9 Stones Mining Co. - 'From Grandma's Basement to the Moon'

Initial Failures, Eventual Success, and the Creation of Graymatter

Like many other eager young business people, I threw caution to the wind when I chose to invest my savings of ~$1,500 into a little known crypto-currency called Ethereum around this time last year. This is when my first excursion into the wilderness that is the Crypto-Industry began. I purchased 89 ETH in early march 2017 for $16.00 a piece. I had never made an investment of this size before. It felt invigorating to have so easily put my money to work on something which I had thoroughly researched and believed in. Over the course of month and on into April, I watched as my investment grew from $1,500 to $4,500. It was an unbelievable experience to have made so much money doing virtually nothing, over such a short period of time (I think I sold most of the holding around $45/ETH or something). What happened next will forever be remembered as having been one of the most pivotal moments of my life. I left the career opportunity I had at Deloitte, choosing - instead - to leave the company as James Koss "Blockchain Entrepreneur" rather than stay to become James Koss "Future CPA", and I returned to home to begin my quest.

The first thing I set to getting done was surrounding myself with like-minded individuals in hopes of finding a solid business partner. I began telling my closest friends at the business college about my recent success in the crypto market. The conversations would almost always deteriorate once I began trying to explain blockchain technology. Most would lose interest around this point as they were either too lazy to dedicate the energy to understand what I was talking about, or too annoyed by the fact that they thought I was just showing-off. Over the course of about 3 or 4 months, I had almost as many different business partners. Most of whom - although able to grasp the basic qualities of blockchain technology and understood some of its potential benefits - were unable to see the big picture. They didn't understand the fact that blockchain technology stands as an agent of drastic change in a global economy stricken with dogmatic centralized institutions, and socio-economic inequity. It was absolutely necessary to be partnered with somebody who could relate to this vision. So I continued my search!

It wasn't until my most recent business partnership with Joshua Gray that I was really able to start getting things done. After pitching him on the idea of starting an investment bank solely focused on holding blockchain-based assets (among other ventures), he made the decision to join me in establishing what is now a burgeoning Venture Capital firm, Graymatter Ventures. So began my second journey into the wilderness that is the Crypto Industry! We entered the market - $35,000 of investment capital in hand - with the intention of building the next Goldman Sachs. Needless to say, things haven't panned out that way.

"Mining is the Answer!"

(One of the first pictures taken of 9 Stones Mining (9SM) in December 2017)

Although we were able to secure substantial returns for our investors and selves, it quickly became apparent that starting a bank in the United States is a lot more difficult than we originally anticipated, especially if you plan to invest other people's money in the open market. Even when only considering the hurdle of regulations alone that surround the banking industry, it was clear that we had set our sites a bit too high with a very lofty goal as our first attempt. We set to the task of re-positioning ourselves. It wasn't long before we decided on a new direction for our crypto industry startup in the form of a mining company. The company would be called 9 Stones Mining or 9SM.

Naturally, we decided to run our mining equipment out of my grandmother's basement. Where else do you start a multi-million dollar enterprise, your garage?!

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Thanks a bunch for taking the time to read this if you did! I plan on making a series of these posts, so be sure to check back soon to hear more of our trials and tribulations as we make our way to the moon from a mine in Grandma's basement!

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