Aaron Block

Aaron Block is a best-selling author, speaker, entrepreneur, certified executive coach, and venture investor who co-founded MetaProp in 2015, establishing it as one of the world's leading PropTech-focused venture capital firms. Before entering the venture world, Aaron built a deep career in commercial real estate. He served as a senior executive at Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, where he oversaw more than 270 professionals as leader of the Chicago region. He also served as Chairman of Chicago-based BayRu, LLC, a US-Russia ecommerce shopping and shipping company and eBay's exclusive drop shipping partner for Russia/CIS consumers.

Aaron earned a BA in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from DePaul University's Driehaus College of Business. He is also certified by the Hudson Institute of Coaching. In 2018, Aaron and MetaProp co-founder Zach Aarons published the Amazon bestseller "PropTech 101," which helped define the emerging category of real estate technology investing. In 2019, he was awarded Executive of the Year for innovation by Commercial Property Executive Magazine.

At MetaProp, Aaron oversees day-to-day management of the firm and has spearheaded the launch of numerous industry firsts, including the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, NYC Real Estate Tech Week, MIPIM PropTech NYC, the Global PropTech Confidence Index, and PropTech Place. The firm manages multiple funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors, representing a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of over 20 billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market.

MetaProp invests across the full real estate technology value chain, targeting pre-seed and seed-stage PropTech startups. The firm reviews more than 200 new PropTech startups per month. Key areas of investment focus include:

MetaProp's strategic LPs represent over 20 billion square feet of real estate globally, providing portfolio companies with a built-in pilot and distribution network across every asset type and market.

• AI and automation -- compliance improvement, space optimization, business transaction automation, and AI-powered customer service and development tools
• Fintech integration -- digital escrow, mortgage automation, and real estate financial infrastructure
• Sustainability and energy infrastructure -- including data center buildouts and green building technology
• Diversified PropTech -- the firm maintains a diversified portfolio strategy, avoiding over-concentration in businesses that rely heavily on real estate transaction volume for revenue growth