A news story out this week (http://dtn.fm/SW1v5) in the MIT Technology Review recounts the lamentable tale of a man (Jim Gass) who used to be chief legal counsel for storied electrical manufacturer Sylvania – for whom a desperate search to treat his stroke with stem cells abroad invariably led to disastrous medical tourism results. Based on a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, the MIT Tech Rev article’s analysis further explains that the Gass case may have occurred in part due to Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG; GOOGL), as the search engine’s paid ad returns to user queries about stem cell therapies seem partly responsible for steering people into the hands of shady clinics abroad.

I don’t know what that tells commercial investors about how midcap and microcap biotech innovators are overlooked, but it tells me everything I need to know about the future of the stem cell sector, because the next decade is primed to witness unprecedented change due to emergent technologies.

This single case with Gass, where a man sought fetal tissue injections in countries like Argentina, China and Mexico, because he did not have access to domestic treatment options, paints a bold and cautionary tale about medical tourism. But it also tells a story about market potential and the huge sums of capital seeking therapy, that is currently trapped, like a spring that is ready to bounce, charged with breakout momentum. Think about Gass: the poor guy just wanted to offset the impact of his stroke and ended up with a tumor made of someone else’s tissue in his spine. Now, the former chief legal counsel for Sylvania is no schlub mind you, so this could happen to any consumer put in a similarly desperate situation. And Gass reportedly spent over $300,000 in the aggregate seeking treatments.

Let’s face the facts. We have been dragging our feet on stem cell technologies for far too long despite the massive bluesky therapeutic potential (especially when we bring personalized medicine vectors into the equation), so in many ways we created the problem. Only in recent years has the FDA begun to change its stance, and so we are late to the game on this one. While due in part to justifiable ethical concerns, the resulting sluggishness of our biotech sector has only been exacerbated by the FDA’s foot-dragging. However, with homegrown companies like revolutionary California-based biotech developer, International Stem Cell Corp. (OTCQB: ISCO), effectively in-play as the FDA continues to loosen its grip, this cautionary tale about Gass could soon go the way of the dinosaur.

The FDA cleared ISCO’s proprietary human parthenogenetic stem cell line for investigational clinical use back in 2014, and the company subsequently made significant headway across its continuously evolving therapeutic pipeline, where two of the current major vectors are Parkinson’s disease and ischemic stroke (the most prevalent type). In fact, the company just announced the results of its 12-month pre-clinical safety and efficacy primate study of its proprietary and readily expandable ISC-hpNSC® (human parthenogenetic stem cells-derived neural stem cells) platform, as being published in the well-respected and peer-reviewed journal, Cell Transplantation.

This publication marks the end of preclinical work for ISCO’s Parkinson’s disease program and confidence is now high at the company, with clinical trial approval of ISC-hpNSC® for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease secured, and Phase 1 clinical trial enrollment underway in Australia. Patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s are cleared by the Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee and ISCO’s groundbreaking study is being conducted at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. Great news, especially when one considers the results of a new landmark Mayo Clinic study (http://dtn.fm/3E6wT) published in JAMA Neurology, which shows a big uptick in Parkinson’s rates from 1976 to 2005, a trend whose forward projections look brutal, even in a best case scenario.

Given the extant evidence thus far showing that ISC-hpNSC improved Parkinson’s disease symptoms markedly in subjects, where dopaminergic neuron mass increased significantly, even as dopamine concentrations rose amid clear neurotrophic support from the therapy – the potential for the company’s neural stem cells in stroke demands a second look as well. It should come as no shock, even to lay investors, that the same kind of injectable ISC-hpNSC therapy able to address Parkinson’s disease can be used to also treat stroke. However, the actual data the company has put together to date on the efficacy of such treatment paints a far more compelling picture.

Being that the standard of care currently involves attempting to dissolve the blood clot within the first few hours after the initial event, followed up by only marginally effective and often extremely challenging rehabilitation work aimed at returning as much cognitive and functional capacity as possible to the patient – the advent of an actual stem cell-based therapy could change the stroke market completely. The National Stroke Association indicates that stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in America and that it is a leading cause of adult disability, alongside other neurological diseases/disorders such as Parkinson’s. According to a new Persistence Market Research report, North America continues to be the largest market by far for stroke diagnostics and therapeutics, with Asia set to experience high levels of growth in the next few years. This outlook jogs well with Transparency Market Research’s most recent publication on the sector, which projects a market worth $1.9 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 6.3 percent.

Pre-clinical data suggests that ISCO’s neural stem cell therapy approach not only addresses but can actually reverse the functional deficits associated with a stroke. What’s more, rather than needing to be applied within hours, the therapeutic benefits from such neural stem cell therapy can be accessed days, or even weeks after the stroke has occurred.

The advent of ISCO’s neural stem cell therapy would be a complete and total paradigm shift in the healthcare market when it comes to treating stroke, and the company is right here in our own backyard. Throw away your medical tourism passport America, and double down on ISCO.

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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Earlier today, Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) announced the filing of its Form 10K for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2016. In addition to reporting a 66.3 percent year-over-year increase in travel and commission revenue, the form highlighted the ongoing business evolution of Monaker Group. In late 2015, the company implemented a strategy designed to accelerate its travel sales through Maupintour, and the early results from these efforts paint a promising picture for shareholders. Within the first months of 2016, Monaker surpassed its revenues for the entirety of 2015, and a dramatically strengthened balance sheet, which includes current liabilities of just $3.03 million (as compared to the $12.1 million reported the previous year), positions the company to build on this start throughout the balance of this year.

To view the company’s Form 10K, visit http://dtn.fm/A4uby

In addition to its growth through its Maupintour subsidiary, Monaker has made considerable progress in recent months toward the development of its next generation NextTrip travel platform. In February, the company introduced a beta of the new platform, and its management team has spent the last 10 weeks preparing the site for full commercial launch. Notably, Monaker has already secured an alternative lodging rental (ALR) inventory in excess of 1.1 million listings for the NextTrip platform, putting it on pace with established industry leaders such as HomeAway, which was recently acquired by Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), in terms of inventory.

“With the rapid increase in ALR inventory and the development of the next generation NextTrip.com platform, Monaker is in a stronger position to effectively compete and excel in the vast and lucrative alternative lodging market,” Bill Kerby, chairman and chief executive officer of Monaker, stated in today’s news release.

NextTrip will include integration of Monaker’s state-of-the-art booking engine, allowing consumers to comprehensively search vacation destinations for lodging products, as well as supplementary products such as flights, rental cars and tour activities. According to today’s update, the company’s innovative platform can also be integrated with channel partners in order to broaden distribution and accelerate financial growth.

Look for Monaker to build on its strong revenue growth in 2015 through the impending launch of its NextTrip booking platform. With roughly 53 percent of all travel now being booked through online travel agencies, according to a report by the University of Iowa (http://dtn.fm/4lgiD), and a strong U.S. dollar spurring increased overseas tourism, Monaker’s latest foray into the travel industry could be set for a favorable launch in the near term.

For more information, visit www.monakergroup.com

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Aside from the fact that the marketing world is growing quickly thanks to evolving technology, social media has become one of the most widely used sources for marketing products and services. According to Regalix, when marketers were asked where they would be increasing their spending in 2015, 54% said social media. Furthermore, the top three areas in which they would be increasing spending are social media advertising, social media marketing, and social media engagement. Not only this, but 62% of these people said they expect an increase in usage of social media, and 64% believe social media is a critical enabler of their products or services, according to Salesforce.

Moxian, Inc. (OTCQB: MOXC) provides promotional tools and marketing opportunities to merchants through social media. The company has two products: Moxian+ User and Moxian+ Business, both of which were made to enhance the relationship between consumer and merchant. To do this, Moxian runs targeted advertising campaigns and promotions according to a business’s needs. Moxian, Inc. does not just provide targeted marketing, but a combination of social media, entertainment (such as games), and business intelligence to generate valuable data for a range of companies.

Moxian+ User consists of a platform that has social networking, a redemption center and a game center. Users are able to earn a virtual currency to buy prizes from the Moxian mall. Moxian+ Business is built for merchants to set up a store and push promotions through a variety of tools. These applications allow Moxian to gather data from consumers as well as provide merchants with the opportunity to design and promote marketing campaigns. This allows businesses to learn about their customers.

Moxian, Inc.’s business model has allowed it to build a social media platform where both users and businesses can interact with one another and benefit from the services. Businesses are able to take advantage of intelligent data analytics, a range of business tools, a loyalty program, and advertising opportunities. Consumers can search for merchants close to them, play a variety of games to win virtual money, shop and spend their virtual money on prizes, and communicate with friends through the instant messenger tool.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Moxian.com

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Biostage, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSTG) is pioneering radically new technologies for the development of bioengineered organ implants targeting cancer and other life-threatening diseases of the esophagus, bronchus, and trachea. Traditional treatment options for such diseases are limited, with significant risk of complications and negative effect on quality of life. The company’s Cellframe™ technology uses the patient’s own stem cells to seed onto a proprietary biocompatible scaffold designed to guide the regeneration of a biological structure matching the dimensions of the organ being regenerated. The resulting organ-specific “Cellspan” implants represent a unique personalized approach to organ regeneration.

Biostage has worked long to evolve their revolutionary Cellframe™ technology, which, in the company’s words, “combines the best attributes of a synthetic scaffold with tissue engineering and cell biology,” creating a platform representing “a complete re-engineering” of their earlier organ scaffold and cell technology. In May 2016, Biostage announced successful results from large-animal studies of their Cellspan Esophageal Implant, conducted in conjunction with Mayo Clinic, and the company is in the process of getting these results published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, an important step toward full recognition. The company plans to file an investigational new drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and it expects to conduct human clinical trials in 2017. The goal of these clinical trials is to demonstrate the technology’s superior mortality rates, with reduced complications and improved quality of life for patients.

The company’s stated values are based upon its management team’s belief that its proprietary Cellframe technology has the “opportunity to dramatically advance the field of regenerative medicine by improving the treatment options for patients with life-threatening conditions,” with an overall target of “breakthrough solutions for unmet medical needs.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Biostage, Jim McGorry, has over 30 years of leadership experience with a number of companies in the medical and biotech industries, in addition to carrying an MBA with a concentration in healthcare from Duke University, and a BS in Engineering from West Point. He also served as an officer in the United States Army for six years, including commanding a special operations Green Beret SCUBA detachment.

For more on Biostage, visit www.biostage.com

According to a report from eMarketer (http://dtn.fm/3NkPd), the number of global smartphone users is expected to surpass two billion this year, and this growth is just the beginning. By 2018, the research firm suggests that over one-third of consumers worldwide – roughly 2.56 billion people – will be using smartphones to access the internet, communicate with friends and make purchases. Alongside the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices, digital communication is most certainly on the rise. While the early part of the decade was defined by an uptick in social media usage and texting, the latter half seems destined to redefine the way individuals communicate through the development and evolution of messaging apps.

In a 2015 report, Contently (http://dtn.fm/gS0B4) gave some insight into the rapid and pronounced growth of the messaging app space. In total, six of the top 10 most used apps on the global stage are categorized as messaging apps, and these same apps topped the charts in terms of app sessions. Critically, leaders on the global app sessions charts offer a number of extensive services to users that are specially designed to keep the apps at the forefront of their respective audiences’ attention. Tencent Holdings’ (OTC: TCEHY) WeChat, for example, combines messaging, group messaging, voice calls, games, payments, food delivery and taxi services into an approachable, intuitive interface.

Regional powerhouses such as Japan’s Line and Korea’s KakaoTalk offer similar versatility to Tencent’s flagship offering, and all three are beginning to eye growth on a more international stage. In a New York Times article published earlier this month (http://dtn.fm/I3vKy), Line, which is owned by South Korean online portal Naver (OTC: NHNCF), reiterated intentions to raise about $1 billion in listings in New York and Tokyo ahead of a potential summer IPO. If this funding comes through, it would value Line at more than $5 billion, making it the biggest market debut for a technology company this year.

Of course, the rapid adoption of messenger apps isn’t exclusive to international markets. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) kicked off the proverbial gold rush when it acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in May 2011. Social media giant Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has also taken strides toward establishing a foothold in the market. In 2014, the company made headlines when it unveiled a forced split of its social media app from its Messenger app, which is currently the third most popular messaging app in terms of usage. Facebook bolstered its position in the burgeoning market with its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp that same year, putting it at the head of the class in an increasingly crowded messenger world.

Despite the dominance of major players in the messenger space, it’s important to note that users are still willing to try new entries in the market. In a 2015 study by Global Web Index, active Snapchat users between the ages of 16 and 64 were polled to determine how many used multiple apps to communicate with friends and family, and the results were promising for companies hoping to break into the market. As many as 72 percent of Snapchatters also use Facebook Messenger, 54 percent also use WhatsApp and 51 percent also use Skype. In other words, if an app offers an enticing feature set or user base that can’t be found on other offerings, users are proving more than willing to cross brand lines.

I’m XAM, LLC is a debt-free, 100 percent privately-owned company working to unveil its real-time collaborative Extensible Application Messenger, which is being designed to refine and repurpose the way people communicate in the mobile space. The ambitious platform combines the private and group messaging capabilities of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), known as Qme and Circle on the I’m XAM app, with a number of exciting new features, such as a polling mechanic, quick and easy invitations and digital business cards. Currently under development for both Android and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS devices, I’m XAM will be available to download for free, and it could be the next app to make a major splash in the messenger market.

The first order of business following the release of I’m XAM will be to build a user base, and the company has already unveiled plans to do just that. Key portions of this strategy include expanded marketing efforts in EMEA, Asia, Japan and the Americas, as well as additional development work, such as adding multilingual support, which will play a role in increasing the platform’s marketability on the global stage. Unlike many of the messenger apps currently on the market, which often depend on download fees or third party purchases for monetization, the free I’m XAM app will implement groundbreaking monetization features designed to create less obtrusive revenue streams. As stated in the company’s product overview, I’m XAM will ‘do things differently’, and that could be a great recipe for success in the rapidly evolving messenger app marketplace.

For more information, visit www.imxam.com

In a recent 8-K filing, Momentous Entertainment Group (OTC: MMEG) disclosed it had issued a press release announcing an aggressive growth business plan. No doubt, this new marketing initiative will encompass vigorous direct response marketing initiatives, as Momentous founder and CEO Kurt Neubauer indicated when he spoke with SmallCapVoice.com. Neubauer explained:

“The direct response is really a means to an end. A lot of entertainment companies out here… once they get their project made, they don’t know what to do with it. They don’t know how to get it distributed. We are kind of taking on the old adage… the old direct response adage… like selling music on television, selling film or downloads… things of this nature… through direct response advertising. Time Life has done this for decades and it has worked very well for them. We plan on following a similar model. Once we develop a project, we will take it to the national distribution but if that national distribution does not pan out, we can always work on our own.”

Time Life is a division of Direct Holdings Global LLC and became a globally-recognized brand in the 70s and 80s for its print publications. Around 2002, the company wound down its book division and got into the music business with astounding results. It has done particularly well in the faith-based market. As early as 2002, it scored a string of successes in the genre. According to Billboard, Time Life’s Songs 4 Worship – Shout to the Lord was among the top-10 selling Christian albums in the country and spent 66 weeks on The Billboard 200. It also scored big with a video version of Songs 4 Worship.

Direct response marketing attempts to elicit prompt action from those who peruse the advertising copy. The medium varies and includes email, online ads, fliers, catalogs, cell phone text messages, print media, TV and billboards.

However, Time Life, although it markets faith-based products, is not particularly focused on that niche. Momentous Entertainment Group is different. Management of the company play active parts in the choir and in other aspects of worship and community service at the Faith United Methodist Church in Richmond, Texas.

Three products spearhead MMEG’s aggressive marketing strategy in the faith-based, family-oriented market. The first is The Greatest Story Every Sung, a compilation of 34 songs on compact disc (CD). The Greatest Story Every Sung celebrates the life of Christ. The music tracks are introduced by Stephen Baldwin. The second faith-based product is a double CD album, called Tim Storey presents Daily Reminders from Scripture, consisting of recitations of bible passages on the themes of hope, love, peace and joy. Tim Storey is a pastor and motivational life coach to many of the top names in the entertainment industry, including Oprah Winfrey. Rounding out the faith-based product line is a music video with the title ‘I Believe’. ‘I Believe’ is sung by Suzanne Olmon, who is Music Director at the Faith United Methodist Church in Richmond, Texas.

For more information, visit www.momentousent.com

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Rhino Resource Partners LP (OTCQB: RHNO) is a producer of natural resources, including sulfur steam coal, metallurgical coal, gas, and oil. RHNO’s vision is “To be a leading supplier of natural resources; ever improving through teamwork and innovation, always committed to excel in safety, productivity, environmental excellence and stakeholder value.” The company’s guiding principles are safety, leadership, and communication, and it wants to continue building a future within the natural resources sector by creating strong partnerships with its stakeholders to enhance long-term value.

Since 2003, Rhino Resource Partners LP has acquired a number of properties and reserves that have been developed with low risk at a good price. Through these acquisitions, the company has managed to increase its coal production while maintaining extremely high environmental and safety standards. These standards run throughout the company’s entire vision and have been established and re-evaluated regularly to ensure that they are up-to-date and functional.

RHNO’s first priority is the safety of its employees, which is why it provides regular awareness training to ensure the highest production standards are met. Aside from this, RHNO’s ethics consist of honesty and integrity. The company communicates openly with its employees and stakeholders about activities that are currently operating and those that are being planned. In addition, Rhino Resource Partners LP believes it operates with the highest environmental standards in mind. The company aims to exceed safety and environmental regulations put in place by state and federal law in all of its mining operations, both underground and on the surface.

Since 2015, RHNO’s average MSHA violations were half of the national average in the United States. The company believes that by minimizing its impact on the environment it will be able to be more efficient in its production and, in turn, keep its employees happy. RHNO has mining operations in Central and Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin, and it has Western Bituminous operations in Utah and Colorado. It also has non-mining operations in Southeastern Ohio. Other natural resource assets include oil and gas in the Utica Shale region.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.rhinolp.com

In a letter from Jim McGorry, CEO of Biostage, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSTG), shareholders were updated on the company’s valuation and the outlook for the second half of 2016. Biostage is a Massachusetts-based developer of bioengineered organ implants for treating life-threatening diseases of the esophagus, bronchus, and trachea, including cancer.

McGorry explained that Biostage has made “tremendous progress” in developing the company’s breakthrough Cellframe™ technology for creating Cellspan™ organ implants using a patient’s own stem cells and a proprietary biocompatible scaffold. As a result, the company is now able to transition, over the remainder of 2016, toward the start of human clinical trials, the first step of which is the filing of an investigational new drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. McGorry explained how the company took the appropriate time to ensure its product’s safety and efficacy, while remaining on schedule for the planned filing by the end of 2016.

Biostage announced in May successful results from their large-animal studies of the Cellspan Esophageal Implant, conducted in conjunction with the Mayo Clinic. McGorry explained how the data obtained will form the basis for the company’s FDA application, seeking orphan designation for the product, and how Biostage is currently working on getting the results published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, which will “greatly support and validate” the company’s progress. He added that anticipated progress over the second half of the year is expected to present “potential value inflection moments for shareholders.”

McGorry explained that Biostage’s recent $5 million at-the-market offering was an important step in solidifying the company’s cash position and addressing any market concerns in this area. He concluded, “We now have the capital to get us through a number of milestones in 2016 including the filing of an IND, and we expect to move into human clinical trials in 2017,” adding, “we believe the company’s momentum, liquidity and value should substantially increase,” and that “by this time next year our esophageal implant will be in a human clinical trial”. Biostage plans to follow this first esophageal product candidate with additional products to address life-threatening conditions of the bronchus and trachea.

For more on Biostage, visit www.biostage.com

Laguna Blends, Inc. (CSE: LAG) (FSE: LB6A.F) (OTC: LAGBF) was recently the focus of an article posted on Equity.Guru, an exclusive resource, tech and cannabis industry analysis firm. Under the lead of Chris Parry, former Director of Editorial at Stockhouse.com, award-winning journalist and corporate communications professional, Equity.Guru adheres to a self-described ‘take no prisoners’ editorial style, maintaining a constant focus on putting the interests of the shareholder first. While companies have the option to pay for Parry’s attention, they can’t bankroll favorable coverage, maintaining the integrity of Equity.Guru’s reports and garnering a sizable following throughout the investment community.

In last week’s article, fittingly titled ‘Aaaaand go: Laguna Blends hits its stride with opening sales data’, Parry expressed his optimism regarding Laguna’s upside following its recent release of preliminary sales data. In its first 11 weeks, Laguna’s affiliate marketing program brought in an impressive $105,000 in sales from its low-priced coffee and protein drink products, and early reports suggest a solid number of repeat orders moving forward. Taking into consideration the fact that Laguna has yet to officially launch its affiliate network and all sales to this point have come from a scratch-built sales team, the company’s early numbers are even more promising.

Parry’s newfound optimism regarding Laguna’s upside marks a major shift from his previous coverage of the company. As an early investor, he was disappointed by the fluidity of Laguna’s initial timelines, but that sentiment has all but disappeared when studying the company’s current trajectory.

“I lost my ass by buying early, but those buying in today have nothing but upside,” Parry stated in the Equity.Guru article. “You get it at a 90% discount to what I got it for, and that’s a bargain.”

To view the full Equity.Guru article, visit http://dtn.fm/WyX0N

Laguna’s strong sales figures are particularly noteworthy because of its affiliate marketing business model. Unlike regular retail, which requires months of waiting to determine if sales are meeting expectations, affiliate marketing offers quick feedback regarding the market acceptance of particular products, and reorder statistics are a good indicator of opportunities for additional growth. As sales figures rise, Laguna should expect its affiliate numbers to grow, creating an opening to greatly increase its market presence in a relatively short amount of time.

Prospective investors shouldn’t need to wait very long to determine if Laguna’s sales follow this course. The company’s management team has already announced intentions to disperse sales figures on an ongoing basis moving forward, giving shareholders reassurance that Laguna’s hot start in the affiliate marketing space doesn’t unknowingly cool down. If Equity.Guru’s article is any indication, though, waiting for these numbers before investing could be a mistake.

“I’ve warned you off for a while now but, as of today, Laguna is a go,” Parry concluded. “It will not see $0.10 again.”

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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The good news just keeps rolling in for eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI), with Q1 revenues reported last month up a handsome 106 percent year-over-year, and, now, back-to-back recognition for the company’s primary subsidiary, eXp Realty, by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as the number four digital draw of 2015, The Washington Post. Hailed for the second straight year by the Top Workplaces program, the ingeniousness of eXp Realty’s fusion of an agent-owned, full-service real estate brokerage, empowered by a real-time cloud office virtual environment, is now really starting to turn heads in the industry. This latest accolade is living proof of how compelling the company’s business model is and how rewarding the value proposition is for both agents and brokers.

The Top Workplaces program results are based on direct feedback from workplace members and represent a high-fidelity look into the health of eXp Realty’s thriving business culture, whose virtualized, broker-friendly, agent-owner centricity has considerable potential when it comes to fundamentally disrupting the real estate brokerage industry as we have known it. Given that The Washington Post was number four last year in terms of digital draw and recently surged to some 76 million monthly users, this kind of exposure is precisely the kind of thing the company needs to get the word out to a wider investing audience, especially considering how eXp Realty came in 12th out of 165 honorees in the Atlanta area and was ranked 20th best workplace overall in Washington in a survey conducted with the help of premier employee feedback and performance improvement solutions provider WorkplaceDynamics.

The concept of eXp Realty’s Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage™ is an idea whose time has come. Supercharged by an extremely aggressive revenue sharing platform that rewards agents for new agents they bring into the network, paying out a percentage of their colleagues’ gross commission, this 21st century brokerage platform eradicates demographic barriers and puts a virtual cloud office into the hands of every agent. The fact that this revolutionary, agent-centric model is backed up by a cutting-edge cloud office, which is available around the clock in real-time, is a major reason the formula has been successful, particularly when it comes to a happy agent force. The company has swelled its ranks to nearly 1,300 agents in what seems like no time, and its army now spans 38 states in the continental U.S., as well as Alberta, Canada. This growing legion of unshackled agents continues steadily gaining traction among the huge number of agents that make up the overall pool, largely on the strength of its seemingly ideal and wholly-fresh approach to the space.

EXPI has even managed to branch out into the loan origination game via its First Cloud Mortgage subsidiary, which is already licensed in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. This bold move shows how successful the company’s agent-owned model truly is, and it is a shrewd play by EXPI going further into a 2016 market characterized by an increasing inflow of international capital and moderate home price growth. If we look at the underlying firm and office affiliations of realtors that are mapped out by the National Association of REALTORS® 2016 NAR Member Profile, we see that just over half are affiliated with an independent company, and around 86 percent of all members profiled were independent contractors.

Hopefully, savvy investors can appreciate what EXPI is doing here, spreading a viral model that empowers agents logistically and financially within an environment where localization is key. This distributed approach not only makes the agents happier, but it allows the entire network to flex dynamically, responding as regional markets ebb and flow. This makes sense for agent and broker alike, constituting a supreme value proposition in either case.

For more information, visit the company’s website at http://investors.exprealty.com

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