Los Angeles, May 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shixuan "Jimmy" Cai received the coveted Hurun’s 2021 US Innovation Outstanding Award. One of the world's leading research organizations, Hurun was founded in 1999.
Hurun US Innovation Outstanding Awards 2021 takes special efforts to recognise and honour innovation, as well as to bring to the forefront leaders who introduce new things, new methods, new paths, additional benefits, and everything else that innovation brings to society.
Journey Behind the Solana Angel Investor Jimmy Cai
In all of 28 years, Jimmy Cai has invested in 25 start-ups in 5 years.
These include Solana, which is a blockchain platform with more than $16 billion in market value at the time of writing. His achievements are not about his sheer ‘luck’ but reveal a lot more.
The cryptocurrency market has been booming with regular price shoot-ups and an increasing number of users on Ethereum. This scalability meant network congestion and increased gas fees. This attracted the interest of several public blockchains—Solana was one of them. Solana, the fastest growing Layer 1 blockchain, has the focus of solving the scalability issue. The network processes 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) and provides a 400-millisecond block time. Its ecosystem is now valued at $110 billion.
Being an angel investor of the platform Cai mentions:
“There were many different teams working on Layer1, and most of them were trying to improve the efficiency of the blockchain network through sharding or consensus mechanisms such as PoS (Proof-of-Stake) whereas Solana created an innovative consensus mechanism called Proof of History.”
This meant uncertainty but Jimmy went ahead with his investment in Solana amidst the uncertainty. This turned out his best and most profitable investment.
His Early Days
Cai desired a career as a programmer for a leading tech company. But destiny took its turn as he came into contact with many local start-ups and venture capital funds. He ventured in investments like Honey Science Corporation, which was later acquired by PayPal for a whopping amount of $4 billion. This is how he started his investment journey and never looked back.
In the next few years, he made the most of every opportunity that came his way. As he moved to San Francisco, he started building his connections with top venture capitals like Sequoia.
In an interview, Cai mentioned – “In addition to the getting-rich stories in the venture capital industry, I am also fascinated by the unpredictability of the changing investment trends.”
He talks about his initial curiosity and interest that later became his motivation and passion that kept him moving.
The Year of Pandemic and How Jimmy Cai Changed His Strategy
The 2020 pandemic brought several changes all over the world. Cai also decided to change his investment strategy and began investing in the secondary market. Keeping in mind the potential risks, Cai decided to adopt a conservative approach. He joined Ying Fund and became a limited partner of Race Capital.
When asked about the changes that one needs to expect in the post-pandemic situation, Cai says – “In my opinion, the main goal in 2022 will be reducing inflation. In the US, the current epidemic is out of control and the country seems to be on its way to herd immunity. The Omicron variant is posing new challenges to labor markets and global logistics, and “reverse globalization” and geopolitical pressures caused by the epidemic will be the new normal.”
For those who are just starting, Cai has a word of advice. He says that investors should never follow trends but study and focus on the potential of the market in the long run. He cautions youngsters and mentions that youngsters need to know that time is valuable, and one needs to invest their time in choices that they will pursue throughout their life. Any early-stage investor should always think about the potential of the company and the relationship it has with the investors.
For more information, please visit- https://shixuanjimmycai.com/
