutes where, you know, back in the day, it might take me two hours and I probably wouldn't even close it. So what I would say. >> 10 minutes is a good metric. >> It is. >> That's hey. >> Hey, I don't need to say more or less. If it's an interesting idea, let's go. You should be able to tell me what it is. >> Yeah. >> We should be able to hammer something out. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much what's going on. >> Awesome. And what's some of the plans that you have for your ventures? Let's go back, the zip line, what's that one? >> Oh, yeah, ZippedScript. >> ZippedScript, I'm sorry. >> So I can't talk too much about ZippedScript. It's launching in fall of 2018. ZippedScript is basically going, it is revolutionizing the higher education industry and the transcript section in that industry. And all I can say is we may or may not be using blockchain technology to do it. >> Got it, okay. >> Yeah. >> And how about the chaser, that sounds very cool. >> Yeah, it is really cool. And, I mean, you guys can go to chase your drink.com, check it out. You can head over to our Instagram, Chase Your Drink. It's taken over. You know, this cola flavor I've got here and tropical thunder is pineapple mango, but cola tastes just like Coca-Cola. >> Yeah. >> Without any of the bad ingredients. And it's really taken over. You know, our biggest problem is supply. >> Yeah. >> We just can't produce enough, but we're fixing that problem. >> That's a good problem to have. >> It's a very good problem to have, right. >> How did you get into the venture side? Just you're scratching an itch, you wanted to put some of your money to work, did you raise unlimited partners, how's that, how'd that develop? >> Totally. >> And what's the current situation? >> Yeah, so it was a group of fellow entrepreneurs and we're all working on our own companies, but we're all ADD, right? And we're like I'm doing this, I'm doing that, but we have all these contacts, all these different skill sets, and we're all great friends. So that's another very important thing that most people talk about. Surround yourself with like minded people, but you want them to have different skill sets. >> Awesome. >> I don't want a clone. I have a clone, we're not going to work well together. >> You want added value, you don't want to subtract value. >> Yeah, exactly. So we came together and we're like we have so much value in so many different spaces, we can walk companies through, you know, a proven concept in any industry, food and beverage, cryptocurrency, and basically you won't make mistakes that we made. That's the bottom line. So you'll accelerate your success by working with us. >> Well, Chris, great to have you on. >> Yeah. >> Congratulations on your success. >> It was amazing, man. >> Check out Chase, check out the fund if you've got a great idea, contact Chris, go the cube.net, you can find his information there. I'm John Furrier here in Toronto with all the action here at the Blockchain Futurist Conference where the future's being created, robust industry, people looking at the long term, this is where the action is. Thanks for watching. Stay with us for day two coverage after this short break. (electronic music)