Weekend Interview: MetaProp Co-Founder Aaron Block

This series gets into the heads of the decision-makers of CRE, the people shaping the industry by setting investment strategy, workplace design, diversity initiatives and more.

MetaProp is one of the world’s largest venture capital funds focused on the proptech industry — to date, it has invested in more than 150 companies representing more than 20B SF globally.

One of the people at its helm is Managing Partner Aaron Block, who co-founded the firm with Zach Aarons in 2015. He spearheaded the launch of many 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, and he and Aarons co-wrote a book, PropTech101. Block previously was chairman of e-commerce shipping specialist BayRu and was an executive with Cushman & Wakefield.

Proptech is sometimes presented as a threat to the brokerage profession, as it can be used to automate brokers’ responsibilities, but Block said he doesn't believe his investments will have that effect. 

“Commercial brokers are here to stay,” he said.

But he said he would like to see one change in the profession: more diversity in leadership.

The following has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

Bisnow: Baron Rothschild once said the “time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” Where is the blood today?

Block: The streets are full of injured victims, but wound severity is still not totally clear. Although many smell blood, I’d say that most of the ichor is still in the bodies of the real estate gods.  

Bisnow: What is your most controversial CRE opinion and why are you right about it? 

Block: Commercial brokers are here to stay. Self-service transactions and tech-enabled brokerage software certainly improve the old way of doing business. That said, there will always be client demand for top-tier advisers. The tech-centric best will eat the rest.

Bisnow: If you weren’t in real estate, what path would your career have taken?

Block: Early in life, I was very involved in music-related activities like guitar playing, DJ'ing and helping run a radio station. Is being a Rick Rubin groupie a job?

Bisnow: If you could make one change to the industry, what would it be?

Block: I can’t wait until more women and underrepresented classes are in leadership positions across the real estate industry. I’d love to make that transformation happen much faster.

Bisnow: What is one thing you would do differently from early in your career?

Block: Like most people, I’ve made a ton of mistakes over the years. The thing is, I hope to make many more. The one piece of advice I’d give my younger self would be to take more risks in the early years. It seems like most growth happens when I get out of my comfort zone. This applies to the school, work and personal aspects of life.

Bisnow: As a leader, how do you decide who is worth mentoring and who is simply not a good fit?

Block: In addition to portfolio company founders and MetaProp rising stars, I spend hundreds of hours a year coaching diverse CEOs. I’m always interested in helping emerging leaders who might not have had the same advantages that I have had as a white male American who grew up in a safe and comfortable middle-class family. Regardless of background, I’m a sucker for folks with solid emotional intelligence who have a lot of heart.

Bisnow: What are your thoughts on the metaverse? Does it have any relevance for CRE?

Block: First of all, I’m a VC who spends only a fraction of time thinking about the metaverse. I encourage experimentation and support the early adopters. Our family has a Quest 2, and we use it for games, fitness, concerts, etc. Of course, it’s fun for real estate practitioners to explore cutting-edge technologies and platforms, too. However, there are plenty of great Web 2.0 proptech startups that are coming to eat real estate practitioners’ lunches.  Spend your time wisely!

Bisnow: What do you see as the lasting impacts of the pandemic on CRE? 

Block: Persistent office occupancy reductions will lead to more innovative space uses, new user/client technology expectations, and long-overdue land use and zoning regulations. Early stage startups we’ve backed that are solving these include StayOpen, VergeSense and Envelope.  

Bisnow: As you know, there is a massive conversation underway regarding advancing more people of color and women into the C-suite. What are you doing to address those voices and that movement within your own organization?

Block: It’s hard being at the intersection of real estate (not very diverse), technology (not very diverse) and venture capital (not very diverse). That said, we put our time, money and hearts on the line to lead and make a difference. Since we started MetaProp in 2015, diversity has been our No. 1 core value. Internally, we track and communicate monthly around MetaProp’s diversity statistics. Over the years, 25%-40% of our board members, leadership team and employees have been women or folks from racially diverse backgrounds. Our last portfolio company survey showed that 36% of our CEOs were people of color and 25% of our companies have female founders. Our internship program is partnered with HBCU.vc and has worked with veterans with diverse gender and age backgrounds. 

Externally, we try to lead by example and keep experimenting in the proptech ecosystem. Each MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University program has a dedicated training module for diversity and anti-harassment. In 2020, MetaProp put together a diversity-focused accelerator class that included five female co-founders and entrepreneurs representing six different ethnicities/origins. Our firm was an early supporter of the Women in PropTech group, and our offices and PropTech Place has hosted several meet-ups over the years. Additionally, for years we’ve worked with our MIPIM partners on increased representation of women and people of color on stage at our global Propel events and competitions. 

MetaProp’s research (including the Global PropTech Confidence Index) call-out sections regularly and deliberately feature women and people of color VCs and industry leaders. Personally, I’ve focused my coaching practice on underrepresented founders and CEOs, and have donated all coaching fees to HBCU.vc. Also, in 2019, I signed the “CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion” pledge with other global leaders, requiring MetaProp to make a very public commitment to our ecosystem and ensure safe violation reporting alternatives. I am still not yet where I want to be on this topic and, more importantly, MetaProp still has a long way to go. 

Bisnow: This is the weekend interview. What’s your typical weekend routine?

Block: Usually, the weekends are all about balance. I get up pretty early and try to use mornings to take care of personal fitness, dog bonding and urgent work. The rest of the weekend is dedicated to family. In the summer, we hang out upstate, playing tennis, wake surfing and swimming with friends. During the school year, the kids’ weekends are full of travel and recreational sports, so I pretty much act as a poorly paid Uber driver. On very rare occasions, my girlfriend, Pickles, and I sneak in a date night in NYC.