01
Core
Dubai Real Estate Professionals
Brokers, agency principals, developers, asset managers based in the UAE.
Block by Block, the #1 proptech podcast in the UAE
On-the-record conversations with the founders, VCs, and regulators reshaping how property is owned and traded in the UAE: fractional ownership, tokenisation, VARA-regulated RWA, and where the Dubai market is heading next.
55 min
Ep 12
The Institutional Playbook
Zainab Faisal Kufaishi, newest Non-Executive Director on the Tribe board and a former senior executive at $2.5 trillion asset manager Invesco, joins Sebastian Agren to mark Tribe securing its full VARA broker-dealer licence. They unpack the institutional playbook for scaling a regulated fintech, what democratising wealth actually looks like in practice, why closing the gender investing gap starts with financial literacy, and how the UAE's progressive regulation is setting the global standard for digital assets.
1 hr 19 min
Ep 11
The RWA Tokenisation Lie
Anton Golub, founding member of RWA Labs and Chief Business Officer of Freedx, joins Sebastian Agren for an unfiltered conversation on the structural mistakes being made in real-world asset tokenisation: why wrapping assets in SPVs adds cost and friction, why liquidity and distribution quietly kill most exchanges, how you actually market make an asset like real estate, and why the UAE's largest developers may hold the key to scaling global proptech.
50 min
Ep 10
From TradFi to Web3
Adam Popat, CEO of SettleMint, joins Gary Blowers to chart his move from a 20-year banking career into Web3: what sovereign-grade infrastructure really means, why regulated institutions tokenise differently from the retail crypto market, and why Dubai and the wider GCC are leading the charge in tokenised real estate.
61 min
Ep 9
The CMO's Guide to Surviving the AI Era
Alastair Sherriffs, Co-founder and CMO of Tribe, joins Gary Blowers to separate marketing hype from reality: why traditional corporate marketing structures are failing, where performance marketing breaks down, and how AI is handing early-stage founders their scarcest resource, time.
48 min
Ep 8
Democratising Dubai
Rakesh Mavath, Co-Founder of Takeem, joins Alastair Sherriffs to unpack why 75% of Dubai residents own no property, how tokenisation reframes the affordability problem, and what the current rental default cycle says about where the market goes next.
1 hr 11 min
Ep 7
The Future of Startup Fundraising
Marco Banfi, Co-Founder of CapQuest, joins Denis Darko to unpack how founders can raise capital without losing their equity, from when to use SAFEs versus price rounds, to why manual cap tables become a kill switch as you scale.
1 hr 3 min
Ep 6
Dubai Property: The Token Revolution
Joseph El Am, GM of Prypco, on why tokenisation is the next chapter of Dubai real estate, why true on-title-deed ownership beats the legacy SPV model, and why a crowded PropTech market validates the thesis instead of threatening it.
45 min
Ep 5
Why You Can’t Ignore Your Numbers
Vlad Sharuda, Co-Founder of Skrooge.ai, on the often-ignored backbone of every successful startup, and why financial discipline is the competitive advantage most founders only learn the hard way.
1 hr 13 min
Ep 4
Dubai Property: Panic or Profit
Ranime El Skaff, CEO and Co-Founder of Prop-AI, cuts through the noise on Dubai's property market — what the data says, where the risk actually sits, and whether this cycle ends in a correction or a consolidation.
50 min
Ep 3
Why Most Tokenisation Projects Fail
Robert Farquhar, CEO MENA at Ctrl Alt, breaks down why tokenisation is not a magic wand for bad assets, and what it actually takes to build a viable model in Dubai's RWA market.
1 hr
Ep 2
Building a Business That Lasts in a Regulated Industry
Sebastian Agren, Co-Founder of Tribe, speaks candidly about why skipping the hard steps always catches up with you, and why trust is your most valuable product.
1 hr 10 min
Ep 1
What Do VCs Really Look For in Founders?
Elliott Denham, Head of Programs at Oraseya Capital, shares what VCs actually look for in early-stage founders, and why the quiet work matters more than the pitch.
Dubai real estate is overwritten.
Underexplained.
The headlines get louder. The data gets noisier. And the people actually building the market rarely get to talk at length. Block by Block is the long-form space for those conversations. No pitch. No hype. No urgency. Just the builders, explaining how the blocks actually stack.
“The best conversations are the ones where both sides leave with something useful.”
The long-form podcast on the people building Dubai’s real estate.
Block by Block is not built for mass reach. Its audience is concentrated in the category it covers:
02
High-intent
Regional & International Investors
High-intent buyers evaluating Dubai exposure, including GCC-based family capital.
03
Adjacent
PropTech & Capital Allocators
Founders, operators, and institutional voices building across tokenisation and real estate.
04
Owned
The Tribe Community
Investors onboarded to the Tribe platform and partner networks distributing to their own audiences.
Want to be on Block by Block?
If you’re building in Dubai real estate, proptech, or capital markets, and you’ve got something worth saying at length, we’d like to hear from you.