'Contemporaries Are Always Good for the Industry': Vijay Pravin, CEO of BitsCrunch

Vijay near BMW Museum, Munich, Germany

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I am the Founder & CEO of bitsCrunch, a Blockchain Analytics company that is focusing on NFTs. I have previously worked with Big German firms like Siemens and Volkswagen. I graduated Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany.

I am a TEDx Speaker and a regular Keynote Speaker in International Conferences. I’m also the first Indian to be invited for a TEDx talk in Germany below 30. I was awarded as ‘Top 40 Data Scientists under 40’ in India. I was also nominated as ‘20+ Inspiring Data Scientists to be followed on LinkedIn in 2020’ by AI Time Journal from the United States. I am followed by well over 40,000 people on LinkedIn.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

bitsCrunch - A Blockchain Analytics firm providing AI-enabled securing services to bolster the NFT Ecosystem, operating in Germany and in India. Bootstrapped until mid of 2021 and then closed a Seed round of 750,000$. We are more like an NFT Police.

What is the origin story?

bitsCrunch was founded in 2020 amidst the pandemic. Bootstrapped until mid of 2021 and then closed a Seed round of 750,000$ from notable Venture Capitalists and Angles in this space.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We are a cross-functional team. We are data savvy. Everyone in the team are data experts with a cumulative experience of 25+ years in Data Analytics and Machine Learning.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Since I was recognized as one of the Top 20+ Inspiring Data Scientists to be followed on LinkedIn, and also a TEDx Speaker, I would have opted for a career along these lines.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

We measure our success on the scale of 0 -10, protecting the provenance of the artist and the artworks. Core metrics - providing utmost security by protecting the provenance and integrity of the people/creators in the NFT ecosystem.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We have closed partnership deals with big players like Polygon, Rarible, and Covalent.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

Most excited about the point that integrates both AI and Blockchain. Worried that people are unaware of the full potential of the Blockchain and its use-cases, they do think that Blockchain is only related to cryptocurrency and trading.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

The most renowned platform for tech professionals to publish their works. With 4M+ monthly readers, we believe that we could spread the message that WE (bitsCrunch) are working on securing services using AI for the NFT space by blending our AI expertise with the Blockchain to bolster the NFT ecosystem. The way the articles are categorized and presented makes a good read on the platform.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Failures are part and parcel of life. Not to worry about failures is one thing I would advise to the 21-year-old version of myself now.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Contemporaries are always good for the industry. It brings in healthy competition. Orkut was there when Facebook arrived. I won’t be surprised if someone comes up with the same idea. Rather I will just focus on getting the right things at the right time.