DecentraNet continues to grow our advisory team by inviting industry experts to serve our clients. We’re delighted to welcome Simeon Schnapper, a deeply-experienced blockchain and impact entrepreneur and investor.
Simeon Schnapper has joined the DecentraNet team as an advisor. Having been at the forefront of many trending and emerging industries, Simeon has led several successful startup teams. He brings significant experience and expertise to our team, and we’re honored to have his contributions complement our efforts.
Here are some of his highlights:
- Founded Youtopia, an engagement and gamification platform and winner of the 4th Annual Digital Media Learning Competition supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- As trustee and president of the Hinman Foundation, a nonprofit focused on making grants to community-based organizations he formulated the vision and led all efforts on the ground in Tibet, Nepal, Myanmar, India, Mongolia, and Bhutan.
- Oversaw grants to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
- As the founder of a multinational trading and manufacturing company, he led sustainability and innovation from Shanghai for 7 years where they shipped some of the world’s first bioplastic products to the largest retailers in the world.
- Simeon produced, directed, wrote, and starred in DOT, a feature-length critically-acclaimed comedy on Showtime and multi-festival award-winning darling.
- Founded the world’s first Visionary Art Gallery and Medical Marijuana Dispensary praised as a paradigm shift at the very beginning of the end of prohibition as featured in the Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone.
- As a faculty member of the Second City Conservatory, he taught thousands of students over many years.
- He is a managing partner of the JLS Fund and co-founded the Family Office Funding Challenge located in New York City.
- Born into a Peace Corps family, his early life was spent on assignment overseas where the ethos of exploration and helping others became deeply ingrained in his belief system.
- Simeon is also an Aspen Institute Fellow.
Tell us about your background. Where do you hail from and what is your story?
I grew up on the northside of Chicago. Our modest home was always filled with refugees. My folks met in the Peace Corps. We traveled and lived all over the place and when we weren’t abroad, we had a very open-door policy. That lifestyle gave me a perspective that instilled gratitude. I loved acting as a kid and continued theater whenever I could. Eventually, I started my first business in college. As the web exploded, through my love of emerging technologies (and reading tech manuals) I was introduced to everything else I’ve been getting my hands dirty with all of these years.
How did you come to be an advisor at DecentraNet?
I was a fan of DecentraNet since meeting some of the founders a couple of years ago and always look forward to the insightful perspective in their newsletters.
What do you find as your most valuable asset to offer clients and partners of DecentraNet?
Listening.
What accomplishment, to date, are you the proudest of?
That’s a tough one, but probably some of the work I do with my charity overseas or some of the work here in the US in underserved communities.
If you could offer just one piece of general (but oft-forgotten) advice to any startup in disruptive or transformative technology industries, what would it be?
Smell the roses. In the mad dash of simply keeping up with everything, don’t forget to play.
There are many industries undergoing disruption and many new industries emerging. What specific industry is most exciting to you, and why?
Transtech-aided consciousness and nutritional alkaloids powered by blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Where’s your favorite place in the world, and why?
Ghana or The Playa because they all equally feel like home.
If you could be any animal, which would you be? And why?
A Dolphin, because click, click, buzz, whistle, squeak… click.
What are you currently watching on Netflix/Amazon/HBO?
Like everything! I defy you to have binged more than me.
What do you hope to be when you grow up?
A decentralized AI.
Why are you looking forward to working with the DecentraNet team?
Humbled and thrilled to be working for DecentraNet to help solve the universe’s biggest problems.
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