Yael Tamar, One of the Most Inspirational Women In Blockchain, on Revolutionizing Real Estate Space

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I work to make property investing accessible, transparent, and streamlined with SolidBlock, where I am the Co-CEO and Co-founder. Prior to that, I spent almost two decades in the financial markets. I started at a Wall Street broker-dealer as an analyst, moving to M&A and private equity, as well as financial engineering, structuring products and indices for pensions funds and family offices.

I worked on the largest IPO of an Israeli real estate company on AIM and served as an executive on the largest MVNO in Israel that was listed on NASDAQ. I’ve co-founded several fintech startups, a successful marketing company in the blockchain space, and an import/export company that was acquired.

I am also a regional co-chair at FIBREE, the Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise, the leading international network for exchanging knowledge between the real estate industry. I have appeared as a guest speaker in over 50 conferences and events and also have a podcast (Apple podcast, Spotify: BlockSolid), and a full course on tokenization. Have also been listed in the Top 25 Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Speakers and 100 Most Inspirational Women In Blockchain.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

SolidBlock makes property work for everyone. We are building a new asset class based on real estate, combining the stability of the property market growth and the efficiency of blockchain-based financial products. SolidBlock creates tradable digital assets backed by real estate that grant investors rights to revenue, dividends, or interest and allow them to benefit from the growth of their property as well as trade their assets at any time.

What is the origin story?

Both my partner Yuval and I (first independently) wanted to go into a real estate investment and realized how difficult it was for non-accredited or even institutional investors to get access to great deals. Yuval was approached to build a tech platform for the tokenization of St.Regis in Aspen. I heard about the deal & realized it was done by SolidBlock, tracked down Yuval who happened to live an hour and a half away and within a few months we partnered up.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We are passionate about bringing real estate opportunities to people around the world, using blockchain technology, enabling easier access, trading, and transparency, with the goal of making real estate work for everyone. We care because we are also everyone!

Our competitors are focused on providing a technical solution for fractional investment. Very few are focused on finding buyers & sellers for digital securities or creating demand and supply. Our differentiation lies in financial engineering - creating processes for product-to-investor fit and an investor network to facilitate the trading.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t building my startup I would either be a Yoga instructor or I would be writing music.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

We have very specific KPIs of success: At least $10B in tokenized assets as a part of the networks. At least $100M per month (cUSD in circulation)in additional assets approaching the network for underwriting/trade monthly in the first year. 100,000 cUSD users by month 6 from launch and 1M users by month 12. Trade level - $20M monthly within the first year (additional 20M cUSD)

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

SolidBlock is best known for spearheading the first successful commercial real estate tokenization, which raised $18 million through Templum Markets and the Indiegogo platform for the development of the Aspen St. Regis Hotel, a five-star luxe ski destination. Some of the things we have accomplished so far:

1st ever successful commercial property digital offering: St. Regis Aspen Resort, raising $18M (see case study). Over $400K in revenue since launch Successfully closed ~$1.1M of $2.5M round in addition to $1M signed term sheet and additional commitments Partnerships with major players: Chamber of Digital Commerce, TZero, North Capital, Realto, Entoro, and more Pipeline valued at over $100M SolidBlock expected earnings > $1.4M in the next 12 months ($100K in MMR in 12 months)

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

I am definitely most excited about blockchain and its diverse applications and the implications of its use in varied fields and most obviously in fintech and proptech - where we work. I believe that I am not alone in stating that the technology that is simultaneously most frightening and quite exciting is AI.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I really like HackerNoon’s openness to publishing diverse content without limitations and censorship. Their only rule is to respect others and they don’t shy away from publishing contentious or fringe content, thereby providing readers with access to loads of new knowledge about technology embellished with style and sass. Also I really like the awesome and unique design.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

I would tell my 21-year-old self that “You are on the right path. Keep pushing”.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

This past year has taught me that building a startup is a lot less about being at the right place at the right time and more about the following methodology and getting to the market faster than your competition.