Award Pool is an integrated platform that empowers brands, creators and collectors with amazing engagement tools and features to create, collect, and trade unique experiences, collectibles, and amazements securely.
Award Pool was born from the idea that the digital generation needed to be engaged in a meaningful and fun way. What started as a family project by Reuven Cohen and his family during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, Award Pool has grown into a complete engagement and reward system for brands and content creators with an amazing team.
With Award Pool, brands and content creators can gamify campaigns containing various social and in-game challenges catered around their communities. Brands can discover a straightforward way for activation while content creators can engage and grow their community.
Tell us about yourself?
I’m described as a successful entrepreneur, founder and thought leader in cloud computing, advisor and instigator of all things tech and creative.
I’m an active mentor, advisor, angel and instigator, and are intimately involved in the startup scene around the globe. I was an early creator of infrastructure as a service (2003) and thought-leader in cloud computing as the founder of one of the first cloud companies.
I have been a key strategic advisor to Amazon Web Services (2006), Sun Microsystems (2007), the Obama campaign/administration (pre-election 2008) and later advised US Federal CIO Council/GSA (2009) where I helped draft the NIST definition of Cloud Computing and GSA Cloud First Policy, founded CloudCamp (150+ cities) as well as many other cloud organizations around the globe.
I founded Enomaly, which was among the first to develop a self-service infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform, and in 2012 merged with Virtustream (sold to EMC for $1.2 Billion in 2015).
I got into the crypto/NFT space because I am always interested in what’s new and what is stirring things up in technology. Award Pool was founded in March of 2020 with my wife, Brenda and our three kids as a way to keep everyone busy during the lockdown. What came out of it is more than I could have imagined!
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
That’s an interesting question considering what the last two years have been like globally. I wouldn’t change a thing when it comes to Award Pool.
We had an idea, we worked as a family to make it happen, then we grew our team and are constantly re-inventing ourselves.
I don’t believe in regret when it comes to business. I always say that I learned from the school of hard knocks and mistakes and adjustments and pivots are what make a company better. If I had to choose something – I’d say that I wish I remembered where my original bitcoin was.
What problem does your business solve?
Gen Z is the newest generation (born ’97 – ’15). They are digital natives raised on the internet and social media, and most choose gaming as one of the top three activities they do in their spare time. Brands are having a difficult time connecting with members of Gen Z in a meaningful way. Brands need alternative methods to help deliver their story to convert their target audience, Gen Z, into loyal customers.
Gen Z isn’t interested in TV and Facebook ads. Their idea of social media interaction takes place within the games they play online. Their communities, groups and social circles are online and inside the games they play. They don’t distinguish between rewards that are tangible or digital. They are looking for a simple way to earn cash, Non Fungible Tokens (NFT), in-game currency and prizes by completing social and game-related challenges.
Award Pool’s Market Segment is the rapidly growing digital natives and online community and the brands and businesses that want access to them.
Award Pool is a platform that provides brands, influencers, content creators and gamers with a unique way to power up, grow and engage communities worldwide.
With Award Pool, brands and content creators can gamify campaigns containing various social and in-game challenges catered around their communities. Brands can discover a straightforward way for activation while content creators can engage and grow their community. Award Pool makes it easy to create unique branded gamification experiences for all parties wanting to connect.
Award Pool Capabilities include:
- Social Media Challenges
- Trivia and Scavenger Challenges
- Social and Gaming Challenges
- Loyalty Program
- Branded Currency and NFT Rewards
- NFT Management Platform
- In-game Reward Application (Windows PC/Overwolf)
What is the inspiration behind your business?
When we started Award Pool, I was watching our kids spending all their time online communicating and gaming with their friends. I saw that we needed a way to engage the digital generation with new forms for access and rewards.
What is your magic sauce?
Our magic sauce is that we continuity test, adapt and measure based on the feedback of our users. We are never content with what we have. In a space dominated by vapor, we build real things. We invite our users to challenges and reward them. We watch what they want to engage with and adjust accordingly.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We are looking to build a scalable market-leading company that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in the Web3 world. We are launching our SAAS and Premium options, play-to-earn capabilities, our Membership Driven DAO integrations and internal trading of NFTs.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
As a start-up, we’ve had them all, hiring challenges, technical challenges, funding of a high growth platform. As mentioned above, our goal is to continue to change and evolve with each challenge.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We are looking for users who are interested in testing the platform. We already have a beta group of 5000 strong. We are looking for companies and content creators who want to engage and reward their users in new and creative ways. Visit Award Pool and enter a challenge to see what we’re all about.
