The American concept of holistic admissions is unique due to the difference in the fundamental purpose of a college education. Although a student’s academic performance is still part of the holistic review process, the other key components are the parts within the application that allow students to display their accomplishments – in school and, more importantly, out of school.

“At the end of the day, universities are looking for students who make the university look good after graduation. Each alum, in a way, is the university’s brand ambassador and the best marketing is when a student goes on to have a successful career and not just stay a successful student. That’s what the holistic admission process helps them predict,” says Franklin Song, head of college counseling at leading education consultancy Zenith Prep Academy. “We’ve seen time and time again where top 50 universities prefer accepting students with lower GPAs and standardized test scores over students with higher ones.”

It may sound counterintuitive for universities to accept students with lower GPAs and standardized test scores, but this is clearly shown by universities like Stanford, where 1 in 4 of their students was accepted with below a 4.0 GPA, according to their admissions statistics that are reported to the U.S. Department of Education.

“This shows why universities are looking for students with the greatest potential to excel outside the classroom. Said differently, when universities are choosing between 2 candidates, they are willing to accept the student who might not be as academically gifted but shows strong potential to make meaningful contributions to the world after graduation, over the student who is strong academically but can only memorize information and get high test scores,” Song explains.

Yale University also confirms this, publicly stating on their admissions website that they “look at far more than test scores and grades.”

By working with students as young as fifth graders, Zenith is able to help build their ‘offense’ which identifies students’ academic and extracurricular strengths early on to guide them toward building “a competitive holistic profile to stand out to admissions officers by the time they apply to college.”

“In almost every situation, the offense can help increase a student’s chances of getting accepted into better universities. For example, if your student is high academic achieving and has the best grades and test scores, the offense will help them get accepted over other students with the same profile” Song explains. “Or suppose your student has other strengths where their transcripts and test scores don’t highlight their true potential. In that case, the offense can offset their lower GPAs and SATs to help them get into universities that are 1 to 2 tiers better than they otherwise would’ve gotten into. That’s the power of offense and why it’s such an important but low-hanging fruit that students and families must focus on. And frankly speaking, it’s much easier for most students to increase their chances of admissions through offense by pursuing activities they enjoy outside of the classroom than going to dozens of hours of tutoring only to improve their grades marginally.”

While the measureables of holistic admissions can be linked to success in the classroom (and are certainly important), the most important differentiation in these highly saturated applicant pools occurs in the offense outside the classroom.

The post What Are Holistic Admissions and Why It Matters to Universities appeared first on Grit Daily News.

More than 35,000 people from around the world are set to convene at Enercare Centre next week for the largest tech event to take place in Canada since the pandemic began, including a talk with venture-capital pros Jenny Fielding (The Fund) and Jon Soberg (MS&AD Ventures) with Grit Daily’s Jordan French.

With demand for in-person events increasing rapidly, the number of attendees has grown by 40%, from 25,000 in 2019 to 35,000 in 2022. The number of startups in attendance has grown by 36% to 1,500, outnumbering Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon, which took place last November. Partnerships have also grown 40% YOY, with nearly 250 global partners in 2022, including Snap, Google Cloud, TikTok, AWS, RBC, Siemens, KPMG, CAE, Interac and Crypto.com. Collision’s women in tech program is also sold out, as is the startup space.

The total floor space needed at the Enercare Centre has increased by 54%, from 50,000sqm to 77,000sqm. For the first time, Collision will be using the entire Beanfield Centre building, and will be using outdoor space for food trucks, seating and circulation.

Opening Night, taking place on Monday, June 20, will see Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, Academy Award winning actor Lupita Nyong’o and Manbooker prize winning author Margaret Atwood take the stage.

More than 900 speakers, 1,500 startups, 1,200 journalists, 850 investors and 100 unicorn companies will arrive in Toronto from 140-plus countries, including Grit Daily’s Jordan French and Loralyn Mears, PhD. Founders and CEOs of the world’s most successful tech companies – Substack, Ethereum, Blockchain.com, Flexport, Cardano, Tezos, Binance, BlockFi, Chief, Calendly, Clearco, Cloudflare and many more – will speak across Collision’s 20-plus tracks, including on the brand new Crypto track. Deel, Canva, Trulioo and FalconX are among the more than 100 decacorns and unicorns that will be in attendance and on stage at Collision in what Recode calls “one of the best shows for up-and-coming startups”.

Additionally, thousands of startups will connect with some of the world’s leading investors, including GGV’s Hans Tung, Renegade’s Renata Quintini, Andreessen Horowitz’s Jeff Jordan, Lux’s Deena Shakir and Sequoia’s Andrew Reed. Grit Daily’s annual Collision Speakers & Media Dinner will be held June 21.

The post Collision Conference 2022 in Toronto Sold Out appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The firm behind Startup World Cup, Pegasus Tech Ventures, is a global venture-capital firm with US$2 billion in assets under management. Pegasus offers intellectual and financial capital to emerging technology companies. The corporations for which Pegasus invests – through its venture capital-as-a-service model – typically attend because they want to partner with cutting-edge technology startups. Doing so helps these corporations become more innovative and successful. 

SWC’s past success stories inspire entrepreneurs to apply and corporate executives to attend. Since the company’s participation, The Japanese startup UniFa signed 40+ partners from global corporations, grew revenue to US$30 million, and plans to IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. MIT-born Leuko Labs completed a successful fundraising round and 2019 winner from Vietnam Abivin expanded dramatically, increasing its geographical presence and finalizing a new funding round. 

The excitement is ramping up as entrepreneurs prepare for the SWC Silicon Valley Regional Competition on June 2, 2022, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. 

The winning startup will join 70+ other global finalists at the SWC Grand Finale on September 30, 2022. The winner will receive a US$1 million investment prize – enough to turn dreams into reality and change the lives of everyone involved. Confirmed speakers include Nikesh Arora, Chairman & CEO of Palo Alto Networks; Spencer Rascoff, Co-Founder of Pacaso and Zillow; Ryan Kavanaugh, Principal & Co-Founder of Triller; Jordan French, Founder & Executive Editor at Grit Daily; and Marianna Tessel, CTO of Intuit.

It will be exciting to see the amazing business and technology ideas presented at the Startup World Cup. No doubt some of the smartest startup founders, investors, and corporate executives from around the world will join the event to network and to collaborate with other creative thinkers.

For tickets, see this link.

The post <strong>Everything You Need to Know about the Startup World Cup</strong> appeared first on Grit Daily News.

1. An invoice got him into crypto 

Stefan fell into crypto in 2012 when a developer for his company Exicon asked to be paid in Bitcoin. This prompted an OTC purchase via eBay and PayPal whose speed left the CEO agape, particularly in comparison to the sweaty walk he had just taken to cash a cheque in Hong Kong.

2. He helped bring mobile to China

Back in the 1990s, Stefan was instrumental in bringing mobile technology to China when he set up four mobile networks in the country. He sold these to China Unicom in 1999 when they needed the assets to go public, paving the way for a new wave of technological innovation.

3. When he grew up, he wanted to be a cowboy 

As a young boy, Stefan’s ultimate dream was to be a cowboy, or a fireman: something on the “frontier.” This is why, he says, he got into crypto, whose wild, uncharted territory and ability to open up finance to the masses attracted the renegade entrepreneur.  

4. Sir Robert Black GCMG OBE was his grandfather 

Stefan’s grandfather was Sir Robert Black, who was the Governor of Singapore and then Governor of Hong Kong between 1955 and 1964. During his tenure, he ensured Hong Kong didn’t go dry by brokering a deal with China for water during the historic drought of 1962-64.

5. Android has a lot to thank him for 

Stefan Rust was involved in instrumental acquisitions and investments during the lead up to launching a Java-based iPhone competitor, which his firm announced at JavaONE. This ultimately opened the door to Android and a whole new world of mobile possibilities.

6. He’s a world-class swimmer  

Perhaps fitting for the CEO of “Laguna”, Stefan is a keen swimmer. In-fact, he is a world masters swimmer, claiming the title of fourth fastest in the world for 50 metre free style and sixth fastest in the world for 50 metre backstroke at the Budapest World Masters Championship.

7. He learned when to let go the hard way

Among Stefan’s key life lessons, he says knowing when to call it quits is the most important. After moving heaven, earth, and a lot of capital to keep a business venture alive that just wasn’t working, he recommends not following the “keep at it” mantra if you really shouldn’t. 

8. With Laguna, he’s finally going to crack the crypto nut

Stefan is a true crypto believer, but he’s frustrated with how slow the industry has been to found the next Google or Facebook: a company that can transform the world based on new technology. With Laguna, though, he thinks he can. 

9. Cookies & Cream is his favorite ice cream 

When he can’t get his hands on some Hong Kong-style bubble tea, Stefan’s guilty pleasure is ice cream. And when he can’t get his hands on Molten Malteser Vanilla Fluff Flavor, he’ll settle for old fashioned Cookies & Cream.

10. He wants to liberate the world through crypto 

Like a true cowboy, Stefan is not the biggest fan of lawmakers – particularly ones that are ramping-up inflation. With Truflation and Nuon, Stefan hopes to finally give the average Joanne an opportunity to preserve her wealth and build a stable financial future.

Looking to catch Stefan Rust during Consensus Festival-Austin? He’ll be at DCentral and then on stage at Grit Daily House-Consensus, especially June 10, along with Robin Guyard and Cameron Lee from Laguna. Joining them will be Rachel Wolfson (CoinTelegraph), Doug Horn (Telos), Blake Commagere (Vault12), Chad Steelberg (Veritone), James Wo (JSquare), Caitlin Long (Custodia Bank), Miles Paschini (FV Bank), Jenn Sanasie (CoinDesk) and Laila Maidan and Katie Canales from Business Insider, among others.

Alongside some of the best content during Consensus, Grit Daily House will boast Cookies & Cream ice cream, too. 

The post 10 Things You Didn’t Know about Stefan Rust appeared first on Grit Daily News.

DCENTRAL, also an official satellite event to Consensus, runs June 7 and 8 and boasts over 2,000 attendees, with on-stage content on 3 stages, plenty of alpha, giveaways, and some of the best speakers in town to kick off Consensus Festival in Austin.

Held at the Long Center of Performing Arts (just south of the river), DCENTRAL Austin will showcase a variety of booths, talks, experiences and networking opportunities for the growing crypto industry. 

On DCENTRAL’s website you’ll see rows of speakers, including Brandon Hoffman of Samsung NEXT, Preston Woo of TaFi/Daz3d, Elena Sinelnikova from Metis, Tor Bair of Secret Network, Luca Netz of Pudgy Penguins, Matty (DCL Blogger) from Metakey and Alex Mayes of Coinbase NFT, along with Jordan French, Grit Daily (and sister publication, BlockTelegraph) founder and Executive Editor. 

For those in Grit Daily’s audience, we want you to go, so pick up a ticket here and for updates, drop into DCENTRAL’s Discord channel. (Grit Daily’s audience gets 30% off.)

On June 8, Grit Daily House (in Google Maps as Grit Daily House) opens early, on the “eve of Consensus” from 5-8pm Central Time for a collaboration with ally, CryptoMondays, and Lou Kerner, CEO of Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition Corp. (NASD:BCSA), which was a notable “SPAC” that filed last year. 

Grit Daily House-Consensus, boasts the Consensus Media Stage, flanked by Ozzy the bartender with drinks du jour and a private chef grilling shrimp and seared steak tips along with amuse bouche and canapés in quintessentially Austin flavors. 

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Grit Daily House runs June 8, 9, 10 with collaborations from Linqto and CSO Karim Nurani, Laguna and CEO Stefan Rust, and CryptoMondays, among others, with moderators from Axios, Bloomberg, Business Insider, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, and other news outlets befit of a proper media house.

Grit Daily Startup Show with veteran podcaster Sebastian Rusk will record episodes live throughout the day on June 9 and 10. For tickets to Grit Daily House, click here.  

The post DCENTRAL, Grit Daily House, Announce Alliance for Consensus Festival appeared first on Grit Daily News.

• The Global Investor Conference (GIC) will take place May 18th-19th at the Nova Business School in Lisbon, Portugal.
• The event is hosted by Linqto, the technology-enabled investment platform that provides accredited investors access to global private securities markets, and will have a virtual live stream for anyone in the world to view and participate in the event. 
• Tickets and/or Virtual Attendance? Click here.

“2022 has already experienced great change in the form of NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and more,”  said Karim Nurani, CSO of Linqto and co-founder of GIC. “This is just a tiny taste of what is to come and we have to stay abreast of the future. When you dissect a concept or an investment you require a 360-degree perspective which is why we host the conference. We identify leading thinkers, brilliant minds, and investors. We learn from their perspectives and have in-depth conversations that are immersive, informative, but also extremely important and quite enjoyable. From there we can make informed investment decisions.”

The Global Investor Conference brings together investors from around the world to explore the explosive growth driving innovation and change. From the astronomical growth rate of crypto adoption and its impact on the financial system at large to the implementation of digital-first approaches to traditional experiences, including the metaverse, NFTs, and the rapid expansion and evolution of the Internet, GIC covers it all. Today’s startup founders are pragmatic at heart—building elegant solutions for real-world problems of scale, access, and reliability. The resulting technology is changing how the world does business. GIC brings these founders together with investors and thought leaders from across industries to discuss these developments and build connections that will power the future of innovation in technology. 

“We’re hosting the Global Investor Conference in Lisbon because it is swiftly becoming Europe’s most attractive tech hub,” said Nurani. “Boasting 7 unicorns, low operating costs, access to high-quality talent, and sunshine! It’s fast becoming a maturing ecosystem one should be a part of.”

Speakers include Matthew Le Merle, Lisa Carmen Wang, Greg Kidd, Michael Casey, Susan Miller, Jordan Harry, and more! Local contribution includes Nuno Miguel Alves, Euclides Major, Bibi Sattar Marques, and Bernardo Corrêa de Barros. With 15 panels and over 50+ industry experts and journalists, you can gain access to the incredible live conversations by registering online, which will also provide access to the videos after the event if you’re unable to watch live.

Grit Daily and sister publication, BlockTelegraph News, are media partners to Global Investor Conference. After GIC, come see Linqto at Consensus Festival Austin, Grit Daily House, the host of Consensus Media Stage, June 8-12.

For those uninitiated on Linqto, Forbes called it a “private investment app that helps users identify worthwhile,” and Grit Daily called it 2022’s “Breakout Investment App.”

Linqto makes it simple to access global private securities markets. By accessing its efficient technology-enabled investment platform, accredited investors can identify, evaluate, invest in and trade securities in the world’s leading private companies. Linqto also provides founders, venture capital investors, and employees liquidity without having to wait for an IPO, acquisition, or other liquidity event. Linqto makes investing in private markets as simple as investing in public markets.

The post Linqto to Host the Global Investor Conference in Lisbon with Accredited Investors and Entrepreneurs appeared first on Grit Daily News.

After founding the company in the 1990’s as a recent college graduate, Mauricio has now grown the firm into an authority in design thinking which boasts a team of more than 1,000 people in offices around the world. MJV has also become a platform for Mauricio to give back, launching tech education programs such as their Data Science School and RPA School, which are tuition free online training programs to help new professionals gain the skill sets to work in technology.

We connected with Mauricio to learn more about the early days of the firm, the lessons he learned scaling a 1,000+ person company and his advice for other entrepreneurs.

GritDaily: Can you tell us about founding MJV and what the early days were like?

Mauricio Vianna: I founded MJV Innovation in 1997. As a recent university graduate, and after leaving the Chicago Board of Trade Clearing Corp to accompany my family back to Rio de Janeiro, I was invited to work in banking as an individual consultant. My role was in helping the bank to develop an integrated and innovative Teller and ATM system. This project showed me a lot of challenges facing the entire financial industry with providing cutting edge customer experiences through IT. It was at that point that other financial companies began reaching out to hire me in a consulting capacity. That was when the idea of MJV was born.

As I began taking on additional consulting clients, I eventually realized that it was time to secure my own office space and begin building our team. I then reduced my work in banking to build MJV full time. I was also blessed to have my father and mentor, Ysmar Vianna, join the company very early on as my most important advisor. To this day, he serves as the chairman of MJV.

The early days of the company involved many long days. Building a successful company brought many challenges so those were difficult times. But as our momentum grew, I knew that we were serving a critical need in the marketplace that global companies across many sectors needed.

What important lessons did you learn that helped you grow the company to more than 1,000 employees today?

MV: The first lesson is that there is nothing more important in a company’s culture than how its employees are treated. From the beginning we made it a priority to build a team around kindness, respect and mentorship. We would not have been able to grow to more than 1,000 people around the world today if it were not for our guiding values around how we treat our people. Much of our success today is due to the fantastic people who work in our organization and the investment we strive to make in them everyday.

What were some of the hardest challenges of entrepreneurship?

MV: Growing a business is always difficult. In the early days you are struggling as an entrepreneur to do so much of the work by yourself, and then as your team grows, you have enormous responsibilities of leadership. Our greatest focus lies on taking care of our employees and our clients. Staying on the cutting edge of culture, technology and leadership is the most challenging and most rewarding part of building a large organization.

How can leaders cultivate a team and culture that fosters innovation and creativity?

MV: As a company who helps some of the largest brands in the world become more innovative through strategies involving design thinking, data analytics, and business transformation, it has been very important since day one that we practice what we preach within our own organization.

We have been blessed to build a highly agile, resilient culture using the very framework that we implement for clients like Coca-Cola, Delta, BNP Paribas and more. At the forefront is having a culture that is open and curious, asking questions and building an environment where teams can work together to creatively solve problems.

Tools like design thinking and business transformation have never been more critical in the toolbox of c-suite teams. As the world we are in becomes more volatile and unpredictable, organizations cannot plan for every unexpected scenario. Instead they need resilient, agile cultures that can adapt and innovate in any environment.

The post CEO’s Lessons From Building a 1,000+ Person Global Consultancy appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Grit Daily: It’s been six months since “mint day.” Bring us up to speed on what’s happened since then.

Sean Kelly: It’s definitely been a busy six months at Chibi Dinos. Since launch, our community and basketball fans have loved our NBA team Captains, and we’ve continued to grow our presence in that space. Most recently we’ve signed PJ Washington and Terance Mann who have both represented Chibi Dinos on the court through custom sneakers.

With the initial drop being 2 dimensional art, one of the things that excited the community the most was the upcoming 3D render of the Chibi Dinos. We were so happy to work with Infinite World to transform our original 10k collection into playable 3D model assets. We’re really looking forward to releasing these 3D models to our 2D holders in the coming weeks!

Everyone was excited by the soft beta launch of our NBA predictive game, Primal Pick’Em, where players can make guesses on live NBA games to earn prizes. We’ve also continued to reward our holders and active users with things such as NBA tickets and merch. These giveaways really help us emphasize the connection we’re trying to build between the physical world and the metaverse. It is exciting to know that we are all still in the beginnings of the Web3 space. With this in mind, we continuously try to get our community more involved in Web3 through valued partnerships with projects such as Galaxy Fight Club, Pixels, and Antebellum.  

We have been loving and taking advantage of all the in person Web3 events, where we have been lucky enough to create new friendships and widen our user base. Most recently, we were at Miami NFT Week where we had a Chibi Dinos event, and I had the pleasure of speaking in front of 5,000 prospective users and investors. We used this opportunity to release the cinematic trailer for our Primal Hoop game and the response was overwhelmingly positive. People are really excited to see this game come out and it’s only the beginning!

Grit Daily: What’s behind the Chibi Dinos name? 

Sean Kelly: My co-founder and I wanted to create a project that incorporated things we both like! My favorite sport is basketball and I knew I wanted to incorporate a jersey to honor my first company, Jersey Champs, she wanted to put it on some sort of animal. We brainstormed and realized that nobody had really done dinos before and she has always found them so interesting. So we decided to mix Chibis and Dinosaurs together to create the alien creature called a Chibi Dino. We thought this would be appealing to a wide range of audiences because they’re cute but have some unique physical characteristics that make them pretty cool. Our plan was to create a brand with strong community values that is both globally recognizable and loved, and what better way to do that than to include things that bring us and potentially so many others together.

Grit Daily: What in the world are Chibi Dinos? 

Sean Kelly: Some people think they are just people in mascot costumes, but we decided to take the Chibi Dinos to the extreme. Chibi Dinos are actually Alien creatures from a Hoop shaped planet called Planet Hoop. For them, basketball is like a religion and their whole society revolves around these Primal Hoop rituals we recognize as basketball. We figured doing this would give us more room to create exciting and strange new stories that might have been limited if the Chibi Dinos were only mascots.

Grit Daily: How does Chibi Dinos relate to gaming? 

Sean Kelly: The whole backbone of our brand has been built and centers around gaming in the Web 3 space. We’ve really built this brand from the ground up to be focused on gaming in all its forms. From real world basketball to digital gaming, we’re hoping to make Chibi Dinos a gaming lifestyle brand through and through. This of course starts with the great partnerships we’ve been able to build.

The first partner we went public with was GameOn. We were really excited about this because their production officer, Santiago Jaramillo, has been responsible for working on the FIFA franchise for over a decade as well as having worked with Dapper labs to launch NBA Top Shot. GameOn was also really excited to work with us on the game because of our ties to NBA athletes and because we were one of the first NFT projects that they partnered with so closely. 

After lots of great collaboration between GameOn and Chibi Dinos, we’ve been fortunate to launch the world’s first NFT backed NBA predictive game, Primal Pick’Em. This game will give players an opportunity to win prizes from making guesses on the outcomes of live basketball games in the NBA and other professional leagues.

Chibi Dinos were also fortunate to connect with our partners, Infinite World, who recreated our 2D NFTs into 3D models that can be used all over the Metaverse. With these 3D models, annyone will be able to participate in a wide range of traditional games, whether they’re arcade style, RPG, fighting, strategy, or other games that are being built out by our many NFT partner projects. With the 3D Chibi Dino model you’re not limited to just having access to one game, but rather you will have access to a whole ecosystem that has multiple games with multiple different earning opportunities. 

Grit Daily: What else is in store for its community? 

Sean Kelly: These next few months are going to be crazy. I’ve already mentioned how we released our beta version of the world’s first NFT backed predictive game, Primal Pick’Em, but on May 9th it will be open for everyone to play. 

Around that time, we’re also going to officially launch our governance token HOOP, which will be available on 2 launchpads: GameStarter and Ignition. This will truly mark the beginning of our gaming ecosystem, since the HOOP token will be the main governance token for the Chibi Dinos Metaverse. 

As we get closer to the beta for our arcade game, we’re also going to allow people who have our 2D Chibi Dinos to redeem their 3D Chibi Dinos. This way, community members can start to use their Chibi Dinos in the Metaverse and also play in the beta of Primal Hoop, which is scheduled to launch in Q3. 

As the year moves forward we’re also going to be announcing other partnerships and great opportunities for our community. We’ll be at NFT NYC and have some exciting events planned for guests and Chibi Dino holders. 

Grit Daily: What other NFT projects have you collaborated with?

Sean Kelly: Right now our three biggest and closest partnerships are with Galaxy Fight Club, Pixels.online, and Antebellum. We’re selective about who we partner with, but I’m sure as more great projects come into the space we’ll be growing our list of quality partners.

Grit Daily: How can people best engage with the Chibi Dinos community? 

Sean Kelly: The best way to be part of the Chibi Dinos community right now is to join our discord. That’s where we have the most up to date announcements and information, as well as a thriving community of friends and partners that are always around to chat and just hang out. We’d love to see you there!

Grit Daily: What kind of benefits can you get from holding a Chibi Dino NFT? 

Sean Kelly: There’s lots of things to say about the benefits of holding a Chibi Dino NFT, but one of my favorite parts has definitely been becoming part of a community. We’re always here to help each other out, give advice, teach each other new things, or just joke around. I’m really proud of how great our community is and am hopeful that it will continue to grow and spread positive and helpful attitudes in the Web 3 space.

In addition to the community, there’s an obvious benefit to holding 2D Chibi Dino NFTs because they’ll give you access to the 3D Chibi Dino models that will be used in all our games and the Metaverse. With these you’ll be able to participate in Play and Earn gaming both in the Chibi Dinos ecosystem and our NFT partner’s ecosystems, along with the potential to earn additional Chibi Dinos, Gear (Chibi asset) NFTs, and participate in staking.

We also want to continue to provide our Chibi Dino holders with real world benefits for holding our NFTs, whether it’s discounts, merch, real-world access to events and clubs, access to exclusive content, or meet and greets. We’re constantly trying to add as much value, benefits, and utility to our project so that our community always knows how thankful we are for their support and engagements.

Grit Daily: What’s been your favorite Chibi Dino’s hosted event so far? 

Sean Kelly: Miami was a great time. We met lots of exciting projects and made some awesome connections in the space. It was a great opportunity for us to meet with people face to face, and we even had Chibi Dino themed ice cream to hand out!

Grit Daily: Do Chibi Dinos always wear their jerseys?

Sean Kelly: Not necessarily. Each Jersey represents a different land in the Chibi Dino’s world, but some Chibi Dinos might choose to wear regular clothes, or even none at all. In the first issue of our comic none of the Chibis are wearing gear and we learned why some of the gear they wear is special. 

Grit Daily: Where can people find more information about the project and future updates?

Sean Kelly: The best way to learn about Chibi Dinos is at our website, and join us on Discord to really get a feel for what it’s like to be part of the community.

The post Chibi Dinos Bids for Staying Power in Crowded NFT Market appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Web Summit Rio will join the roster of international events organized by Web Summit, which already includes Collision in North America, RISE in Asia, and the flagship Web Summit, which takes place in Lisbon every November.

Web Summit Rio is another milestone for the Dublin-based company as it expands in response to increasing demand for relevant travel and in-person gatherings post-pandemic. After receiving bids from several cities across Brazil, Web Summit has selected Rio de Janeiro as the new event’s host city for the next three years.

Brazil has a rapidly expanding tech and startup economy. It is home to 21 unicorn companies, and Rio de Janeiro’s reputation as a startup hub is gaining international recognition, including from Grit Daily.

Web Summit Rio will be the largest tech event in Brazil, which is the world’s ninth largest economy and the only Latin American nation listed among the 10 leading global unicorn markets.

The first year of the event will host 10,000+ attendees from around the world, and will take place at Riocentro – one of the most versatile convention centers in Brazil, with almost 87,000 sq m of indoor space.

“We are delighted to bring a brand new Web Summit event to one of the most iconic cities in the world. I hope and expect Web Summit Rio will become one of the largest tech events in the world. Rio is widely seen as one of the hottest destinations for the tech industry. International investors are looking at Latin America, and Brazil in particular, attracted by some of the hottest startups in the region. Last year alone, Brazil saw 10 more companies hitting unicorn status, while Brazilian startups raised US$9.4 billion – triple what was raised in 2020. We feel it is the place to be right now, and we can’t wait to have our first Web Summit Rio there in 2023.” –  Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit founder and CEO.

“The support of Brazilian public and private entities – and, in particular, the commitment of Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio – were essential in bringing this brand new Web Summit event to Rio. We are very excited to continue the global expansion of Web Summit, and we can’t wait to welcome thousands of attendees, partners and exhibitors to such an amazing venue and city.” – Artur Pereira, Web Summit’s country manager for Portugal and one of the main architects of the deal.

“Rio has always been the stage for important themes to the world. Now, once again, we will lead the region while bringing together the best companies, talents and investors to discuss technology and innovation.

Rio has a tradition of hosting major international events, and we are proud to have been chosen as the first city in Latin America to host this major event.” – Mayor Eduardo Paes of Rio de Janeiro.

“Web Summit Rio marks the beginning of a partnership between the city of Rio and the Web Summit group to transform the tech ecosystem in Latin America. We are confident that Web Summit has found its new home for the next decade, and certain that they will be an important partner in building a more sustainable, technological and inclusive city together with us. Welcome, Web Summit Rio. The stage is yours.”

The post Paddy Cosgrave Picks Rio de Janeiro for Next Web Summit Debut appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The demand for remote work and automation with AI is growing, fueling the rise of innovations such as “decentralized finance” (DeFi) and NFTs. With new policies in place on major advertising platforms such as the iOS 14 updates, established players in the space will be some of the most interesting people to watch in 2022 to see how they navigate their businesses during these uncertain times. 

Here are the movers and shakers who have overcome tribulations and pivoted to achieve great things while continuing to set trends and innovation in their industries.

Don Hobbs

As the former president of Success Magazine, Don has been quoted for over 35 years as one of Realtor Magazine’s “Top 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate after training over 1 million agents.

Elena Cardone

Bestselling author of the book “Build An Empire” and in-demand speaker, Elena has traveled the globe sharing her insight and experiences building an empire with her husband Grant Cardone whilst creating an extraordinary life for her family.

Imran Tariq

As a #1 WSJ best-selling author, pioneer in multilingual marketing, and expert in scaling companies through Google Ads and SEO, Imran has built his top-rated East Coast marketing agency on the belief that trust is everything.

Chris Winfield

Known worldwide as the “Super Connector”, Chris has built his brand on teaching thousands of people how to build genuine relationships. He’s used this principle to sell a company for $1.7 billion and become editor at Thrive Global.

Sofia Castro

After Sofia and her husband Bobby turned an $1800 investment into a one-billion dollar company, she discovered the power of multi-family real estate and has since built over $400 million in cash flow positive Real Estate.

Aimee Tariq

#1 Multiple WSJ best-selling author, Aimee has built a name for herself by consulting billionaires and celebrities wives on a variety of subjects from holistic health to personal image branding.

Barbara Majeski

After surviving stage-3 cancer, Barbara rose to national fame as the “Curator of the Good Life”, inspiring audiences to get out of their own way & live their best life with purpose, style and adventure.

Chad Dillow

CEO of Primal Steakhouse. After building one of the most innovative spaces in Las Vegas, this serial entrepreneur discovered how to turn a basic restaurant into a unique medieval experience that families and kids can’t get enough of.

Sabrina Stocker

As a finalist on The Apprentice UK, Sabrina built her own viral PR campaigns that took her Shopping Slot tech company to 3 million views in 6 weeks. She now helps others build wildly successful brands through Public Relations.

Trevor Houston

Trevor Houston is CEO of ClearPath Wealth Strategies. He specializes in handling 401k rollovers, as well as, helping job seekers get noticed to create opportunities & regain their main source of income. Trevor Houston has built his legacy on helping hungry job-seekers make successful career transitions through intentional financial planning and strategic visibility.

Akemi Sue Fisher

Akemi quickly became one of the most trusted and sought after e-commerce consultants in the world after her agency, Love & Launch, helped startups to Fortune 500 companies achieve over $2 billion in sales through various e-commerce platforms.

Jeremy Adams

CEO of Unicorn Innovations, Jeremy went from waiting tables to creating an industry-leading food truck business that landed him on Forbes’ 30 under 30 and became founding partner of Quantum Media with Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington and Maxwell Finn.

Gretta Rose Van Riel

Gretta launched her first successful startup SkinnyMe Tea at the age of 22 with $24 in the bank. Her bravery paid off, with SMT exploding to sell over 11 million cups of tea worldwide in 5 years.

Tyler Wagner

#1 WSJ best-selling author and founder of Authorsunite, a book marketing company that scaled to 7 figures through partnerships and utilizing his network of joint venture partners, Wagner now teaches other entrepreneurs how to do the same.

Josue Pena

Deemed the “#1 leader in Instagram growth hacking,” Josue has built a 7-figure company using Instagram and helps others do the same. His expertise has led to endorsements from Grant Cardone, Les Brown and speaking on Russell Brunson’s stage.

Lauren Tickner

After turning her fitness-coach side hustle into a seven-figure business by 23, Lauren now helps others achieve the same success in their businesses. Lauren stresses the importance of creating a need for your brand with your clientele.

Justin Winn Waller

Justin is the youngest board member of the MBCEA (Metal Building Contractors and Erectors Association) and owner of an 8-figure construction and real estate company that employs 90 people in over 10 states.

JB Owen

JB is a world-class speaker, 17-time bestselling author, publisher, and global business owner. She is the Founder and CEO of Ignite Moments Media and Ignite Publishing – responsible for publishing over 700 authors to date.

Jeremy Anderson

From failing in school to facing an ADHD diagnosis and years of drug and alcohol abuse, Jeremy now dedicates his life to helping others bounce back. He’s spoken to millions and trained thousands on launching their own speaking career.

Lauren Gordon

After leaving her hometown on a one-way ticket across the world and growing a successful consulting business while having three babies in three years all by the age of 26, Lauren empowers entrepreneurs to share their stories.

Zachary Trebbi

Zach had an interest in finance since he was a child that led to an early college start at 16, followed by a Doctorate. In 2020, Zach met Joshua Kiley and formed the popular online financial educational company CEO Watchlist.

Jessica Walker

CMO of FluidFi and content creator for coinmarketcap, Jessica is a highly skilled media professional with significant experience in the gaming and emerging tech sectors. She has worked with and managed several international media teams.

Anna Zege

Anna has built one of the fastest growing at home service companies for dog grooming especially during the pandemic as all the grooming salons were shut. The convenience and full control for pet owners to have this at home means they will pay a premium even as we slowly return to normal from the pandemic.

Kyle Sonlin

Founding Partner, Security Token Group and CEO, Security Token Market. Kyle is an advisor and investor who, after working with blockchain technology since 2015, speaks around the world as a thought-leader in the security token space.

Bailey Proulx

Bailey is an expert in scaling through paid advertising. After scaling his own ad campaigns to over $5000 a day to sell high ticket offers, he learned specifically what works for KPI optimization points and target objective to spend ratios.

Maxwell Finn

Maxwell co-founded his first agency, Quantum Media, with Jeremy Adams and Kevin Harrington. The agency ran ads and funnels for Fortune 500 companies, including 3M. He’s now educated over 3,000 students through his popular Facebook Ads course.

Jeremy Axel

Through his company Fluent Conveyors, Jeremy helps companies reduce their downtime and increase production with high quality conveyors. He’s known as an industry leader for building trusted relationships with dealer and reseller networks.

David Schloss

Founder of Convert ROI, David’s expertise lies in the psychology of running high converting Facebook advertising campaigns. David’s proprietary methods of “Contextual Congruence” are responsible for millions of dollars in revenue for his clients every year.

Marc Angelo Coppla

Co-founder of Valhalla Coop Farms and founder of Superhero Academy, Marc is dedicated to making an impact through his community on a farm outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He teaches others how to build a self sustaining lifestyle.

Herwig Konings

After advising one of the first Security Token Offerings in history in 2017, Herwig founded Security Token Group, a company that provides financial media, tokenization consulting, and investment products using blockchain technology.

Ximena Garcia

A leading DEI driven entrepreneur in Latin America, Ximena is the CEO & Founder of EQUALS TRUE, and the co-founder of ATHENAWORKS. Both are dedicated to the empowerment of minorities, women and the disadvantaged in the technology industry.

Joshua Kiley

Cofounder of CEO Watchlist, Joshua is a genius at content creation and works with co-founder Zachary Trebbi to simplify the complexity of investing and the stock market for new investors. He’s passionate about helping people change their financial trajectory.

Sabrina Starling

International best-selling author of The 4 Week Vacation, Sabrina is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. She’s on a mission to disrupt the traditional story of “hustle culture” in entrepreneurship.

Jeremy Sigal

Multiple best-selling author and public speaker Jeremy is a force to be reckoned with as a serial entrepreneur who’s built multiple seven-figure companies with zero ad spend, all through deep directional relationships.

Shay Rowbottom

After amassing billions of impressions through her own video content and averaging over one billion views per month for her clients, Shay now focuses on helping business owners use organic video content to close more deals on Linkedin.

Maria Prieto

What started as a fitness coaching business quickly changed after Maria took her coaching profits, started investing into crypto, and grew a 7-figure income. Maria now teaches others how to make 7 figures a year through crypto.

Kerri Kasem

Kerri Kasem is a multimedia personality and humanitarian. She is the preeminent advocate against elder abuse in the United States as founder of the Kasem Cares Foundation  – fighting against guardians that attempt to exploit seniors and separate them from loved ones.

Emilie Edberg

Emilie pioneered social e-commerce upon co-founding Shopping Roulette. Coming from the events and fashion industry and working with the Kardashians and UK Royal Family inspired Emilie to create customer experiences that the VIPs are used to.

Keala Kane

Being the #1 affiliate in the world for the Clickfunnels and Moonstream Investment newsletter, Keala knows how to implement systems, funnels and traffic in a way that gets massive results. Keala also teaches others how to do the same.

Billy Carson

Billy Carson II is an American entrepreneur, best selling author, TV host, producer, actor, director, and expert in Ancient Civilizations. He is the founder of 7 figure company 4biddenknowledge TV, a TV network known for showcasing conscious documentaries.

Sarah P. Antonella

As a beauty influencer, business strategist and three times bestselling author, Sarah is an expert in negotiating six figure contracts with Fortune 500 companies. She focuses on helping women entrepreneurs close huge deals confidently.

Maggie Berghoff

Maggie is a Functional Medicine Nurse Practitioner and health consultant. She is the founder and CEO of Celproceo, a cutting-edge health and wellness agency rooted in functional and integrative medicine, trusted by celebrities, professional athletes, and executives.

Brian Hess

Brian is the CEO of The Pavement Group, which is the largest pavement company in the east coast as well as top contractor school. Brian believes in utilizing direct response marketing strategies as well as hiring the top talent with the best customer service will allow you to scale any company.

Nick Paladis

Nick helps motivated thought leaders increase their impact and income by crafting a consistent message and using a proprietary content-creation process to create books, articles, and other content that build deep relationships with their audience.

Kentaro Roy

After growing up poor in a military family, Kentaro started freelancing as a web designer which grew into an international digital marketing agency by the time he was in his early twenties, allowing him to exit for 7 figures.

JayJay Live

Jay Jay is an engaging speaker who captivates crowds globally and teaches on personal branding With over 57 million views on YouTube and one million followers on Instagram, he teaches how to show up with consistency and positive energy.

Elizabeth Prairie

As a digital nomad and social media expert whose clients have been picked up by Forbes and CNN, Elizabeth believes that strategy is crucial for success on each platform if you want an ROI rather than arbitrary numbers like engagement.

Brandon Ivan Pena

Brandon is the founder of 787 Coffee Co., one of the fastest-growing coffee shops in the United States, including Puerto Rico. What started in Manhattan has expanded to 7 locations in under 2 years by putting their customers first.

Colin Boyd

Colin is obsessed with helping entrepreneurs sell from stage in a way that is neither pushy nor sleazy. He keynotes at conferences around the world on topics like persuasive communication ideas. His clients include Coca Cola, Suncorp, and Fuji Xerox.

Mark Stephen Pooler

Mark is a best selling author, founder, media & news publisher and editor-in-chief at MSP News Global where he oversees the company’s media and intersection with global business leaders. He helps people get placed in major TV and podcasts.

The post These Are the 50 Top Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2022 appeared first on Grit Daily News.