Originally posted here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312153
by Stankevicius MGM
Our list of some of the most interesting and notable entrepreneurs to keep an eye on in 2018 highlights CEOs and founders making waves. Venture capital investment in startups has surged to its highest level ever — $148 billion last year alone. What’s more, in the last 12 months, more than 40 VC-backed companies achieved billion-dollar valuations and joined the unicorn club. At the same time, though, deal count and the number of VC-backed IPOs are down, suggesting that some of the froth in the tech market is falling away and startups are increasingly being required to earn into their valuations. Combine this with solid expansion of the economy, steady job growth, adjustment of the business tax code, and a booming stock market, and you’ve got the most fertile soil for entrepreneurial companies to grow in that we’ve seen in years. Take a look at some of these top millennials, growth hackers, and flat out rockstars that are making strides in 2018:
19. James (JJ) Sowers — Investor
James earned a spot on the list because of his influential investments (17 ICO Unicorns ). His equity investments include Deep Science, Numina. Doorstat, strypes , ShearShare, Numundo, Elyse28, Marlo’s Bakeshop ,Voodoo Manufacturing, Jetpack ,Chirps Chips and Mycroft. James is advisor to Edoopad Healthnexus, SafeCrypt, Stayawhile, butterfly ,squeezer, IOT coins, coinexio Labs , brightcoin.us. and Collective Wisdom Technologies James is a blockchain futurist speaking on May 11th at MIT. He also is starring in “New To The Street exploring the Block series “airing on the Fox Business Network in May 2017.
One startup advised by James is bubbloapp an AI-powered discovery platform that gives users a real-time recommendations on restaurants, bars, or other venues based on a constant flow of user-generated data.
“Blockchain, AI and Quantum computing will bring about exponential technical breakthroughs in Genomics, Space exploration and Urban tech,” James told me. “It is an honor and a privilege to work with the best and brightest founders in the world creating the future in the the new digital revolution.”
