Aaron Block is a best-selling author, speaker, entrepreneur, and investor focused on the intersection of real estate and technology.
Aaron Block co-founded and serves as Managing Partner of MetaProp, the New York-based venture capital firm focused on the PropTech industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp’s investment team has invested in 135+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages multiple funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors that represent a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 20+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market. Aaron oversees day-to-day management of the firm and, during his tenure, has 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.
Previously, Aaron served as Chairman of Chicago-based BayRu, LLC, the US-Russia ecommerce shopping and shipping specialist and eBay.com’s exclusive drop shipping partner for Russia/CIS consumers. After Aaron joined the company in 2010 as an investor and CEO, BayRu grew to become the 8th largest international online retailer in Russia. In 2013, BayRu was #11 on the Inc5000 “Top 100 Retail Companies” list and was named “Exporter of the Year” by the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Prior to BayRu, Aaron was a commercial real estate executive with Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm, and oversaw more than 270 professionals as leader of the Chicago region. Aaron received numerous honors and awards during his real estate career including Top Producer, Most Creative Deal, Agency of the Year and Most Promising Brokerage Professional. Notably, Aaron completed the largest leasing deal in Russian history and the largest leasing deal of the year in Ukraine (2007).
Aaron speaks English, Spanish and Russian. He has been featured in dozens of international publications and media including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., TechCrunch, Crain’s New York, the Chicago Tribune, Yahoo Business, CBS Radio, and Kommersant. In 2019, Aaron was awarded Executive of the Year for innovation by Commercial Property Executive Magazine. In 2018, Aaron and MetaProp co-founder Zach Aarons published the Amazon bestseller PropTech101.