We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bryan Hobbs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bryan , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

The pandemic gave us all a chance to take a step back and evaluate many aspects of our lives. Everything from what we eat, to how interact with family and friends, careers, etc… One of the things we noticed fairly quickly centered around the way in which people worked. As the pandemic forced majority of the world into a remote environment, you began to see many decide that they could be just as successful if they either moved to a new role or company or that they could venture out on their own and make a living. While there has always been remote work, it became more evident in that many could actually perform their work remotely without any drop-off in productivity. While this can be viewed as a positive aspect, many also began to realize that there were other opportunities out there, along with just experiencing and wanting more freedom.

Pruuvn™ is an organization that operates in what is known as the Gig Economy as a “Data Trust”. We are the trustee of an individual’s data, allowing that individual to share their verified credentials with employers, financial, and educational institutions, or anyone who has a need to verify their information. We also assist enterprises by turning the onboarding, training, and compliance processes from multiple steps into one click. Improving efficiency while reducing their risk profile.

The Gig Economy grew significantly during the pandemic, in particularly the on-demand delivery space. The Door Dashes and Amazons of the world saw an increase in requests which led to an increase in hires. Which in turn has also led to an increase in individuals finding new ways to make a living on their own time. So what you are now seeing is an influx of those who embrace freedom over a traditional work setting. You are now seeing hundreds of on-demand apps created monthly, as well as you are now seeing traditional companies adjusting to this new workforce by becoming more flexible. So much so that, some traditional companies are now fully remote all the time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

“I was born and raised in Selma, AL. I am a Civil Engineer by degree with a minor in computer applications and technology from the University of Alabama. A former collegiate athlete and blockchain enthusiast. My interest in the data and credentialing space stems from a real-life experience. I previously worked for the freight railroad company Norfolk Southern Corporation. A great company that provided me with the opportunity to grow through upward mobility. With that upward mobility, I also was required to move 4 times within 5 years, and I wasn’t moving along. At the time my family had to move with me forcing my partner to obtain a new job each time we moved. The year the idea of Pruuvn was born was a year wherein which my partner lost out on salary at a new school district, all due to the fact that a previous employer did not verify previous work history. The employers were verifying work history and credentials in an antiquated way. If the history could not be verified then the years of service do not count, and that affects salary. In my mind, this made no sense as this is not the first time this information has had to be verified. Why should it have to be reverified again? That’s when Pruuvn was born.

Pruuvn™ is a credentialing and data management/data trust company developing tools, leveraging blockchain technology, to empower the gig economy. We have developed a frictionless credentialing, onboarding, and compliance/employment platform that utilizes blockchain technology for on-demand access and increased security. Targeting employers that use freelancers/gig workers, we provide fast and cost-efficient background screening, verifications, and compliance.

More and more companies are embracing the use of gig workers. This trend is predicted to increase in the coming years and the pandemic has fueled its acceleration over the past several months. Currently, the onboarding process that businesses use for gig workers is expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient, especially for identity verification and credentialing. Unreliable verification also increases the risk and exposure of companies that use gig workers

Our platform allows employers to accurately verify and screen the background and identity of potential gig workers faster and at a lower price point than the current process. Utilizing blockchain technology the platform also allows the gig worker to maintain control of their credentialing and background data, and share this data on-demand with employers, financial institutions, and virtually anyone…anywhere…anytime. Which really sets us apart from our competitors.

We want clients to understand in that we are all about trust, transparency, accountability, and security. We are dedicated to making the lives of independent gid workers and organizations easier.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The first thing I will say is that fundraising is hard. I bootstrapped the company in the beginning and spent a lot of my own capital getting things off the ground. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that, however many can not afford to bootstrap a company in that way. That’s why its best to prove out a concept before you begin spending lots of capital on building something. You could easily end up losing a lot of time and money building something that no one wants. Today, Pruuvn has been fortunate enough to have won pitch competitions that are equity free, we have participated in accelerators that come with capital for a percentage of the company of course, and we have raised money the traditional way through, friends and family, angel, and VC routes. I will say that one of the things that you hear but don’t realize until you are in the throughs of things is that raising money can be difficult. You meet hundreds of people, and you will get a lot of no’s, certainly more than you get yes. You can’t get discouraged however, as you will come across those who believe in your product and your mission.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I think of a story that illustrates not my resilience but my company’s resilience I think to the pandemic. I am sure that our story is like many other startups and companies out there in that it was a rough time, so much so in just keeping the lights on was the only worry. We had customers who were great close their doors, creating a reduction in revenue for us. We also had customers who pivoted and moved into different spaces to adjust to the pandemic. To ensure that we remained in business we pivoted as well and focused more on improving our product. We understood that once the pandemic was over that thing would pick back up and that we just needed to weather the storm a little longer. To date this has paid off as the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 has been good to us so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: www,pruuvn.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pruuvn1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pruuvn/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cyberclipboard
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/pruuvn
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC55xp0DrsLwU3Y4gJCxmhvQ
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Pruuvn