Matt Sorum and Pablo Lobo with Matt Bird at the World Economic Forum | Traders Network Show
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Matt Sorum, former drummer of Guns N’ Roses and Pablo Lobo, CEO/Founder of Sthorm with Matt Bird at World Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland)
HIGHLIGHTS
Sthorm envisions, designs, and accelerates impact ideas by applying technology and digital solutions
Sthorm leading scientist succeeded in discovering virus specific medicine to cure and prevent Dengue, Yellow Fever and Zika Virus
Sorum new memoir ‘Double Talk and Jive’ released in April 2020
FULL COVERAGE
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Matt Sorum, former drummer of Guns N’ Roses and Pablo Lobo, CEO/Founder of Sthorm with Matt Bird
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 00:00
Welcome back to the Traders Network Show broadcasting worldwide from Davos, Switzerland. I’m your host, Matt Bird. We’re here with our continued coverage of the 2020 World Economic Forum. And my next guests are Pablo Lobo, CEO, and founder of Sthorm and rock and roll hall of famer Guns n’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Grammy award winner, Matt Sorum. Pablo, all of us are here today and in the crowd, that’s in there waiting for you guys to come out of here because what’s happened back in 2010 with your son and that story and how it evolved into Sthorm today. I don’t think I could do this justice. So I’m going to pass you to mic. And why don’t you tell us a little about the journey that you went on and why we’re here right now, leading up to where we’re at today and Matt we’ll pass it off to how you guys got connected and where this is all going. Does that sound good?
Pablo Lobo – CEO/Founder, Sthorm: 00:53
Hi Matt., Thank you. Basically, I used to have a, like a large production company in Brazil, like the movies and music and mostly that’s how we met like more than 10 years ago, but Matt can tell a little bit more about it. And in 2010, my son tell he got sick and we spent around five hours trying to find out what happened and what’s happening with him. And he was getting worse and worse. And then he starts to seizure, and the seizures last for probably five hours. And we ended up in a hospital that we saw a physician and there’s a young physician she came to us. She came to my wife actually and said, I want to try everything that I think that can be.
Pablo Lobo – CEO/Founder, Sthorm: 01:43
And if you allow me to sign here, I will try probably like maybe two or three things that he can have. So she tried one of the things that she tried was encephalitis. So, she made a very good job because this kind of encephalitis can cure you in two days. You’ll have probably no more than 24 hours to treat after this or there’s no chance. Make the long story short, we spent one year in the hospital with him and he lost half of the brain. And after this, I decide to shut down the company and make my hobby. I used to always work with technology, and I decided to work with technology to help people to make something that could really impact people, dependency. And I call and say I’m quitting I’m selling the company and I really want you to join me in this new venture. In that back in the days was we do but different name, right? The name was not what you do, but we started working in a game, will help people like Pokemon go alike, but instead of you go after monsters collect monsters, you have to go after problems, pain points, people, and evolve as a human being. You know, you don’t gain strange or magic points, but again, outreach is generosity. It’s something like this. That’s how I’ll start.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 03:22
Yeah. So basically I met Pablo, I went down to Brazil, Sao Paulo when I was in Guns N’ Roses, we were really big band down there. We used to play for 150,000 people. So I already had that relationship with Brazil. And then obviously my connection to America, people that I knew could make, you know, a nice you know, tie between America and Brazil, because there’s a lot of great tech going on down there. There’s a lot of brilliant minds. And so we started out on a bunch of projects. I’ve always believed in Pablo, but when Sthorm came along and the science of viral cure and what’s happening within that platform, it’s very exciting because there’s a lot of viruses out there that aren’t being cured based on the fact that they’re third world problems, if that makes sense. So, you know, these big pharmaceutical companies don’t want to buy these patents cause there’s really no money in it.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 04:18
So we still have Zika virus. We still have malaria. There’s a lot of diseases out there and viral cures, one of the startups under our umbrella company Sthorm, and we have great scientists and we’re, you know, we’re very close to coming up with solutions for that. And then music and art. That’s why I came in and we’re here at GBBC because this is a block chain solution forum. And that’s coming, you know, because I come from music where things got really shaken up in digital. You remember, I came I’m from back in the day. We, when we made records in CDs and cassettes, even, and then along came, you know, along came Napster. And then you know, Steve Jobs was the first one to really figure out that now we can stream music. So I don’t really see it as a much different paradigm with blockchain.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 05:08
It’s just a matter of educating people. I think that they think, you know, Bitcoin and Ethereum and all these things are sort of a get rich quick thing. It’s not Vegas. You know, we’re trying to build protocols here to run financial systems in a more expedient way. And for musicians myself, I think the future is real-time payments cause we have real time streaming, but the thing is, you know, we have to educate people. So blockchain is still kind of a little bit of a foreign language, but Sthorm’s got great initiatives in waste, which we were looking at. And then, you know, art, we have a digital art becoming a reality. There’s like stuff going on online where people are buying art online. That’s not even real. It’s like it’s digital. Yeah. They sold one digital Rose for $1 million online. And then crypto kitties, there’s really cool stuff happening. And the thing is cool about Davos is everyone’s here looking for solutions, obviously too. A lot of things, climate change you know, all the way the board two solutions for my world art music and it’s exciting.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 06:15
That’s amazing. So Sthorm is treading new ground and the blockchain side, I can now see the connection between blockchain in the health sector because of the data sets and the outcomes that it produces when you integrate it into the medical environment. You know, you definitely need institutional adoption to be able to create those personalized medicines. I think what we’re talking about right now, right? Pablo, where do you see this going? And aside from all the applications and it was really well delivered, what you were talking about as far as the different applications that Sthorm is taking on how do you see this really effecting personalized medicine to prevent outcomes what happened or may prevent the complete outcome of what happened, you know, with your son or whatnot. Do you see that happening in the next one year, two years, five years, 10 years.
Pablo Lobo – CEO/Founder, Sthorm: 07:09
I hope so. That’s why we’re working. But, I think before personalized medicine, it comes, this is my opinion. The very personal one, but we have, I think blockchain can play even a bigger role because I think the problem we have today with medicine is that only, probably less than 2% of the population, the word can pay for the mainstream, like the bad thing that would have in the market. We have a lot of science. I don’t know how to say that in English, aberrations. But we have a lot of cases in industry that for me, things not right, not fair like you have now today we have a cure for Hepatitis C, probably the costs for the 90 pills that we have to take is let’s say a hundred dollars, but why they charge $53,000 for the 90 pills. So I see that blockchain can change the way we fund medicine and maybe create a more affordable market. People can have micro shares and patents, and then we can create a market that people can afford. So I really believe that blockchain can cure not only disease, but it can cure science. You know, if we find a way to make people get involved. So that’s what are we working out.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 08:43
Matt, you know you rarely really come across musicians that can actually get geek out on the technical aspects and what it is that in deliver the messaging and you delivered it flawlessly. I mean, as a spokesperson on the musician side, I mean, you get it, you know, blockchain. I interviewed the global head of blockchain for IBM earlier today. And we were talking a little bit about how blockchain is a fundamental operating, you know, it’s a database, much like Sequel, ultimately the end of the day, best case scenario. We never see it. Right. That’s the best case it’s fully integrated and fully adopted. It’s like the mobile system we’re running on the mobile and we’re using, I mean, it’s the end? Gooey is something different. You were talking a little bit about the other applications in music and in art and stuff. Where are you hoping this all to go the next, next five years?
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 09:32
Well, you know, let’s just jump over to music. You know, we were in science and medicine, but in music, you know, there’s still the political structure within streaming now. So now as a musician and a new artist, you know, how are you going to be discovered because you’re still going through the same sort of system that we went through before in the physical world, because there’s going to be people that are going to say, you’re good. And we’re going to put you here because they know somebody or they’re connected. Right. So as far as you know, how we get paid as musicians in the publishing world, if you imagine in the blockchain, let’s say there’s five writers on a song, right. And people are trying to attack this issue. There’s a lot of blockchain startups out there. And you know, the idea with GBBC is to get them all together because, you know, obviously they need to go in there and tackle the issue, but all the players within that particular performance, my hope is at some day to get paid in real time, because now as artists, we wait quarterly and biannually to get paid.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 10:31
So yeah, so it has to go to the publisher, right? And then it gets all recorded and everything that’s happening out in the world. And it goes back to the publisher and then the publisher sends the money to the business manager. And then they look at the percentage splits and everyone gets paid somewhere down the line sometimes a year later. Now, can you imagine in a world, even in, you could look at fashion shopping, whatever you’re doing, a company, or even a brand could get paid in real time while everything’s going on with no, you know, and cut a lot of costs. And I think that the same thing’s happening in the music industry that happened when digital came along, you know, when Napster was created by Sean Parker, he brought that to the record companies and offered it to them. And then they, they were like, why do we need that? We’ve got consents, you know?
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 11:17
And, and then along came Steve Jobs who understood the concept and, you know, the, the rest is history. But, you know, after that, what’s the next phase for us as musicians, we’ve had to actually struggle because our physical sales have dropped incrementally and now we’re live artists and, and we have to make merchandise. So the future game for me, and the best solution would be at some point, these higher ups understand that this is going to save them money in their solutions, in the financial market, which we already have seen, you know, with transfers in world bank and everything else that this can happen in real time. Everyone can still get paid, but you’re going to save all this middleman, moving around mail, you know, timeframe. And that’s the exciting thing for me as an artist and for young artists, peer to peer.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 12:10
So there’s a lot of cool stuff happening in that world. And like I said, digital art, you know, and for impact at Sthorm, we have an impact art project called ‘Payos’ and named after his son. But it’s basically, you do art online and people tokenize it for impact to it for causes, right? It’s like art fun oriented like crypto kitties, but impact the money goes back to causes within whatever you want it to be. Because on the blockchain, you can write that smart contract, however you want. And that would make a lot of solutions, both philanthropic world, which we know is not very well regulated and a lot of the money doesn’t get where it’s supposed to go. So if everyone’s on a decentralized system, we’re able to see that this is really happening. That’s the thing.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 13:06
I love the fact you probably decentralized in the ledger aspect of it, because we’re seeing that right now in like in Canada and Trudeau’s cabinet, they’ve deployed some impact initiatives, full transparency on use of funds and where it’s going. I think you’re absolutely right. I think nonprofits, I believe, and I work a lot of NGOs as you know, the United Nations and EU Parliament and a bunch of others, but on the NGO side they take in a lot of funds and those funds are not always appropriate properly. And there’s usually very difficult to get accounting on that stuff. And every works really hard to get those NGOs lifted and, and it’s like, what happens? The other end of it. But all of them like that, there are some great ones. Listen, I know you both have limited time and there was a sea of people out there waiting for you guys to come out.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 13:57
And this is a treat for me guys. Thank you. Before I wrap it up, why don’t we just give this a takeaway? I know you have a book coming out. We’ll talk about that in a minute. And I love to be able to follow up and we’ll get a connect in New York on that stuff, pop up. What’s next for Sthorm? What do you envision where you driving this? And then the part two, how can people get involved if they want to get involved? There are a lot of institutions out there. There are a lot of people who have similar stories, right? You’re going to reach a mass real tall audience on all, a lot of networks here. More importantly is you’re also reaching out to the financial community here. How can what’s next and how can people get involved?
Pablo Lobo – CEO/Founder, Sthorm: 14:35
Basically, until now, we used to work very stealthy, you know, because it’s not an elite really easy to, like I told you to find money for this kind of business model that we would, that we be envisioned. We have something between profit and meaning an impact. So he’s really hard to balance. So find investors that really believe that meaning and impact is worth more than profit is a challenge. So we putting together now a new platform and a fund. So the next step now is finish crowd hack which is like a Kickstarter meets, crypto meets Kitty’s mates, all financial martyr. We know as headphones, we were building like a marketplace for Outfront. People that want to invest, want to be investors. If it does, is something also tricky. You know, if we’re talking about investments, like only 2% of the people in the world can invest that money. It’s not something that everybody is luxury. Okay. So we really believe that if we build something that can make everybody becoming an investor, micro investments, we can create a different scenario at different markets.
Pablo Lobo – CEO/Founder, Sthorm: 15:56
So next step for us is finished a CrowdHack that is our marketplace for out funding and put you out of the fund to, to bring people on, to bring investors and had funds traditional investors to help us in this hybrid model. You know, so we’re doing is we’re putting half of the patents that we achieved last year, Deng antibodies, Zika antibodies, Yellow Fever antibodies in a company that people that want the profit that you have, all the profit they want half is them. And we are half with design legal, a different legal structure to fund the labs, small labs that we are funding now that they come, they make a commitment with us. We fund you. We go after money for you for the amazing research that you guys want to do. But we want to have the rights to have, in some case for poor people, people that cannot pay free because the highest stakes, sometimes in countries like mine in Brazil can be 90% of the final price. So we use them, the patterns that we are achieving to bring the deal in the table and okay. Let’s try to create affordable markets. That’s what the next for us.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 17:16
Matt, you’re up. What’s going on with that. That’s amazing. Thank you, Pablo. Matt, listen, we’re wrapping up. You’ve got people out there waiting for you. And tell us a little bit, I know you have a book coming out and once you get a little, that book, a little bit of plug and we’ll wrap this up and you guys can get up to get out to do their thing.
Matt Sorum – Former Drummer, Guns N’ Roses: 17:36
I have a book coming April 7th, preorder on Amazon right now. We love those Amazon guys. Right? They’re taking over everything. And it’s called ‘Doubletalk and Jive.’ It’s a memoir. It’s basically a story my life and takes all the way up to this point that it’s a bit of a wild ride. As Billy Ida would say gave me a quote on the back. He said, very fun, read wild ride. You should read this. And Laura’s whole rip from Metallica just said, you know, it’s a must a must read because there’s a lot of great stories about Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, all the bands I was in and stuff. And then all the way up to now, you know where I’m at now in my life. So thank you.
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