Tell us about yourself and your background.
I am a New York-based attorney, entrepreneur, and blockchain innovator leading XPOLL at the forefront of decentralized finance and digital governance. As a top graduate of the University of Rhode Island and holder of a Juris Doctorate in maritime law, I bring deep expertise in law, business, and real estate. As the founder of XPOLL and GreatRWB, I have driven the development of platforms that reshape global participation in the Web3 economy. Beyond tech and law, I am also a committed farmer, reflecting my passion for sustainability and innovation across industries.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
I come from a line of entrepreneurship, great grandparents, grandfathers, father, and now me. Separately, while I have always strived to gain the highest reach, I often never quite fit any box in the traditional job market and always had trouble feeling heard amongst my co-workers and employers. A jumble and confluence of these aspects of my life led me to embrace my inherited entrepreneurial spirit.
Tell us about your venture, Canvas Labs
Canvas labs is an attempt to express the kaleidoscope of my life’s experiences, skill sets, and things I’m interested in. The labs is a place to embrace the unknown or underknown and find where and how they add to the world’s digestion of good ideas and hard work. When anyone approaches the lab we offer our perspective, candid advice, and ultimately try to bring as much value to the idea as we can while consciously supporting any founders vision and goals.
What is your mission?
Our mission is simple, connecting people from all walks of life that want to express themselves through their work. When the lab recognizes passion behind a project we stoke that flame. The world is full of rejection and people saying NO because something doesn’t align with their interests, Canvas, philosophically, values the people behind the work more than the idea, because we know that’s what drives success; a friend once told me, “tech is slow…we are still using light switches…right.”
How have you positioned yourself at the forefront of innovation?
Canvas Labs is making the gamble on generative AI wanting to work with people not the other way around and the core of our innovative technology is to fortify, encourage and foster the creation of interesting people not necessarily interesting technology.
What has been your biggest success as a company so far?
We have had the privilege of so many fortunate things. If I was to try and pinpoint one I would say our biggest success has been maintaining projects and partnerships since day one until now; everyone that has come to the space has stayed.
What makes your approach unique?
I think we take a Gestalt approach and people find it refreshing and intuit the power it offers when considering AI and technologies modern day applications and problems. I have no problem trying to figure out why 2+2 = Four and I’m interested when people come with problem statements like that.
In what industries do you operate?
Ai, Blockchain, Data, Civic Intelligence, Agricultural Intelligence, Crypto, Clean Water, Drones, Insurance and we explore many other tributaries associated directly or indirectly.
Our value-added proposition and strengths over all are in systems architecture as it applies to AI, Blockchain and Data
What interesting projects are you currently involved in?
I think the most disruptive and most interesting is XPoll our own civic intelligence machine that creates living dataset for civic intelligence by offering crypto assets for user polling and which uses that intelligence to train AI models to better Civic engagement, understanding, and results.
How are you growing the company? What will partnerships mean for your global strategy?
Canvas is a like a Dyson Vacuum, we take up and in everything that comes our way and it all lives and breaths in a radically transparent fishbowl where conversations and partnerships are encouraged.
Partnership for Canvas looks like Infrastructure providers and industry providers saying lets work together on this or solve this problem statement in your way and let us see your answer.
Canvas welcomes partners from anywhere in the world.
Another venture you have founded is X Poll, how are you revolutionizing the way institutions, analysts, and Web3.5 communities interact?
How XPoll does what it does? XPoll challenges the legacy and what is perceived as the archetypical model and says what do you think about this. The proposition is to reward civc engagement to encourage the adoption of more informed leadership, create some aspect of guided AI leadership, and to lastly and most importantly encourage people to be kinder and more respectful to each other. In practice XPoll says people should be rewarded for their input, not make a living from it, and that where media has failed us we can take back some sovereignty.
What is next for you?
For me the next thing is to organize relationships with just enough people from around the world to provide the steerage winds to sail Canvas into a place where mirror images of the model are operating in markets and geographies that are otherwise overlooked or underserviced. As for XPoll the same, we want XPoll to be adopted country by country but especially by those that already struggle to hear their people’s voice; a decentralized, safe system, that is cheap and is effectively helping them play catchup with certain technologies in the world is what we offer and certainly what we intend to deliver.
As an entrepreneur and business leader, what legacy do you hope to leave behind?
Come in a lion and leave as a lamb. In this space making room for the next round of people looking to take up the mantle is as important as stoking the fires.
How can readers connect with you and find out more?
Readers can find me on all the usual social media, Canvas at www.canvaslabs.world and XPoll at www.XPoll.io to reach me directly email stanton@canvaslabs.world- I look forward to hearing from you
