Paul and me -
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Paul and team -
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My name is Jay Cheng.  I’m the CEO of Gemstra.  Janelle and I have been working together since 2013 as she was instrumental in scaling my second consumer internet startup JewelScent.  Paul is a friend and trusted advisor.  He’s also the CEO of Ceta Network our marketing partner managing community on telegram.  They are absolutely real veteran executives and people we call family.  I find your post to be hurtful as both Janelle and Paul have been nothing but amazing.  False accusations are bad for the industry so make sure you do your homework before posting bad info like this.

Boutiques is a successful but single marketplace that will grow quickly.  It helps retail brands by giving them sales channel.  But we see an opportunity to bridge “anyone” - including existing retailers (called “Merchants” in our ecosystem) - to social selling.  An ideal merchant would be Sephora - who has over 1000 brick mortar stores carrying 350+ brands.  The Astra platform alllows Sephora to build a social selling channel alongside their brick mortar biz.  A broader solution like Astra bridges entire $24 trillion retail market (brands and retailers) to social selling - instead of just brands.   That’s why this project is so compelling.  We will unlock social sellling for EVERYONE.

Is your question regarding the investors and partners of  the project or the brands diagrammed in the Boutiques Marketplace slide?  The investors and partners listed have confirmed investments and/or contracts to support us.  Re : the retail brands in the slides are examples.  Currently there are 8 smaller brands partnered w Boutiques with more signing up daily - we get ton of inbound interest but have stayed integration to focus on the ICO.  Brands have huge appetite for new sales channels and growth.  The brands listed however are examples for the pitch deck.  We would not want to support such large brands in early days as they would require a ton of attention.  Instead, our strategy is to help younger brands achieve growth results and add more established brands later.  It’s more in line w the culture of Gemstra which is to help the independent “little guy” first.  Social selling is about helping a LOT of “little guys” become “big guys”.  We feel similarly for brands competing to create noise / grow brand equity in a retail environment dominated by monoliths.  Please read the abstract in our whitepaper to learn more.