Profile: NFT entrepreneurs Zach Bruch and Trevor George rise in the metaverse

We’ve been asking our readers what kind of metaverse companies and entrepreneurs they are inspired by and it’s no surprise that Recur is on a short list of organizations to watch in the new year.

“NFT” has become a massive buzzword in various industries worldwide, though it’s still in early phases of adoption. At the forefront of the rise of NFT, the entrepreneurs who truly understand blockchain technology and believe that NFTs offer an enormous opportunity are building a foundation upon which we all may admire very soon. The two co-CEOs of startup Recur, Zach Bruch and Trevor George, certainly fall under this category. 

Zach Bruch was already a crypto industry expert, but it was his friendship with Trevor George that led to his latest entrepreneurial venture. They knew each other from college, as they both attended the University of Michigan. George was advancing in his digital licensing career when they realized that both of their career experiences could help them introduce “global IP into the NFT space.” The two friends assembled a leadership team that reads like a who’s who of experts across licensing, engagement, gaming, and engineering and – viola –  Recur, an NFT platform was born.

Building new universes for fans to buy, collect, and resell NFTs

Recur is a technology platform focused on creating on-chain branded experiences through its NFT marketplace. The startup is clear regardings its goals: it hopes to be a white-label NFT solution for some of the largest companies in the world, and the company is already forging powerful partnerships to that end. 

Recur hopes to create “new universes” for fans to buy, collect, and resell NFTs. One of the most unique aspects of Recur is that it is chain-agnostic. This means that NFTs can be minted by Ethereum on the platform, but can also be minted by other blockchains. 

The entrepreneurs make it clear that this helps NFTs remain accessible to all, and will help the overall reach of those digital assets. Another reason why Recur is such a draw as a platform is because there is a recurring royalty embedded in the smart contracts, and it created the EIP-2981 Ethereum standard. Even if an NFT left the Recur platform, the original IP owner can participate in secondary NFT sales in perpetuity. 

A gateway to the metaverse

With Facebook’s recent rebrand to Meta, more companies worldwide are thinking about the metaverse than ever before. Morgan Stanley believes the metaverse can be worth as much as $8 trillion, and China is actively strategizing how it can dominate the next “Internet battlefield.” Where does Recur come in, and how exactly will the metaverse evolve?

Trevor George makes it clear that he wants Recur to be “the gateway to the metaverse.” The idea is that it’s easy for consumers to purchase NFTs from a brand they love, but many companies couldn’t predict the rise of digital collectibles. In this way, global brands with “hundreds of millions of fans” had missed an opportunity earlier this year.

The startup saw this opportunity, and began speaking with licensed brands to help them enter the NFT space. Now, large corporations are finding “NFT partners” that can ensure they are capitalizing on the metaverse, and Recur wants to be the go-to partner in the space. The entrepreneurs stress that it’s about more than just owning digital collectibles; it’s also about being able to “play” and engage with communities in the metaverse. 

Fast-moving Recur has earned a seat at the NFT table

If you follow crypto news very closely, you may remember that Recur has been on a roll raising capital for the venture, having garnered $5 million earlier this year.

Even their investor-list reads like a dream team from the average entrepreneur’s dream board.

Case in point: Gary Vaynerchuck, chairman of VaynerX, serial entrepreneur, brand expert, future Jets owner (we’re rooting for you, Gary!), and one of the world’s biggest NFT influencers is a significant investor and early contributor and advisor to Recur. Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, are among the other 22 notable investors. Most recently, billionaire Steve Cohen led a $50 million Series A fundraising round that already values Recur at $333 million.

The rapid and immense funding is a telling sign that Bruch and George are leading the charge of something that could be transformative in the metaverse. It’s pretty astonishing when you realize that Recur was founded earlier this year. At this rate, and with this much promise, both of these two entrepreneurs could end up becoming crypto billionaires in the very near future.

Recur isn’t just making the news for raising money, either. The platform recently announced seven new partnerships for collegiate NFTs. ViacomCBS, one of the largest media companies in the world, has also partnered with the startup. 

As if these two moves weren’t massive enough, Recur is also teaming up with Sanrio to release the world’s first Hello Kitty NFTs. (Nice move – our Editorial Director is a massive Hello Kitty fan…)

What’s next for Recur

Entrepreneurs: when you hear the phrase “we stand on the shoulders of giants,” one day, those ‘giants’ could be Bruch and George..

This emerging company clearly has a bright—and busy—future ahead with much-deserved success. We can’t wait to watch their climb in the metaverse. 

In the words of Zach Bruch and Trevor George, “Let the games begin! 🚀”