Award Pool: Engaging the Digital Generation in a Meaningful and Fun Way

The new generation of users does not see the distinction between the physical world and the metaverse. In such times, Award Pool provides a tool that rewards users with digital things and experiences that are unique in a world that is struggling to make the connection between the two. Like a post on Twitter, watch a video, get a kill in Rainbow Six, or have your favorite soccer player score a goal - and you get a reward in the form of crypto token (fungible or non-fungible).

Award Pool creates excitement for fans and customers and gives content creators and organizations value. For crypto start-ups, it creates utility where no utility exists in a fully-brandable white-label widget.

We recently interviewed Reuven Cohen, Co-founder and CEO of Award Pool. The executive shed some light on Award Pool’s innovation and upcoming offerings in this interview. Read on for the excerpts from the interview.

Q. What inspired you to establish Award Pool?

In the beginning of March 2020, my family (me, my wife Brenda, and our three kids) were locked in at home and we needed a way to engage our children and help them learn new things.

We decided on a family project to create a web application that reflects all of the things we were into: cryptocurrencies, gaming, social media, Gen Z and rewards. Needless to say, we got carried away and built a full-scale engagement and reward platform.

Q. Could you tell us a bit about your recently launched payment system?

Often in the world of crypto, there is a field of dreams mentality – build it and they will come – and then no one shows up. We provide the full-spectrum to create a community of fully-engaged users through tools that create virality (Invite a friend, share a hashtag on Instagram, Sign up for our newsletter, Join our Discord).

And once you have engaged the community, you can monetize that community with an integrated payment system that supports more than 40 blockchains, thousands of tokens and credit cards via our integration with Circle. Our Web3 capabilities allow you to use your favorite crypto wallets through a seamless integration.

Q. How are you helping Content Creators engage with their community?

We help brands and content creators build a community of engaged users and then find ways to monetize that community. The great part of NFTs is that they are a unique digital asset that the holder essentially owns. This provides various levels of privilege, access and reward.

For example, imagine a fan membership in a fan club – a holder might get special access or rewards that are only accessible to those who hold the membership NFT. So you either have to own the NFT or can buy the NFT from someone. That gives each NFT a unique value proposition. It gives control back to content creators to create new and innovative ways to monetize their content in ways that used to only be managed by third parties. Every campaign that a user creates on Award Pool is white labeled so that content creators have complete control over how they engage and reward their users, and how to keep them coming back.

Q. How is Award Pool keeping a focus on being eco-friendly?

Award Pool was a family project and we wanted to create something that we would all be proud of and that is beneficial to the greater community. We want to make sure everything we do has a social impact. That is why we partnered with Cloverly to tie a carbon offset to any NFT that we create. It is also why we work with partners such as Celo and Polygon that both are environmentally conscious about the impact that blockchain has on the environment. Just this January, we launched our Green Challenge where we asked our community to educate themselves on eco-sustainability with articles we published, we asked them to share tips on how they are going green in their homes and businesses and offered a $5 Carbon Offset NFT as the very first NFT available for purchase on the Award Pool platform.

Q. There is a lot of mystery and skepticism around the future of NFTs? How is it poised to grow?

NFTs are poised to grow as they fundamentally change the value proposition of digital things and digital experiences. The first generation of NFT were defined as digital collectables. This next generation is defined as access, privilege and reward – a useful, unique experience and not just a trading card. By using NFTs as a community engagement and unit of ownership, I believe that the next generation of NFT platforms and systems will reimagine internet commerce and community in a new way.

Q. Would you shed some light on the upcoming launch of your SaaS offering?

Award Pool has created a funnel-based Freemium model to generate industry visibility, acquire new users and increase revenue to the platform. Under a Freemium model, Award Pool initially offers the platform at no cost to the consumer to establish the foundation for future transactions. With the Freemium model, users are able to create widgets that they can use free of charge. We currently have almost 200,000 users, in which 5000 have agreed to be our first beta users.

Q. What does the road ahead look like for Award Pool?

We’re going through a hyper growth phase. We have close to 200,000 users within the first few months of being live. We expect to see that accelerate over the next few months.

We’re launching a series of new capabilities that allow us to integrate with more than 300+ PC games where you can create rewards as an overlay in a game. We will have various event based actions where holders of a given NFT will get rewarded for actions related to live events. Imagine earning points as your favorite soccer player scores a goal!

Supporting rapid growth is exciting and challenging. What started as a family project is evolving into a significant business with dozens of partners, investors and hundreds of thousands of users. At the end of the day, what I am most proud of, is that someday when my wife and I look back on the pandemic, we can say we built a company that is successful and our kids will know you can do anything if you set your mind to it.

About the Leader

Reuven Cohen, Co-founder and CEO

As a serial entrepreneur, Reuven is unique as he can build what he envisions from a design and technical standpoint. Award Pool is a culmination of more than 25 years of experience. Reuven says that this startup represents all of the most important things in his life, his family, art, design and technology.

“We help brands and content creators build a community of engaged users and then find ways to monetize that community.”