Evan Klein is the CBO of MREIT, leading strategic operations and brand vision. Prior to Evan’s role at MREIT, Evan fuelled growth for nationally recognized real estate brands, including Sotheby’s, Compass, Royal LePage, and Keller Williams. Evan brings over ten years of experience to the growing MREIT team with an extensive background in real estate, entrepreneurship, and brand development.
What was your journey like to get where you are?
I began my career in real estate fresh out of college. Since then, I’ve always watched how the real estate industry innovates and adapts — from branding, technology, products, and consumer experience. After working in real estate in the physical world, I began to have a growing interest in what’s next for this industry, which ultimately led to the virtual world. When I was first introduced to the metaverse and the decentralized arena, I immediately saw a need to create an experience for users that would provide accessibility and relatability.
In a simpler phrase, what is your company exactly doing?
Our company, MREIT, is the first tokenized metaverse real estate investment group whose mission is to increase accessibility for users to get involved with real estate in the metaverse. MREIT works similarly to a traditional REIT in the real world, focusing on acquiring, leasing, minting, and managing high-traffic virtual real estate in the metaverse, with rewards going back to token holders. You can think of our token as a publicly-traded stock. When our price increases, it provides more liquidity for acquisitions and ultimately more revenue for the company which increases rewards for our token holders. Unlike a traditional REIT, MREIT has no minimum requirements to buy-in. The MREIT token is the currency for the project; it’s not a share price for our assets.
What about Metaverse are you most excited for in the future?
There is a lot to look forward to with the metaverse; I’m most excited to see how virtual reality integration evolves and changes the office and retail atmosphere. I believe we’re in the infancy phase, and what’s coming will open many doors for brands to generate new experiences and products. It’s an incredible time to be an entrepreneur — if you’ve built and grown a business in the real world, you’re in a good spot because you can now apply everything you’ve learned to the Metaverse and Web3.0 and create a brand new industry from scratch. On a personal level, the metaverse provides an opportunity for users to be whoever they want to be. Whether it’s for business or gaming, we’re able to reinvent ourselves virtually in ways we never could before. As an introvert, that’s extremely exciting.
Why should we be paying attention to the Metaverse?
It’s not a question of why, but how. If you look at the evolution of our web experience from Web1 to now, I don’t think anybody can argue that something revolutionary is happening. Businesses and especially product-based businesses should be analyzing and digesting as much of the metaverse as possible because those businesses will be the first to explode. We’re already seeing it. All major industries will inevitably explode in the metaverse at some point in the near future. The question is, how can those brands find their identity and groove to ensure they’re set up for success? That’s why MREIT not only leases spaces and experiences to brands and businesses but also helps brands and businesses enter the space with confidence. We work with them to understand their landscape and apply that to the metaverse in a new way that makes sense for everybody. The metaverse will change how we conduct daily tasks outside of business users. It’s going to change how we communicate and interact. With VR glasses, sending an email will be done with the movement of your finger. Your virtual reality will be integrated with the real world.
