Props to You: “Why I Invested in Props” with CoinFund CEO and Founder Jake Brukhman [VIDEO]
By: Props Project
Tags: Blockchain Investment, Martech, Blockchain Technology, Blockchain Startup, Loyalty Rewards Program

Watch all of the episodes by visiting the official “Props to You” page.

Props [props] noun slang for giving proper or due respect or recognition; credit:

Over the three years since Props Project has launched, we have worked to provide a better, more innovative way for companies to offer loyalty program rewards that create a truly synergetic incentive system. During our history as a company, we have been able to show that blockchain can transform customer loyalty programs in a revolutionary way.

As we move forward into the next phase of Props development, we look to members of our community who help us showcase to the world why we exist, how we have evolved the loyalty program use case, and how we are bringing blockchain technology to the masses through our simple yet innovative solutions.

This week we give recognition and “props”’ to one of our early investors Jake Brukhman, CEO and founder of CoinFund, a private crypto asset investor and blockchain research and advisory firm.

Tech innovation is not a new foray for Jake. Before diving full time into crypto, he served as head of Amazon’s technical products from 2012 to 2014, and then as partner and CTO of Triton Research, an independent financial data and intelligence firm.

We sat down with Jake to learn more about why he believes in blockchain innovation, what he considers the key indicators of the best blockchain investments, and why he decided to support the Props Project from so early on.

Meet CoinFund CEO and Props Investor — Jake Brukhman

Name: Jake Bruhkman Blockchain Level: Advanced Props Affiliation: Early investor of the blockchain loyalty program Props Project through his investment firm CoinFund

Props Team:

How did you get connected with the Props Project?

Jake Brukhman:

I founded CoinFund, which is a crypto and blockchain investment firm based in New York City and through the firm became an early investor in Props.

Props Team:

Tell us about your background investing in crypto companies.

Jake:

I started investing in crypto companies when I founded CoinFund back in 2015. I’m a technologist who studied mathematics and computer science, so I naturally got into blockchain technology pretty early. I got my first Bitcoin in 2011, was following its theory coming to market in the early days, and have been working on blockchain investments full time for the last five years or so.

Props Team:

Why were you attracted to the Props Project?

Jake:

We decided to invest in Props in 2017 because it was one of the first consumer technology companies with a vision to use blockchain technology to deploy solutions within their existing consumer-focused business. As the team also had veteran leaders with decades of experience running streaming service technology, it was clear they had always been thinking progressively. Props’ CEO Adi has had a proven track record of creating and exiting successful innovative technology solutions like YouNow, which felt like a really good fit for the firm.

Additionally, they’re one of the first projects in the world to receive a Reg A+ approval from the SEC, creating a compliance-first approach to their products. Today they are on a mission to help third party companies do the same thing with their networks as Props did for YouNow, giving their communities partial ownership of those networks.

Props Team:

As a veteran in the crypto investing world, how do you think the Props Project compares to the larger ecosystem?

Jake:

The Props team is incredibly strong in many ways. Two predominant areas that distinguish Props from other projects is their technical competency and their business development acumen.

Technologically they have been working on one of the most interesting structures of progressive decentralization while also tackling compliance designations. They’ve handled issues of scalability very well. On their partner networks, they’re serving so much more volume than your typical pre-mainstream adoption product and blockchain. There’s a lot of fundamental activity on the network itself in terms of staking, active participation, and serving actual customers.

They’ve also been incredible at communicating their value proposition and getting partners on board. They have been able to maintain a strong community and network, and work in a business development capacity with different participants of that network.

Props Team:

Why should the mainstream consumer population care about governance models baked within Props?

Jake:

Governance in a blockchain network provides the ability for token holders to benefit from the rights they have to govern. Props holders should care about governance because as this is a public network owned and operated by users, this allows these users to have a say in how the ecosystem develops. It’s like being in a democracy.

Why should we vote in an election? Because we care about our government and we care about the decisions that our government makes. With Props, we care about the parameters that are set; the technical yields and financial consequences, the brand of the network and the broader community of these products on Props. This is a hugely democratic opportunity for people to technologically participate in this cutting edge technology.

Props Team:

When you are talking to someone new about Props, how do you typically describe it to them?

Jake:

Today Props is a way in which a centralized company or product could be decentralized. It’s a way of creating a branded token and enabling community ownership, enabling increased loyalty in their networks — creating a larger “ownership economy” within their ecosystem. It’s fairly easy to buy people’s attention, but it’s generally much harder to buy people’s loyalty. You can give someone a monetary award for their attention, but to truly get them to care about a product or a community, you need to make them partial owners of the community.

This is what we see in blockchain as being one of the core value propositions of governance tokens. If we were to translate this into real world terms, this is akin to Uber paying Uber drivers with Uber stock. If Uber does really well, those drivers don’t just benefit from doing the hard physical labor of driving, but also from the overall performance of the company. And in the case with Props, it would be the overall performance of the network. At the core of the idea, community ownership is a really effective way of increasing engagement from customers and users, and we’ve shown that using metrics.

Props Team:

As an investor, what are the most important things you look at when making an investment decision?

Jake:

The team is absolutely one of the most important aspects. As an investor, I’ve learned that the two most important things in early stage projects is number one, the team: who they are, their experiences, how they’re able to navigate a space that changes rapidly, especially in blockchain. The other most important thing is timing. Is the time right for decentralized finance? Is the timing right for digital art on the blockchain? Is it right for decentralized governance on the blockchain? What we see is a lot of people have amazing ideas that come to market, but they can be too early, or too late. You have got to have the right timing.

When I think about Props, I’m thinking about a powerhouse team that has navigated technological issues of the space, evolving from newbies in early 2017 to deep subject matter experts today. I’ve seen them evaluate a number of blockchains and technologies for their product. I’ve seen them iterate through those things quickly and effectively. It’s fantastic to watch. And of course, the leader of the team, Adi, has been great. He’s a veteran of the technology industry at large. This really is one of my favorite teams in the blockchain space.

Props Team:

What excites you most about this project in coming months and years?

Jake:

The team has navigated a tremendously challenging and ever-changing environment and have arrived at a product and a model that’s very timely for the market. This is a time when a lot of traditional companies and the government are looking at leveraging the blockchain space.

Props is extremely well positioned to be one of the primary touch points for these products and companies looking for blockchain integrations. As an ecosystem, we’ve built up a lot of these infrastructural tools and blockchains, and are now ready to roll out some real consumer-facing features that can actually be used. It feels like we have been building toward early consumers, early mainstream adoption of blockchain, and with Props, we are finally almost there.