When the pandemic began back in February of 2020, Reuven's family decided they would use their time together to create and build a new venture. After extensive research into opening an Esports training facility in West Toronto prior to the pandemic, Reuven's family had gotten into Esports. His three kids game a lot and quite often watch people compete online, which is where Reuven saw an opportunity.
During this process, the kids learned the basics of funding a new business, technical cloud architectures using AWS & DevOps, and Javascript programming (NodeJS)/HTML/CSS/ AI/machine learning tech, including a full generative adversarial network (GAN) stack. The video chat system was developed entirely by Finnegan, when he was still nine years old. His 11-year-old, Sam, took part in the research and writing of a business plan with Reuven's wife, Brenda, a writer and marketer.
Award Pool can simulate thousands of games and predict the likely outcome of those games. The kids learned about game development using Unreal Engine, designing in Photoshop/Illustrator, video production using After Effects and much more. Reuven’s seven-year-old, Isla, took her design skills into After Effects to help design Award Pool assets.
Reuven and his family put more than 1400 hours into this project and Alex, a seasoned financial and start-up professional, helped bring Award Pool to the next level.
During Award Pool Beta, Reuven and Alex wanted to test out the market with their esports platform. They decided to bring on Ahmad Al Jamal, who has extensive experience being an executive in multiple organizations in the esports industry, to help shape the Award Pool platform.
In a short time, Award Pool has evolved from being an esports-oriented platform to an engagement platform catered towards brands looking to reach the digital generation. To enhance the platform and add relevant and meaningful rewards, Reuven created Token Craft, a subsidiary of Award Pool. Token Craft is a place where brands, artists and gamers can create their own NFT platform to create, manage and trade NFT.
Why did you join Celo Camp and decide to build on Celo?
We joined Celo camp to learn about the Celo community as we were intrigued by the social responsibility of Celo and how they are changing the face of blockchain to be sustainable and more eco-conscious.
What did you build during Celo Camp?
We built the Celo integration for our Award Pool Challenge Platform. Now we can create, deploy and manage Celo based NFT. Just as we make an effort to plant trees, turn off lights and purchase from a sustainable fishery, by integrating Celo for our NFT reward platform, we can decrease our carbon footprint.
What was your Camp experience like?
It’s great to be part of a group of start-up founders where I got to experience the trials and tribulations of like-minded individuals. It’s helpful to learn from our shared experiences in the building of something new and innovative. The Award Pool team were able to learn some of the more practical aspects of running a lean start-up and discover what others around the world are working on.
Next Steps:
We recently secured 2.8 Million CAD in seed funding and we are planning a big launch this October. We plan to use the funding to fulfill our go to market strategy and launch the first public beta. Expect to see big projects in the sports and entertainment world announced soon.
For more information:
Website: https://awardpool.com/
Author: Reuven Cohen, Co-Founder, Award Pool