
Adi Sideman
Co-founder, Props PBC
Board Member
The Props Project is intended to empower the people who help digital communities thrive, and create better alignment between app developers and their users. Props’ open-source infrastructure creates a decentralized network of apps operated by independent developers, who share an underlying token, benefiting from collective network effects. Props abstracts blockchain’s technological and regulatory complexity for apps, enabling them to easily plug Props Tokens into any app in the network, in order to grant their users unique benefits and a financial stake in the very networks they help grow. Props is backed by Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Comcast Ventures, Zeev Ventures, and others.
The Props Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) guides the development of the Props open source code and tooling, evengelizes for the Props Network and is responsible for awarding grants to developers, app operators and content creators that adopt Props. The Props project was started in 2017 by YouNow, a live streaming app with 50 million registered users. YouNow launched one of the first digital-currency based two sided economies in the US in 2014, and sold over $75M worth of digital currency to its users, sharing the majority of its revenue with content creators. YouNow was also the first app to integrate Props, followed by five other multi-million user apps that have been integrating Props.
Co-founder, Props PBC
Board Member
Adi Sideman is a pioneer in participatory media, an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience creating apps and companies in the UGC and digital currency space.
Prior to Props, Adi ran YouNow, the live streaming service that grew to over 120 million user sessions per month. YouNow was a finalist for TechCrunch’s Fastest Rising Startup of 2015.
As a developer, Adi produced the first-ever animated ads on AOL and created more than 30 online games, including the Matrix Game for the famed Warner Brothers Movie. Adi founded the interactive media technology firm Oddcast, which continues to develop interactive media apps such as "Elf Yourself". In 2005 Adi co-founded KSolo, the first online karaoke service (acquired by Fox Interactive/MySpace) and, in 2006, Adi co-founded audio ad network TargetSpot, a joint venture with CBS (acquired by Radionomy).Adi is a member of the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences and was named one of 2015’s top 100 most influential and inspiring people in NYC tech by Business Insider. He did his graduate work at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYUand holds an undergraduate degree from NYU Film School.
Co-founder, Props PBC
Board Member
Yonatan Sela is Props Co-founder and a member of the Props Foundation Public Benefit Corporation Board.
Prior to Props, Yonatan was the Chief Business Officer of live video platform YouNow, where he led the company’ s business operations and product strategy.Prior to YouNow, Yonatan was a VC at Venrock, a firm whose past investments include Apple, Intel, AppNexus and others.He focused on opportunities in digital media, FinTech and Blockchain.
Previously, Yonatan was a founding team member at Tvinci, an online video / OTT platform, where he ran the company’ s marketing and product strategy.He led Tvinci to 8 figures in revenue and an acquisition by Kaltura in 2014. Yonatan also co - founded Bookn 'tell, an app that simplifies friend referrals for local service businesses.
Yonatan is an Air Force Captain and a Boston Consulting Group(BCG) alumnus.He holds a B.A.in Economics and Eastern Philosophy and an M.B.A.from Wharton.
CTO
Peter Watts is Props PBC’s Chief Technology Officer. Peter has been leading Props’ blockchain research and taking a key role in designing Props since the early days of the project. Previously, Peter was a Senior Director of Product at YouNow. In that capacity, he led the design and development of strategic initiatives, such as the development of YouNow’s web application and spearheading YouNow’s growth team.
Previously, Peter founded Swarm.fm, a music discovery company and early partner on the Spotify App Platform.Peter is a self - taught software engineer who has years of experience building applications for bands and music venues.
Chief Engineer
Jonathan Achai is Props’ Chief Engineer, leading the PBC’s platform and blockchain engineering efforts.
Prior to Props, Jonathan was the founding engineer of YouNow, where he built a live video platform used by more than 50 million users globally.Jonathan has led engineering efforts at YouNow involved in video, product engineering and infrastructure development.Before YouNow, Jonathan developed both frontend and backend products at Oddcast as a full stack engineer, developing numerous user generated content applications.He has accumulated 20 years of professional engineering experience, and has been coding since he was a kid.Jonathan holds a degree in computer science from Hunter College.
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