An Interview with Tyler Sloan: Head of Community & Business Development at Real Estate Chain

This week I was able to continue our interview series with Tyler Sloan, Head of Community & Business Development of Real Estate Chain.

Tell us a bit about your background. What led you to Real Estate Chain?

I grew up in a small town on the South Shore of Boston. Some of my hobbies include playing soccer since I was a child, traveling, and scuba diving. My mother is the local town clerk, and my father’s side of the family has ran a plastic fabrication company in Southie for decades. Though I have strong roots in the Boston area, I went to school at Florida Tech and studied biological sciences.

After earning my bachelor’s degree I stayed at Florida Tech to pursue a Ph.D. in the same subject, publishing five peer-reviewed articles in my first three years. In my last year as a doctoral student, I joined the student business incubator and received an award in their business model pitch competition. My experience at the incubator was the catalyst for a life-altering decision to change my career track; I resigned from my doctoral program and moved back to Boston to pursue a career in business and technology.

My first role in this direction was an online business research and teaching associate with a focus on new technologies and social media with St. John’s University. At the same time, I immersed myself in Boston’s lively tech scene, participating in as many events as possible and building a network of innovators and high-tech evangelists. Through this experience I found my technical passion in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain.

I’ve always had a great deal of interest in real estate, from admiring dream properties online to educating myself about real estate investments. Additionally, my two favorite applications of new tech are real estate and tourism/travel.

I first met Mike (CEO of REC) at a 360 video Meetup he had co-organized. I‘d gone to get some tips on shooting with a new 360 camera that I purchased for a trip. We found that we had similar interests in emerging technology and real estate, and decided to meet up once a month for drinks to update each other on projects that we were working on and to brainstorm new ideas together. He also introduced me to blockchain, and I was immediately excited about the use case for real estate.

I received a call from Mike the day he met Jack Liao (founder of Bitcoin Gold) asking if I wanted to be part of the formative team of REC. I decided to leave my former job at the time and go all in on REC from day one; it was the perfect intersection of my technical passions.

Why did you decide to go all in on Real Estate Chain?

I truly believe Real Estate Chain is uniquely positioned to succeed as the global network of property information and people. At the top of the list for my reasoning is our strong technical team and amazing group of advisors who have invaluable expertise and experience in real estate, real estate data, PropTech, system architecture, and blockchain. Our global partnerships and collaborative efforts with real estate professionals and other blockchain projects will also be essential to our success. That said, it will be the REC community that will drive how impactful our vision becomes.

Mike Sullivan (CEO of REC) presenting at a Boston Cryptotalks Meetup in the REC office

We are lucky to be working in a space that fosters collaboration within the Boston tech community. Our home base is One Beacon Street, Boston, also called the Genesis Block. It’s a WeWork co-working office that dedicated a portion of its space to blockchain companies and community members. John Hargrave spearheaded these efforts, and it’s been very beneficial to be in such an engaging space. You can find our team working in the common area, sharing a table with other blockchain companies such as Level K who are an outstanding group of smart contract developers.

My favorite part about my role at REC is connecting strategic dots and getting to build relationships and develop our global ecosystem around a common goal of transforming the real estate consumer experience. Localization is key for many components of global real estate, not just marketing. Real estate is personal and social, so the appropriate partnerships and local representation are vital to having successes in different regions of the world. As a tech evangelist myself, I love explaining how REC can incentivize higher quality data, align disparate self-interests, and solve data custody and attribution.

What is the most important thing about community development or marketing that most people do not generally consider or think about?

I would say that the most important part is not just informing members of your community about your mission and company, but empowering them to directly contribute and be extremely influential in the success of the project. It takes a global effort to make global change, and that can only be accomplished through a passionate community who wants to change the world for the better.

This concludes the second interview of the Real Estate Chain Interview Series! Follow us on Medium and other social media channels to find out when the rest of the team interviews will be posted, in addition to upcoming news and more exciting content!

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