(FinancialPress) — Starting in the mid-90s when Ken Tapp lead the engineering team at HomeBuilder.com and Realtor.com through their IPO as Move.com in 1999, he cut his teeth on how to build and lead a tech company through their early growth stages and on to successful IPO. Now, 23 years in to his tech career as an executive, board member, founder and advisor to dozens of tech start-ups, he’s built an impressive resume of multiple billion-dollar tech companies such as Realtor.com, HomeBuilder.com, Trulia and Zillow, that he’s helped in reaching their full potential.

Tapp is at it again, with his latest endeavor, Social Life Network (WDLF), and this time he’s incorporating cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the construction of niche social networks across multiple business verticals that are struggling with harnessing the power of online social communities and E-commerce.

Nearly 6 years ago, Tapp saw the potential of the emerging cannabis and hemp industry when he launched the first of now seven social networking platforms, appropriately dubbed the ”WeedLife.com” Social Network, in January 2013. The company has since launched E-commerce social networks in six more niche industries including real estate (an area he is clearly familiar with), and several sports verticals, including hunting and fishing, golf, cycling, tennis and a new international soccer social network launched late in July.

The result has been seven highly trafficked social networks that are available in 12 languages to be accessed in over 120 countries, targeting over 250 million niche industry users worldwide.

When it comes to the real estate industry employing innovative online technology, Tapp muses that it has not advanced as far as it should have over these past 20 years. ”We set out in the late 90’s to empower the residential real estate industry with our Realtor.com and HomeBuilder.com web technology, and though we blazed a new trail into the online frontier, most real estate companies today are just as confused as to which technology they should be embracing to run their companies more efficiently,” said Tapp.

The Social Life Network sports social networks are pushing the AI-based platform even further, by incorporating predictive shopping and socially interactive product algorithms. The idea is to leverage their state-of-the-art social E-commerce technology to tap into the ever-changing dynamics of the way consumers shop online and then help merchants connect and service their online shoppers more efficiently.

AI has become a better tool for its multiple uses in solving online communication breakdown and understanding a consumer’s nuances and interests so that it can lead merchants directly to their potential and existing customers. Social Life Network, as the name implies, targets and builds online niche communities around industries and special interests groups that struggle to fit into social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, because of the enormous amount of white noise and negative undertones.

With over $2 billion spent annually in online advertising and an estimated $4 trillion spent in online sales by 2020, Tapp again has identified multiple lucrative industries to ”Tap” in to, and he has assembled an impressive team to expedite their growth.

While it continues to identify fortune 500 level executives to add to the team, the Denver-based company has recently made several additions to its board of directors. Looking to leaders in semantic intelligence, cannabis and digital media, Kenneth Granville, Leslie Bocskor and Tripp Keber all came on board at the start of the month. At the same time, D. Scott Karnedy, who presently serves as COO of Social Life Network, was added to the board. Like Tapp, Karnedy has an extensive C.V. of success with technology companies, including being the former VP of sales at AOL, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at SiriusXM (SIRI), Chief Revenue Officer at Technicolor Film and Senior VP of Global Sales at Myspace.com.

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(FinancialPress) — In November 2016, voters in Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana, making the state the first east of the Rocky Mountains to do so. July 1, 2018 marked the first day that a consumer could buy recreational cannabis, although they actually couldn’t because it took until July 2 for the Cannabis Control Commission, the government unit that regulates the industry, to issue its first recreational retail license. To that end, the Commonwealth’s cannabis industry is just starting to get its legs under it, but it is expected to grow fast, reaching $1 billion by 2021, according to Lori Glauser, Chief Operating Officer at EVIO Inc.

EVIO is the parent of EVIO Labs, a leading provider of cannabis testing and scientific research. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon, EVIO has labs in its home state, California, Florida, Colorado, Canada and Massachusetts.

EVIO acquired the lab last summer through the buyout of Viridis Analytics MA, one of only a handful of operating labs in the state, for an undisclosed amount.

Earlier this month, the lab earned its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation from American Association for Laboratory Accreditation. ISO/IEC 17025 is the highest recognized quality standard in the world for calibration and testing laboratories. As the industry matures, the accreditation has become a mandatory part of the supply chain for independent labs.

Already distinguished from most peers, EVIO Labs has become one of only three labs statewide to initiate the licensing process to be an independent testing laboratory under the Cannabis Control Commission’s recently adopted adult use regulations. Per Massachusetts’ law, every recreational marijuana product must bear a seal indicating that a Commission-licensed independent laboratory has analyzed the product for contaminants and potency levels.

Glauser says that EVIO Labs is now positioned to play a “major role” in the state as the cannabis industry is starting to ramp up.

The cannabis testing market is one of the safer investment plays in what some have called the “Green Rush” of the legalized cannabis market. There have been an explosion of cannabis companies over the last two years, public and private companies offering everything from edible marijuana popsicles to social media platforms geared towards marijuana enthusiasts. Many investors want to invest in this booming market but have a hard time evaluating the risks of the various market subsets let alone the various companies within those subsets. However, cannabis testing is fast becoming attractive to investors looking for a more predictable growth model. Within this industry, EVIO continues to be a leader, and the recent infusion of investment capital will go a long way in cementing its leadership in the industry. Investors looking for a real company with real assets in an exciting and evolving market should take a look at EVIO, Inc.

DISCLAIMER: Online Media Group, Inc. is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and holds no investment licenses and does not provide, nor claims to provide, investment advice. We are a publisher of original and third-party news and information. This article is sponsored content and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. The views expressed are our own and not intended to be the basis for any investment decision. Investing intrinsically involves substantial risk and readers are reminded to consult an investment professional and complete their own due diligence, including SEC filings, when researching any companies mentioned in this release. This release is based upon publicly available information and, while vetted, is not considered to be all-inclusive or guaranteed to be free from errors. With respect to Section 17(B) of the Securities Act of 1933 and in the interest of full disclosure, we call the reader’s attention to the fact that Online Media Group, Inc. received compensation from EVIO. Inc. for content creation, advertising and distribution services related to this material.