Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based Founder operating in the Real Estate space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Sky Dayton
Co-Founder of City Storage Systems
Sky has a long history as a successful entrepreneur in the Internet industry, having founded, co-founded, and helped build companies with a combined market value of over $3 billion. Best known for founding the Internet service provider EarthLink in 1994, Sky also founded Boingo Wireless in 2001 and co-founded eCompanies, Business.com, and several other companies. Sky was an investor and active board member at NeoPets leading up to its sale to Viacom in 2005. As chairman of Age of Learning, he works closely with our management team to help guide our growth.
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About Boingo Wireless, City Storage Systems, eCompanies: City Storage Systems is a startup that focuses on re-purposing distressed real estate assets.
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Ori Allon
Founder & Executive Chairman of Compass
Prior to Compass Ori was the Director of Engineering at Twitter’s NYC office, after selling his prior company, Julpan, to Twitter in 2011. Previously, Google acquired his patented thesis work called Orion. During his time at Google, Ori led a search quality team that integrated the Orion technology and algorithms with the Google search engine. Ori earned his PhD in computer science at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
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About Compass: Compass is a real estate technology company that provides an online platform for buying, renting, and selling real estate assets.
Robert Reffkin
Co-Founder and CEO of Compass
Robert Reffkin is the Founder and CEO at Compass. Prior to Compass Robert worked at Goldman Sachs as Chief of Staff to the President & COO following five years working in the firm’s private equity arm. Prior to Goldman Sachs, he worked at Lazard and McKinsey & Company. In 2005, he was appointed as a White House Fellow to serve as special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury. Robert is also the Founder of New York Needs You. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Columbia University. Outside of work, he recently completed 50 marathons, one in each state, to raise $1 million for nonprofits.
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About Compass: Compass is a real estate technology company that provides an online platform for buying, renting, and selling real estate assets.
Henry Kravis
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Henry Kravis (New York) co-founded KKR in 1976 and is Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. He is actively involved in managing the Firm and serves on regional Private Equity Investment and Portfolio Management Committees. Henry Kravis currently serves on the boards of First Data Corporation and ICONIQ Capital, LLC. He also serves as a director, chairman emeritus or trustee of several cultural, professional, and educational institutions, including The Business Council, Claremont McKenna College, Columbia Business School, Mount Sinai Hospital, Partnership for New York City, Partnership Fund for New York City, Rockefeller University, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. He earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College in 1967 and an M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School in 1969. Henry Kravis has more than four decades of experience financing, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies, as well as serving on the boards of a number of KKR portfolio companies.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Partnership Fund for New York City: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Girish Reddy
Member, KKR and Co-Founder, Hedge Funds of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Girish Reddy (New York) is a Member at KKR and Co-Founder of KKR Prisma, which previously conducted business as Prisma Capital Partners LP, and is currently KKR’s customized hedge fund solutions business. Mr. Reddy also oversees the KKR Prisma Investment Committee. Before starting KKR Prisma, Mr. Reddy was a partner and co-head of equity derivatives at Goldman Sachs & Co, based in Europe. Prior to this role, he was the chief investment officer of LOR Associates in Los Angeles. Earlier in his career, he was a senior vice president of portfolio construction and asset allocation at Travelers Investment Management Company, where he specialized in various overlay strategies for the firm using listed futures and options. Mr. Reddy serves on the executive board of the Indian School of Business, on the investment committee of the Cornell University endowment, and is also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Mr. Reddy holds a B. Technology degree from I.I.T., Madras, as well as an M.Eng and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He is also a CFA Charterholder.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Matt Humphrey
Co-Founder & CEO of LendingHome
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About LendingHome, Quiet Capital: LendingHome offers fix-and-flip bridge loans and rental loans for real estate investors.
James Herbert
Co-Founder, Board Member of LendingHome
Current: Co-Founder, Board Member of LendingHome; SVP at First Republic Bank. Previous: Founder of Two Bridges Real Estate; Co-Founder and EVP of Colony American Homes; VP at Colony Capital; VP in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. BA and MBA from Stanford. Investor in / advisor to seed to Series C companies
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About First Republic Bank, First Republic Bank, LendingHome: LendingHome offers fix-and-flip bridge loans and rental loans for real estate investors.
Jonathan Wasserstrum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of SquareFoot
Jonathan graduated from Columbia Business School in May 2012. Prior to business school, Jonathan worked in the International Capital Group at Jones Lang LaSalle where he advised foreign and domestic clients on more than $3 billion worth of transactions globally.
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About MetaProp, MetaProp, SquareFoot: SquareFoot is a marketplace that helps companies find office spaces.
Max Simkoff
Founder & CEO of Doma
Max started States Title in 2016 after personally experiencing the friction and labor caused by title insurance in the homebuying process. Since then he has worked to provide an innovative solution to homeowners, brokers, and mortgage bankers. Max is an entrepreneur with experience founding and operating technology companies. Prior to States Title, Max was Founder and CEO of Evolv, Inc., an enterprise predictive analytics software company, which he led through their acquisition by Cornerstone (NASDAQ: CSOD) in 2014 where he served for two years on the senior executive team post-acquisition as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives.
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About Doma: Doma is an insurtech platform that uses machine intelligence to remove friction from residential real estate transactions.
Bill Smith
Founder & CEO of Landing
Bill Smith is the founder and CEO of Landing, the industry’s first membership-based leasing model for long-term living. The company provides members with access to a network of fully-finished and unfurnished apartments with flexible leases to accommodate the needs of today’s modern renter. Founded in June of 2019, Bill created Landing to resolve the pain points of traditional renting that he experienced first hand when he moved to San Francisco in 2016. Faced with stubborn leases, high moving costs and a largely offline experience, Bill set out to create a more seamless renting experience and change the way people live with Landing. A lifelong entrepreneur, before Landing, Bill was the founder and CEO of Shipt, the online grocery delivery marketplace, which he sold to Target for $550M in December of 2017.
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About Landing: Landing develops a membership-based network of fully-finished urban apartment homes.
Fatima Dicko
Founder & CEO of Sugar
Prior to founding Jetpack at Stanford University, Fatima worked as the youngest senior engineer on a product innovation team at Procter & Gamble focusing on products 3-10 years away from market. Having been awarded several corporate innovation awards such as ‘Most Transformative Product Design’ and the ‘P&G Global Innovation Seed Fund’, her key competencies include designing simple solutions to complex problems. Fatima holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, where she received a Gold King’s Crown Leadership Award and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
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About Sugar: Sugar builds community and transforms the residential experience by integrating with technology stacks that power modern buildings.
Shawn Boday
Founder and President of Perday
Shawn Boday is a seasoned entrepreneur who has started a number of companies over the past several decades. Shawn Boday currently serves as Founder and Owner of Perday LLC, a successful real estate holding company. What once started from a single building investment, has grown to an investment of thousands of apartment units and commercial units located across the states of Washington and Idaho. Shawn Boday has plans to expand Perday LLC’s investments into other states in the near future. Shawn Boday attended the University of Washington in the pursuit of Computer Science before entering into the entrepreneurial world. When Shawn Boday is not hard at work, you can find him outside and being active. Self-described as an avid snowboarder, Shawn, and his family spend much of their times hitting the slopes
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About Accretive Technology Group, Perday: A real estate investment firm located in Seattle, founded by Shawn Boday
Alex Rodriguez
CIO, Founder & CEO of A-Rod Corp
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez is an American professional baseball infielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers. During his 20-year career, Rodriguez has amassed a .299 batting average, 677 home runs, 2,027 runs batted in (RBIs), and over 3,000 hits. He is a 14-time All-Star and has won three American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten Silver Slugger Awards, and two Gold Glove Awards.
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About A-Rod Corp, BRX Holdings, Fitplan, JLo Beauty, Slam Corp: A-Rod Corp identifies, originates and manages investments across a broad array of industries.
Shawn Carpenter
Founder & Managing Partner of Three Tree Ventures
Shawn Carpenter is the Founder and Chairman of the Board at Three Tree Ventures, an early-stage technology startup investment fund that backs exceptional entrepreneurs that are applying technology to market segments with high caps that have had a historically incorrect, ineffective and/or insufficient level of technology application. Three Tree Ventures prefers to invest in startups as early as possible, has historically only invested in product companies, and prefers to invest in organizations with one or more U.S. military veteran founder(s). Since early 2014, Shawn has also been an LP and Advisor to CrossCut Ventures (https://www.crosscut.vc) in Los Angeles, CA. Mr. Carpenter is a globally respected cyber security expert with a broad range of successful early-stage investments, including Compass (IPO on NYSE #COMP 4.1.2021 @ $8.22B valuation), Privateer Holdings (acquired by Tilray), Awake Security (acquired by Arista Networks), Left Coast Ventures (acquired by Subversive Capital), GroupSense, White Ops (now known as “HUMAN” acquired by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking) ThreatGRID (acquired by Cisco), RideScout (acquired by Daimler AG), InAuth (acquired by American Express) and Efflux Systems (acquired by NETSCOUT Systems). Mr. Carpenter is known for his acumen in advising early stage innovators. He has successfully helped Three Tree Ventures portfolio entrepreneurs and their companies raise capital for pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A investment rounds, navigate rough waters, acquire key talent and customers, and help develop short and long-term business strategies. He currently advises CrossCut Ventures, Trinity Cyber, TruSTAR Technology (acquired by Splunk 5-2021), AgentHero, GroupSense, uStadium and Netswitch Technology Management. He has held key positions at startups where he was an early employee — Principal Forensics Analyst at NetWitness, Chief Technical Analyst at iSIGHT Partners, Chief Strategy Officer at Invotas, and Senior Vice President of Cyber at Cybraics. One of his passions is being the Technical Advisor for a non-profit 501(c)3 founded by his wife, Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, and a close friend, Jessica Stern — Connect Our Kids (https://www.connectourkids.org). The organization is applying modern technologies like artificial intelligence and data science to the United States foster care system to improve outcomes. His experience and successful entrepreneurial background are coupled with deep technical skills honed while pioneering cyber security protocols for the federal government and working at NetWitness and iSIGHT Partners over the past two decades. Shawn is also a veteran of the US Navy, and qualified as a nuclear operator and chemist during his six years of service in the US Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPS Class 9203). Shawn also worked as a senior cyber security analyst for almost six years as a Member of the Technical Staff (MTS) at Sandia National Laboratories. After joining NetWitness as one of the first employees, he helped architect, implement and stand up the Justice Security Operations Center (JSOC) — at that time the largest deployment of NetWitness gear for a federal client. Mr. Carpenter also worked as a principal senior analyst at the US Department of State’s Cyber Threat Analysis Team (CTAD) from 2004-2007; he was a key member of the 2005 CTAD team that was awarded the prestigious Frank B. Rowlett Trophy For Organizational Achievement by the National Security Agency. Shawn has been tinkering with computers since he bought his first computer, a TRS-80 Model I, in late 1978 at the age of 10. He has been curious about almost everything since he was born, and enjoys playing slide guitar, banjo and trumpet, metal detecting with his kids, climbing tall trees, building forts, lucid dreaming, experimenting with brain/machine interfaces, building robotic banshees, and hacking all of the things. Mr. Carpenter has a particular affection for blues and jazz, and is an investor and minor partner in a John Coltrane biography — “Chasing Trane” (https://www.coltranefilm.com). His investments span everything from technology-enabled real estate, to being the first money in at Rumi Spice (https://www.rumispice.com), a sustainable saffron growing enterprise founded by three West Point graduates that served in Herat, Afghanistan, that three years later is the largest private employer of Afghan women in the world, with over 2000 women employees. In May 2017, Mark Cuban became an investor in Rumi Spice. In September of 2018, Rumi Spice’s saffron became available nationwide in all Whole Food Markets. Shawn is a native of Sioux Falls, SD, and credits his very patient wife — Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, his Mother, Jan, his brother, Shane, his South Dakota roots, and mentors and friends like Aaron Walters, Amit Yoran, Paul Garrett, Fraser Verrusio, Jeff Cesnik, Mischel Kwon, Kendall Millard, Gary Golomb, Paul Kurtz, Dave Haugen (his high school band director) and many, many others for his scrappiness, successes and ability to recover from failures.
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About CityVest, Crosscut Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Global Foundry, InAuth, Left Coast Ventures, PeerNova, Privateer Holdings, Rumi Spice, StealthWorker, ThreatGRID, Three Tree Ventures, Tilray: Three Tree Ventures is an early stage VC firm that invests in startups that are applying technology to disrupt the market status quo.
Naomi Wolf
Co-Founder and CEO of DailyClout
Dr. Naomi Wolf is a bestselling author, columnist, and professor; she is a graduate of Yale University and received a doctorate from Oxford. She is cofounder and CEO of DailyClout.io, a successful civic tech company. Since the publication of her landmark international bestseller, The Beauty Myth, which The New York Times called “one of the most important books of the 20th century,” Dr Wolf’s other seven bestsellers have been translated worldwide. The End of America and Give Me Liberty: A Handbook For American Revolutionaries, predicted the current crisis in authoritarianism and presented effective tools for citizens to promote civic engagement. Dr Wolf trains thought leaders of tomorrow, teaching public presentation to Rhodes Scholars and co-leading a Stony Brook University that gave professors skills to become public intellectuals. She was a Rhodes scholar herself, and was an advisor to the Clinton re-election campaign and to Vice President Al Gore. Dr Wolf has written for every major news outlet in the US and many globally; she had four opinion columns, including in The Guardian and the Sunday Times of London. She lives with her husband, private detective Brian O’Shea, in the Hudson Valley.
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About DailyClout: DailyClout is a platform that empowers real people to build & exert real political clout.
Grant Cardone
Founder, President & CEO of Cardone Capital
Grant Cardone is a Miami-based entrepreneur, business owner, New York Times best-selling author, and noted philanthropist. Currently, Cardone serves as CEO at several privately-held companies, including Cardone Capital, Cardone Enterprises, Cardone Training Technologies, and Cardone University. Cardone also serves as founder and leader at the Grant Cardone Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing financial literacy mentorship to underprivileged youth. Additionally, he maintains a longstanding membership in the Church of Scientology. A sought-after public speaker and sales consultant, Cardone was recently listed by Forbes as one of the leading social media business influencers on the globe. He is widely regarded as the Top Crowdfunder in the world, having raised over $600 million in equity through various social media channels. Cardone’s influence on sales and marketing is significant, particularly as founder of the immensely popular 10X Movement. This includes his role as host of the annual 10X Growth Conference, considered the largest entrepreneur conference ever held with more than 34,000 attendees from around the world. Forbes voted Cardone the number one Marketing Influencer to Watch in 2017. He is a well know Scientologist, crediting Scientology for helping him turn his life around at the age of 25.
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About Cardone Capital, Cila Labs, Grant Cardone, Grant Cardone Sales Training University: Cardone Capital’s portfolio currently consists of 6,537 units with a total value of over $1.4 billion.
Rodney Sampson
Founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of OHUB
Rodney Sampson is heralded as the leading inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem builder in the world, particularly given his mission to ensure that everyone, everywhere, particularly socially disadvantaged communities, have equitable access to the new multi-generational wealth creation opportunities afforded in the future of work and fourth industrial revolution as definitive paths to reducing poverty and the racial wealth gap everywhere. Throughout his twenty-year entrepreneurial career, Sampson has co-founded startup companies that have overcome the odds by collectively raising more than $20 million in angel and venture capital, created hundreds of new jobs, and generated tens of millions in revenue before the acquisition or going public. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sampson co-founded, built, and sold Multicast Media Technologies (Streamingfaith.com) and EFactor (EFCT). He was one of three Black co-founders during this era whose high growth technology startups raised over $1 million in angel and venture capital and were subsequently acquired for eight-figures. During this time, Sampson also built Intellectual Currency, a world-class integrated go-to-market, publishing, and advisory firm with clients ranging from major Hollywood film studios, cable networks, tech companies, global corporates, publishers, the United States government, African heads of state and leading Black church denominations. Since 2007, Sampson has worked closely with high growth startups and seed-stage venture funds as a selective advisor, investor, and limited partner. His current investment and advisory portfolio include Cross Culture Ventures, TechSquare Capital, Digit, York Exponential, Plum.io, Patientory, The Mentor Method, and Momentum Learning. In 2013, Sampson co-founded Opportunity Hub as a follow up to the highly successful Kingonomics’ book release and large-scale conferences in Atlanta, GA, and Washington, DC. OHUB scaled quickly to become the leading multi-campus coworking space, entrepreneurship center, and tech hub featuring over 300 events a year, a startup pre-accelerator, coding boot-camp, and scholarship initiative and angel investing platform for founders from underestimated and under-tapped communities. Over 15,000 people walked through OHUB’s doors each year. From 2015-17, Sampson was a Partner at TechSquare Labs, a tech hub, seed-stage venture fund, and creator of the $100,000 Atlanta Startup Battle. Today, TechSquare Labs’ portfolio companies have raised follow on the capital of nearly $300 million, are valued at over $1.5 billion, generate over $100 million in annual recurring revenue, and employ over 1000 people and growing. He remains the largest minority limited partner in the fund. Today, as Executive Chairman & CEO of Opportunity Hub and OHUB Foundation, Sampson is focused on scaling OHUB as the definitive global future of work, opportunity, and wealth-creating platform by ensuring that everyone, everywhere has early exposure to tech, startup, and venture; in-demand technology education, training, and talent placement; inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem building; and capital formation. This is driven by the thousands of college and young professional members and growing from hundreds of colleges and universities across America and beyond. OHUB is a supplier, vendor, and partner to over 50 tech companies, major corporations, high growth startups, venture funds, municipalities, foundations, associations, colleges and universities and growing. Current national initiatives include OHUB@Cities, OHUB@Campus, OHUB@SXSW, 100 Black Angels Fund I and DEIS, a new strategy, service, and future software platform to operationalize diversity, equity, and inclusion across the major divisions of growing enterprises. Sampson is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brooking Institution in Washington, DC, and a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. Sampson previously served as the 1st Head of Diversity at Mark Burnett Productions, executive producers of the hit ABC show, ABC’s Sharktank. A strong believer in philanthropy and its role in social impact and advocacy, Sampson supports and serves on the boards of Artificial Intelligence for All (AI4All), Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), International Bishops Conference, and GA Technology for All Policy Summit. Sampson was educated at Tulane University, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and Keller Graduate School of Management. Sampson resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife and six children.
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About Huddle Ventures, OHUB, Plum.io, ROHO: OHUB is an ecosystem building platform to ensure authentic diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fourth industrial revolution and beyond.
Rick Rudman
Co-Founder, Chairman, President & CEO of Curbio
Rick Rudman is the Founder, Chairman, President & CEO of Vocus & he attended University of Maryland in 1980.
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About Curbio: Curbio helps realtors and their clients get homes ready for market or move-in fast.
Matthew Siegal
Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Curbio
Matthew Siegal is the Co-Founder and CSO at Curbio.
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About Curbio, MaxSalePrice, Transformania: Curbio helps realtors and their clients get homes ready for market or move-in fast.
Ryan Simonetti
CEO & Co-Founder of Convene
Ryan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Convene, commercial real estate’s first workplace-as-a-service platform. His unique expertise in real estate acquisitions, development, and structured finance has helped catapult Convene to become a pioneer in the industry.
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About Convene: Convene designs and services premium places to work, meet, and host events.
Sami Mnaymneh
Founder and Co-CEO of H.I.G. Capital
Sami Mnaymneh is a Founder and Co-CEO of H.I.G. Capital and has served as a Managing Partner of the firm since 1993. He has directed the firm’s development since its founding and approves all capital commitments made by H.I.G. Sami currently serves on the Board of Columbia College and on the Dean’s Council of the Harvard Law School. Prior to founding H.I.G., Sami was a Managing Director with The Blackstone Group in New York. Prior to that, he was a Vice President in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he devoted a significant amount of his time to leveraged buyouts, serving as senior advisor to a number of prominent private equity firms. Over the course of his career, Mr. Mnaymneh has led over 75 transactions in a wide range of industries. Sami earned a B.A. degree, Summa Cum Laude, from Columbia University where he graduated first in his class, and subsequently received a J.D. degree and an M.B.A. degree, with honors, from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively.
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About Blackstone Group, H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Tony Tamer
Founder & Co-CEO of H.I.G. Capital
Tony Tamer is a Founder and Co-CEO of H.I.G. Capital. He has directed H.I.G.’s development since its founding in 1993 and approves all capital commitments made by the firm. Tony has led a number of successful investments at H.I.G. in both the management buyouts and growth capital arenas. He has extensive experience working with, and coaching, early stage and middle-market companies. Tony is a board member of several H.I.G. portfolio companies. He currently also serves on the Dean’s Council of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Prior to H.I.G., Tony was partner at Bain & Company where he developed business unit and operating strategies, implemented productivity improvement initiatives, and led acquisition and divestiture activities for a number of Fortune 500 clients. Tony has extensive operating experience. He has held marketing, engineering and manufacturing positions at Hewlett-Packard and Sprint Corporation. Tony holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School, and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. His undergraduate degree is from Rutgers University.
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About H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, H.I.G. Capital, HP: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
H. Michael Schwartz
Founder, Chairman & CEO of SmartStop Asset Management
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About SmartStop Asset Management: A diversified real estate company .
Stella Wu
Founder & CEO of Eano Home Renovation
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About Eano Home Renovation: Delivering easy, affordable renovation and good designs to more homeowners via an end-to-end, all-in-one automated solution.
Vishal Garg
Founder & CEO of Better.com
Vishal Garg is the Founder and CEO of Better.com, a digital-first homeownership company whose services included mortgage, real estate, title, and homeowners insurance. A serial entrepreneur, the day that he came up with the idea behind Better.com, Vishal was simply looking to purchase a home for his growing family (and not start a new company). When Vishal’s effort to buy his family’s dream house was defeated by an antiquated homeownership process, the vision and mission for Better.com was born. Vishal Garg’s Better.com all-in-one digital platform takes customers through the entire home-buying process, from finding an agent to securing a mortgage (or refinanced loan) to shopping for insurance. To date, under Vishal Garg’s leadership, Better.com has done over $46.9 BN in home loans and provided over $16B in cumulative coverage through Better Cover and Better Settlement Services, the insurance divisions of Better.com. Better.com has raised over $400M in equity capital and is backed by L Catterton, Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, American Express Ventures, Citi and other investors. In December 2019, HousingWire honored Vishal Garg with the “2019 Vanguard Award”, which recognizes leaders of businesses contributing to the growth of the housing economy. In July of 2020, Comparably surveyed employees of color to rate the top CEOs driving diversity and inclusive work culture. The results ranked Garg at #13 out of 25, placing him alongside leaders at organizations like Microsoft and Google. In September of 2020, Business Insider named Vishal Garg as one of the “100 People Transforming Business in 2020”. And, in October of 2020, Ernst & Young included Garg on the “Entrepreneur of the Year 2020” list. Vishal Garg is also the founding partner of 1/0 Capital. Previously, Vishal was Co-head and Managing Partner, ARAM ABS Group ($6 B+ assets) and the Founder and President & CFO of MyRichUncle (2005 NASDAQ IPO), which he founded at the age of 21 and built into the fourth largest private student loan originator in the US. Prior toMyRichUncle, Vishal was an analyst in the Mergers & Acquisition dept. at Morgan Stanley, and a frontier emerging markets portfolio manager for the Strategos Fund. He is a graduate of NYU Stern with the highest honors.
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About Better.com, Phoenix Holdings: Better.com is a homeownership journey platform that utilizes technology to change the way people buy and own a home.
Carter Malloy
CEO and Founder, Board of Directors of AcreTrader
Carter grew up in an Arkansas farming family, which inspired a lifelong passion for agriculture and conservation. Prior to AcreTrader, he was part of a long/short equity investment firm for 5 years. Before joining in 2013, Carter was a Managing Director with Stephens Inc., a large private investment bank, where he was an equity research analyst focused on the Internet, Data & Analytics and Real Estate Processing sectors. Prior to Stephens, he owned small businesses focused on internet marketing and sustainable fuel technologies. He graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Physics.
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About AcreTrader: AcreTrader is a technology company connecting investors, land, and farmers.
Brett Crosby
Co-Founder & COO of PeerStreet
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About PeerStreet: PeerStreet is a crowdfunding platform that gives investors easy access to high-yielding loans that are collateralized with real estate.
Alex Perelman
Co-Founder & CTO of PeerStreet
Alex Perelman is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Technology Officer at PeerStreet.
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About PeerStreet, Playhouse: PeerStreet is a crowdfunding platform that gives investors easy access to high-yielding loans that are collateralized with real estate.
Brew Johnson
Co-Founder & CEO of PeerStreet
Brew Johnson is the visionary leader behind PeerStreet. His experience in technology platforms, real estate and law culminated in the unique concept that is PeerStreet. Prior to PeerStreet, he worked as general counsel at VirtualTourist where he oversaw the company’s $85 million sale to Expedia/TripAdvisor. Before that, he was a real estate attorney at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory and a technology attorney at Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. At Allen Matkins, Brew advised some of the largest real estate development and investment firms in the country on a wide variety of complex real estate transactions. He continues to advise startups and is an active real estate developer, investor and private lender. Brew graduated from USC with degrees in international relations and history and earned his JD from the UCLA School of Law.
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About PeerStreet: PeerStreet is a crowdfunding platform that gives investors easy access to high-yielding loans that are collateralized with real estate.
Austin Brooks
Co-Founder of Rentroom
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About Rentroom: Next generation software for property owners and tenants
Alex Britton
Co-Founder and CEO of Rentroom
Alex Britton is the co-founder and CEO of Rentroom. Prior to founding Rentroom as CEO, Alex worked as a growth product manager at Toast Inc. and Blue Apron. These positions assisted Alex in gaining a strong understanding of B2B and consumer software businesses. He has led software development, go-to-market strategy, and operations teams. Alex holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Computer Science from NYU.
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About Rentroom: Next generation software for property owners and tenants
Ivan Kan
Founder of Crowdcreate
I am the founder of Crowdcreate, a leading crowdfunding marketing agency specializing in ICO, Blockchain, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo. I have personally been involved on projects raising over $35 million in 2016 /2017 and have been covered by CNBC, CNET, engadget, and many more. Crowdcreate is based in Los Angeles, California and our services range from community engagement, branding, design and video production, earned and paid media management, and PR outreach and influencer marketing. I have been a guest speaker for Global Sources Launch Pad in Hong Kong and contributed as a thought leader on panels and discussions on crowdfunding innovation and blockchain initiatives
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About Crowdcreate: Data Driven Growth Marketing Agency
Yifan Zhang
CEO & Co-Founder of Loftium
Yifan Zhang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Loftium.
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About Loftium: Loftium is a technology startup that offers premium rental experiences at affordable rates with built-in income.
Jaxon Klein
CEO, Co-Founder of Keyo
Jaxon Klein is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. Klein is currently CEO of Keyo, Inc., where he is a co-founder and former CTO. Prior to his role at Keyo, Klein founded two companies in hosting technology and web services.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Cayetana Polanco
Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Keyo
Cayetana Polanco is the co-founder and chief brand officer at Keyo. Prior to co-founding Keyo, Cayetana was the co-founder and COO of Invento Media. She was also the co-founder and COO of Reneweb Hosting Services. Cayetana holds a bachelor of applied science (B.A.Sc.) in public health from Beloit College.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
John Reed
Co-Founder and Chairman of Arhaus
John Reed co-founded Arhaus, LLC and served as its Chief Executive Officer. He also serves as Chairman of Arhaus, LLC.
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About Arhaus: Arhaus is a premiere retail chain that designs, manufactures, and sells home furnishings both at retail locations and online.
Ryan Frazier
Co-Founder, CEO of Arrived Homes
Ryan Frazier is the Co-Founder and CEO of Arrived Homes.
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About Arrived Homes: Arrived Homes provides rental home investment services to help people become financially independent.
Alejandro Chouza
COO and Co-Founder of Arrived Homes
Alejandro Chouza is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Arrived Homes.
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About Arrived Homes: Arrived Homes provides rental home investment services to help people become financially independent.
Kenneth Cason
Co-Founder, CTO of Arrived Homes
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About Arrived Homes: Arrived Homes provides rental home investment services to help people become financially independent.
Devin Wade
Co-Founder & Chairman of Plotify
Devin Wade is the Co-Founder and Chairman at Plotify.
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About Crave Delivery, Crave Hospitality Group, Plotify, StageDotO: Plotify is a real estate company that specializes in Buying, owning, managing, and selling an investment property.
Anish Malhotra
Founder & CEO of Plotify
Anish Malhotra is a Founder and CEO at Plotify.
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About Plotify: Plotify is a real estate company that specializes in Buying, owning, managing, and selling an investment property.
William S. Price
Founder of TPG
William S. “Bill” Price, III is a co-founder and partner emeritus of TPG Capital, LP (formerly Texas Pacific Group), a private equity fund founded in 1992 with over $30 billion in assets under management. TPG deals include Ducati motorcycles, Punch Taverns Group, Del Monte Foods, Petco, J. Crew, Continental Airlines, Gemplus, Grohe and Seagate. TPG has owned various wine industry assets including Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, St. Clement, Meridian, Stags Leap Winery and wineries in China and Turkey. Bill left TPG in 2007 to focus on pursuing his passion in the wine business. He owns Durell Vineyards with 150 acres of pinot noir, chardonnay and syrah in Sonoma County. He founded Three Sticks Winery in 2002 and bought stakes in Buccella and Kistler Vineyards. He is a founder of The Vincraft Group, a winery acquisition fund which invested in Kosta Browne and Gary Farrell Wineries. Prior to forming Texas Pacific Group, Mr. Price was Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development for GE Capital and an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Price serves as board chairman for Common Sense Media. He also serves on the boards of the California Academy of Sciences, the California Mentor Foundation, the Dignity Fund, and Justgive.com. He joined the Gladstone board in 2007and is currently the Foundation Board Chair.
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About ClassicWines.com, Tarrant Venture Partners, TPG, TPG Biotech, TPG Capital Asia: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Shaun Abrahamson
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Urban Us
Shaun leads Urban.Us funding startups that help cities upgrade for climate change. Shaun is a member of the investment committee and leads investment selection and communications with portfolio companies, members of the Network, and limited partners in Fund II. Before Urban Us, Shaun was an active angel investor, investing in more than 20 firms between 2007 and 2013. . experiences building MediaSentry (acquired by SafeNet in 2005), Starmedia Network (acquired by France Telecom) and Oculus Technologies (MIT CADLab spin-out). In 1999, he was an early employee at govWorks, one of the earliest startups focused on serving local government. govWorks failed spectacularly during the dot com bust, becoming the subject of the documentary Startup.com in 2001. Shaun has written for organizations such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, The Huffington Post, and CNNMoney. Crowdstorm, published by Wiley, was his first book and is a guide to working with large online crowds to find and evaluate ideas. The book is a based on Shaun’s experience working with Starbucks, Omnicom Group, $300 House, and Life Edited. Shaun has an MSc in Computer Aided Design from MIT; an MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership; and a BSc from the University of Cape Town. He is papai to Max and Oli, and the number-one fan of his partner, artist Andrea Nhuch. When he is not at work or with his family, you will most likely find him swimming, Onewheeling, or voiding a warranty.
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About Urban Us, URBAN-X: Early-stage fund focused on rapid, scalable climate action and targeting outsized impact and outsized returns.
Corey Ashton Walters
Founder & CEO of Here
Corey Ashton Walters is the Founder & CEO of Here, a revolutionary online marketplace that enables anyone anywhere to invest in vacation rentals online and earn passive income—without ever lifting a finger. Prior to founding Here, Corey, a seasoned entrepreneur, brand builder, and college dropout, has founded multiple successful companies over the last 15 years. Most recently in 2017, Corey co-founded Homeworthy, a venture-backed first-of-its-kind fully remote home selling experience available to homeowners located in more than 900 cities across the Pacific Northwest.
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About Here: Here makes investing in vacation rentals as easy as buying stocks.
Ari Rastegar
Founder & CEO of Rastegar Property Company
Ariah-Hossein Rastegar was a successful real estate investor and lawyer before founding Rastegar Capital, which provides transparency, access and service to its growing investor base across a range of commercial real estate investments. He is now CEO of the company and is dedicated to building wealth for clients through extraordinary investments. Rastegar Capital is based in the Dallas, Texas area.
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About Forbes Real Estate Council, Rastegar Property Company: Rastegar Property creates value through strategic real estate investments.
Ryan Williams
Co-Founder & CEO of Cadre
Ryan Williams is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Cadre.
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About Cadre: Cadre is an online marketplace that connects investors and operators of real estate.
Alok Chanani
Co-Founder & CEO of BuildOps
Alok Chanani has been serving as Chief Executive Officer at BuildOps since 2018.
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About BuildOps: Industry leading all-in-one software solution for subcontractors driving profitability through best-in-class technology
Steve Chew
Co-Founder & COO of BuildOps
Accomplished leader in Entrepreneurship, Product Management, Business Development, and Marketing with over a decade of experience at both Consumer and Enterprise technology companies. Demonstrated versatility in both start-up and corporate environments.Early employee at two Silicon Valley startups that successfully exited through acquisition. Launched the European business for a “unicorn” startup valued at $1.2B+. Led technical product management for two of Microsoft’s largest cloud-first products – Outlook and Exchange Online (Office 365). Proven track record of success in the following areas: Mobile Apps, Cloud Computing, SaaS, Social Networking, Crowdfunding, and eCommerce. Engineering degree from Stanford and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About BuildOps: Industry leading all-in-one software solution for subcontractors driving profitability through best-in-class technology
Aaron Block
Co-Founder, Managing Partner of MetaProp
Aaron is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of MetaProp, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on the real estate technology (“PropTech”) industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp’s investment team has invested in 100+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages multiple investment funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors representing a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 15+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market. Aaron served as Chairman of Chicago-based BayRu, LLC, the US-Russia ecommerce shopping and shipping specialist and eBay.com’s exclusive drop shipping partner for Russia/CIS consumers. After Aaron joined the company in 2010 as an investor and CEO, BayRu grew to become the 8th largest international online retailer in Russia. In 2013, BayRu was #11 on the Inc5000 “Top 100 Retail Companies” list and was named “Exporter of the Year” by the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to BayRu, Aaron was a commercial real estate executive with Cushman & Wakefield and oversaw more than 270 professionals as leader of the Chicago region. Aaron received numerous honors and awards during his real estate career including Top Producer, Most Creative Deal, Agency of the Year and Most Promising Brokerage Professional. Aaron has a BA from the Univesity of Illinois and an MBA from DePaul University. He is co-author of PropTech 101 (proptech101.com) published by Advantage Media. He has also been featured in dozens of international publications and media including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s, CBS Radio, The Moscow Times, RIA Novosti, RBK, Vedomosti, and Kommersant. Outside of work, Aaron served as a board member of numerous organizations including Young Presidents Organization (“YPO”), New York City Community Board Five, and Friends of the Chicago River. In addition to English, Aaron also enjoys speaking Spanish and Russian.
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About MetaProp: MetaProp is a venture capital firm focused on the real estate technology industry.
Zachary Aarons
Co-Founder and Partner of MetaProp
Zach Aarons currently works as the Co-Founder and Partner for MetaProp.VC. He previously worked at Millennium Partners as the Project Manager.
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About MetaProp: MetaProp is a venture capital firm focused on the real estate technology industry.
Gary Jinks
Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of South Valley Angels
Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board at South Valley Angels
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About ScaleUpStream, South Valley Angels, SVI HUB: South Valley Angels is a group of member investors who fund newly starting businesses.
Robert Christopher
Co-Founder, Investor Board Member of South Valley Angels
Robert Christopher is the CEO/Founder of Just Resolve.
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About Christopher Ranch, JustResolve, South Valley Angels, Vistage Worldwide: South Valley Angels is a group of member investors who fund newly starting businesses.
Tom Fallows
Co-Founder & Manager of SFR3 Fund
Tom Fallows is the Co-Founder & Manager at SFR3 Fund.
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About SFR3 Fund: SFR3 Fund is a real estate agency that provides full-services within acquiring, renovating and affordable rental homes for its customers.
L.D. Salmanson
Co-Founder of Cherre
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About Cherre, The Salmanson Fund: The Leading Real Estate Data Management and Analytics Platform
Ben Hizak
Co- Founder of Cherre
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About Cherre: The Leading Real Estate Data Management and Analytics Platform
Laks Srini
Co-Founder and CTO of ZeroDown
Laks Srini is the co-founder and CTO of Zenefits. Since the company’s founding in 2013, Laks has helped expand Zenefits’ business, which now serves tens of thousands of companies in 48 states, disrupting the $18 billion health insurance brokerage industry along the way. Prior to Zenefits, Laks served at SigFig and D. E. Shaw & Co. Laks graduated with a M.Sc. in Software Engineering from PSG College of Technology.
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About ZeroDown: ZeroDown is a real estate startup that focuses on providing an affordable homeownership solution.
Hari Viswanathan
Co-Founder and COO of ZeroDown
Hari Viswanathan is the co-founder and COO of Zerodown. Previously, Hari was a staff software engineer at Zenefits. He holds a PhD. in computer engineering from Rutgers University and a bachelors in electronics and communication engineering from PSG College of Technology.
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About ZeroDown: ZeroDown is a real estate startup that focuses on providing an affordable homeownership solution.
Donghao Li
Founder & CEO of Tripalink
Donghao Li is the CEO of Tripalink.
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About Tripalink: Tripalink is a residential brand for student and working professionals driven by technologies.
Brian Bagdasarian
Founder of Simply Homes, Inc.
Brian is the Founder of Simply – a tech-driven real estate investment company that provides a platform for the buying and selling of off-market homes. Previously Brian was the Head of Digital Engagement Strategy at LogMeIn, Inc. Prior to LogMeIn, he was the Head of Conversational Growth Strategy and Inbound Professor for Conversational at HubSpot, Inc. – where he guided the development and implementation of conversational strategy and its associated tools, including chatbots, live chat, and more to create an omni-channel, personal experience, at scale. He joined HubSpot via its acquisition of Motion.AI, which, at the time of sale, was the largest visual chatbot development Saas platform publicly available. At Motion.AI Brian acted as the Chief Evangelist Officer, developing and executing the strategic business development and digital engagement efforts for the company. During his time in this role, he increased revenue my 300%, and created Motion AI’s enterprise program, which counted LG, Symantec, MDLive and others as clients. Before joining Motion AI, Brian was the Director of Artificial Intelligence for a leading Intelligence Community government contractor, and the founder of several A.I. startups. As the founder and CTO of Wynkk Research, where he and his team developed a revolutionary AI-powered solution for the medical coding community that has been able to increase provider revenue reimbursement by as much as 35%, while increasing accuracy to as high as 95% (in an industry where 65% is considered fantastic). Brian also currently acts in an advisory role for several global emerging markets technology funds.
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About Simply Homes, Inc.: Simply is a ML-powered that is transforming the way outdated and damaged homes are bought and sold
Ragnar Lifthrasir
Founder of velox.RE
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About International Blockchain Real Estate Association, velox.RE: Comprehensive real estate transaction and asset management platform built on Bitcoin blockchain and distributed file storage.
Josh Green
Managing Partner, Co-Founder of Traverse Venture Partners
Josh Green is the Strategic Advisor at Earthrise Energy.
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About Inspiration Mobility, K4Connect, Traverse Venture Partners: Traverse is a venture capital firm exclusively focused on the technologies transforming real estate and the built environment.
Martin Aares
Partner and Co-Founder of Traverse Venture Partners
Private equity professional with 15+ years of experience investing in sustainability and technology firms throughout North America and Europe. Currently managing growth stage investments for Traverse Venture Partners. Previously Co-Founder and Partner with Novus Energy Partners; Senior Vice President for GE Capital, Energy Financial Services; Investment Banker with Goldman Sachs; Management Consultant with Stern Stewart & Co. Specialties include * Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Technologies * Power Generation * Real Estate * Project Finance
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About Traverse Venture Partners: Traverse is a venture capital firm exclusively focused on the technologies transforming real estate and the built environment.
Larry Pace
Chief Operating Office and Co-Founder of Factory_OS
The founder and president of Cannon Constructors North, Larry Pace has more experience with off site construction than any other contractor in California. He has nearly four decades’ experience building commercial structures and multifamily housing, with a hand in some of the Bay Area’s most iconic buildings and restoration projects. He has been an industry innovator since 1974, when he started with the Army Corps of Engineers. He worked his way up through construction to become one of the founding principals of Cannon’s Northern California Division. He designed a new crane to facilitate construction of modular projects: A custom-built rigging system that uses four structural slings to lift and stack the modules in place. Today he has built hundreds of apartments and condos using prefab home construction technologies, and has worked through every mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural variable to manifest cost and time savings that the traditional construction industry never dreamed possible. He maintains a close working relationship with multiple manufacturing facilities.
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About Factory_OS: Factory_OS is revolutionizing home construction.
Rick Holliday
CEO and Co-Founder of Factory_OS
Rick is a San Francisco Bay Area native, a social entrepreneur, and a pioneer in affordable housing construction. He has more than four decades’ experience building affordable and market rate housing across California. In 1978 he helped create Eden Housing, which builds affordable homes for workforces and formerly homeless Californians. In the early 1980s, he and visionary housing leader Don Terner teamed up to establish BRIDGE Housing, which builds homes for families of modest means who have been priced out of the market. These remain two of the most successful non-profit housing corporations in the nation. In 1988 he founded Holliday Development, and went on to become a leader in leveraging the benefits of private development to create vibrant, sustainable communities the the Bay Area and beyond. Today he is founder and CEO of Factory OS, an ambitious effort to ease the housing challenge by scaling the off site production of multifamily housing. Factory OS is a new approach to housing construction, integrating the design and build processes, powered by local union labor and pioneering in-house research and innovation. Having successfully developed the largest prefab home construction project in San Francisco history, Rick knows firsthand how powerful this technology can be.
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About Factory_OS: Factory_OS is revolutionizing home construction.
KP Reddy
Founder-General Partner of Shadow Ventures
Pramod “KP” Reddy is the Founder-General Partner of Shadow Ventures. To know K.P. Reddy is to experience boundless enthusiasm for creating new ventures. Reddy’s multidisciplinary career spans the innovation continuum. Over 25+ years, he has been a technologist, subject matter expert, founder, CEO, advisor, investor, professor, author and coach. K.P. effortlessly combines expertise in advanced technologies with critical, in-the-trenches experience as an entrepreneur. He is a globally recognized authority in AEC environments, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, collaborative communication, mobile applications and cloud computing. His passion is in launching game-changing startups, raising substantial investments, and leading organizations to meaningful acquisition and IPO exits. In 2012, K.P. published BIM for Building Owners and Developers, a book on the adoption of advanced technology in the infrastructure space employed by leading companies and universities. K.P. is also a prolific public speaker delivering addresses to audiences at universities across the U.S., various tech and startup events in the Southeast, and SXSW.
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About Amenify, ICON Technology, Klickly, Shadow Ventures: Shadow Ventures is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on technology that drives innovation in the built environment.
Carl Icahn
Chairman and Founder of Icahn Enterprises
Carl Icahn is best known as an activist investor. He buys large stakes in companies in an attempt to gain seats on the board of directors and increase shareholder value. Some of his more recent moves involved [Yahoo](/organization/yahoo), [Take-Two Interactive](/organization/take-two-interactive-software), [Motorola](/organization/motorola), [Blockbuster](/organization/blockbuster-2) and [Time Warner](/organization/timewarner).
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About Apple, Icahn Enterprises: Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP), a master limited partnership, is a diversified holding company engaged in nine primary business.
Steven L. Craig
Founder, President & CEO of Craig Realty Group
Steven L. Craig is the Founder/President/CEO at Craig Realty Group. Craig was a partner in Ginsburg Craig, a company under which the highly successful Desert Hills Premium Outlets, located in Cabazon, CA, was developed. This partnership ultimately blossomed into a five-center portfolio of successful outlets.
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About Craig Realty Group: Craig Realty Group operates a successful center of Carlsbad Company Stores.
Jason Mirra
Co-Founder & CTO of Ender
Jason Mirra Jason co-founded Addepar with Joe Lonsdale and drives its technology vision. He is recognized as one of the top technologists in Silicon Valley today, and has received accolades for his work from the Phenom list, where he was listed as a Top 5 Startup CTO and from Forbes where he was featured in their annual technology 30 under 30. Jason previously worked on Palantir’s financial analysis platform, helping to bring order and clarity to massive sets of disparate financial data. He studied computer science at Carnegie Mellon University where he spent countless hours following his first major passion, online game development.
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About Ender: Ender is a real estate company that helps owners of rental homes to more efficiently handle day-to-day operations of property management.
James Wong
Co-Founder / CEO of Vibrant Cities
James is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies. He is co-founder and CEO of Avidian Technologies (www.avidian.com), the creators of Prophet, the world leading CRM software built in Outlook. James is a thought-leader, sought after speaker and writer on CRM, Sales Management & groupware applications. He was a regular writer for PCWorld and has been featured in PC Magazine, Small Business Computing, Inc., Entrepreneur, CRM Magazine, Washington Post and other publications. In 2009, he was named by the SLMA as the “50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professional”. Under Wong’s leadership, Avidian was the winner of the Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Award, honored for excellence in management, employee relations and community involvement. Avidian also won 3 years in a row as one of Washington State’s Fastest Growing Companies and 3 years in a row as One of the Best Companies to Work For. Prior to Avidian, James was the co-founder and President of Foci Technologies (acquired by Meritage Technologies), and held positions at Arthur Andersen in New York City and Chevron Corporation in San Francisco. James was named by the SBA as the Minority Small Business Champion of the Year in 2009 and was a winner of the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award. He is a Past President and active board member of the Seattle Chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization (www.eonetwork.org), is an enthusiastic Rotarian and serves on the Board of the Seattle Rotary Service Foundation (www.seattlerotary.org). James serves on the board of the Group Health Foundation (www.ghc.org) and is a board member of his local church Renton Chinese Alliance Church.
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About Avidian Technologies, Avidian Technologies, Vibrant Cities: Vibrant Cities is a construction company that designs and develops smart and high-tech buildings.
Dylan Lenz
Founder & CEO of Naborly
Dylan Lenz is the Founder & CEO of Naborly a real estate technology company based in Toronto, Ontario. Dylan leverages his technical abilities in Computer Science and Product Design along side his diverse experiences in Operations, Sales, and Marketing to create outstanding digital products. Previously, Dylan built and sold two companies in technology and finance, he studied Computer Science and Sociology at the University of British Columbia.
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About Naborly: Credit designed for the renting generation.
David Rubin
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of OJO Labs
David was Yodle’s head of sales for three years, first as SVP of Sales and then as Chief Revenue Officer. Previously CEO of ProfitFuel, David joined the company as part of Yodle’s acquisition of ProfitFuel in May 2011. David has a proven 20-year track record as a successful CEO and sales leader in the technology space. Prior to ProfitFuel, David was the founder and CEO of HomeCity, an online real estate brokerage that pioneered utilizing web-based content to acquire customers. Before founding HomeCity, David served as VP of New Services Development at Intraware, where he led the development of new eMarketplace services for their more than 5000 enterprise customers. Prior to its acquisition by Intraware, as founder and CEO of BITSource, David pioneered the electronic delivery of software volume licensing and was named one of the “50 smartest people in the computer reseller channel” by SmartReseller Magazine. David also served as the National Sales Director for a Houston-based reseller, Computize, and transformed the company from a regional retailer to one of the nation’s 50 largest corporate computer resellers.
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About OJO Labs: OJO Labs provides the only solution homebuyers, sellers, and owners need to navigate the complex real estate landscape.
Karen Herman
Founder & CEO of Gustie
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About Gustie: Gustie creates disruptive retail products, services, and solutions for brands and businesses
Joe Fraiman
Co-Founder and President of Lyric
Joe is a Founder & President of Lyric. He is a professional nomad, adventure traveler, a certified BBQ judge, and interior design junkie. Over the last 15 years he’s lived in countless apartments across the country — and he obsessively designed each one. Along the way he hiked 1000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, crossed Asia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Joe has worked in construction in Alaska, developed top-secret defense software in San Diego, and raised money for the world’s largest hedge fund in Connecticut. He studied computer science and philosophy at Dartmouth College and NYU.
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About Lyric: Lyric is a tech and data-powered real estate and lifestyle hospitality company for the modern business traveler.
Andrew Kitchell
CEO & Co-Founder of Lyric
Andrew Kitchell is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Lyric and Wheelhouse. He is a former CEO & Founder at Beyond Pricing and Founder, Product Design at 30 Words. Mr. Kitchell studied at Duke University.
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About Lyric, Wheelhouse: Lyric is a tech and data-powered real estate and lifestyle hospitality company for the modern business traveler.
Cyrus Claffey
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of ButterflyMX
Cyrus Claffey is an Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of ButterflyMX.
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About ButterflyMX: ButterflyMX develops property access solutions including video intercom systems and keypads that users can manage from a smartphone.
Matthew Knoff
Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder of ButterflyMX
Matthew Knoff is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of ButterflyMX.
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About ButterflyMX: ButterflyMX develops property access solutions including video intercom systems and keypads that users can manage from a smartphone.
Kunal Shah
CRO & Co-Founder of ButterflyMX
Kunal Shah is the Co-Founder and CRO of ButterflyMX.
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About ButterflyMX: ButterflyMX develops property access solutions including video intercom systems and keypads that users can manage from a smartphone.
Mark Rojas
CEO & Founder of Proper
Mark Rojas is an American technology entrepreneur and product designer.
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About Proper: Proper provides AI-powered accounting and bookkeeping services to property managers and asset managers.
Jim Kaplan
Founder, Managing Partner of Chasella
Jim Kaplan is the co-founder of CHASELLA, a private equity firm that specializes in real estate investment and development, and in supporting new products and services across a variety of industries that range from smart-home technologies to financial services and consumer retail. He is an advisor to a number of early-stage firms, and works closely with their teams to help maximize efficiency and growth. In addition, he is a dedicated member of the Board of Advisors to Kids Need More, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that helps children and families afflicted with cancer.
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About Bevi, Chasella, Thnks: A results oriented private equity and early stage investment firm that is predicated on value-creation through innovation and trust.
Jude Regev
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jointer
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About Jointer: World’s first COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BACKED DeFi
Michael Wong
CEO and Founder of Up&Up
Michael Wong is the Founder and CEO of Up&Up.
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About Up&Up: Up&Up is a tech-enabled real estate platform that allows renters to accumulate fractional ownership of the properties.
Ryan Brown
Head of Sales and Co-Founder of Up&Up
Ryan Brown is a Co-Founder of Up&Up.
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About Up&Up: Up&Up is a tech-enabled real estate platform that allows renters to accumulate fractional ownership of the properties.
Thomas Cafarella
Co-Founder of Ocean City Development
Tom is the co-founder of Ocean City Development, a real estate investment company based out of Boston, MA. Tom’s unique lead generation methods have allowed him to transform from an accountant who had never done a deal in his life to a full time investor who has acquired over 100 discounted properties in to fix and flip, wholesale and buy and hold without using his own money.
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About Ocean City Development: Ocean City Development, located in the Boston area, buys, renovates and resells residential real estate.
Johnny Hanna
CEO & Co-Founder of Homie
Associate Entrepreneur Founders Organization of BYU
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About Homie: Homie is the future of home buying and selling. Customers save thousands of dollars—we’re not focused on commissions. #wegotyourback
Mike Trionfo
Co-Founder & CTO of Homie
Mike Trionfo is a Co-Founder & CTO at Homie.
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About Homie: Homie is the future of home buying and selling. Customers save thousands of dollars—we’re not focused on commissions. #wegotyourback
Mike Peregrina
CFO & Co-Founder of Homie
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About Homie: Homie is the future of home buying and selling. Customers save thousands of dollars—we’re not focused on commissions. #wegotyourback
Will Blodgett
Co-Founder and Partner of Fairstead
Will Blodgett is a Founding Partner of Fairstead where he has led the acquisition and development of more than 16,000 units and $4B in real estate across the United States. Along with his partners, Will oversees all of Fairstead’s new acquisitions and developments and its current portfolio of 12,800 units across 15 states, including: affordable, mixed-income and supportive housing developments. Previously, Will managed the acquisition, financing, and development of over 4,500 units for The Related Companies’ Affordable Housing Group and served as a Special Advisor to the New York City Housing Authority. Will holds a BA from Yale and an MBA from MIT. He serves on the board of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, Affordable Housing Developer’s Council, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the American Institute of Stuttering, and New Heights Youth, Inc.
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About Fairstead: NYC based real estate developer committed to preserving high quality housing
Ori Tamuz
Founder & CEO of DoorLoop
Ori Tamuz is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at DoorLoop.
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About DoorLoop: DoorLoop is a rental property management software that offers screening tenants, collects rent, and manages accounting services.
- Website
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David Bitton
Co-Founder & CMO of DoorLoop
David Bitton is the Co-Founder and CMO at DoorLoop.
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About DoorLoop: DoorLoop is a rental property management software that offers screening tenants, collects rent, and manages accounting services.
Andrew Mackenzie-Ross
Founder & CTO of HappyCo
Andrew Mackross is the Founder & CTO at HappyCo.
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About HappyCo: HappyCo is taking traditional paper based processes out of the dark ages.
Jindou Lee
Founder & CEO of HappyCo
Jindou Lee is the CEO & Founder at HappyCo (Happy Inspector).
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About HappyCo: HappyCo is taking traditional paper based processes out of the dark ages.
Jack Ryan
Co-Founder & CEO of REX – Real Estate Exchange
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About REX – Real Estate Exchange: REX is a digital platform and real estate service company where homeowners can list, discover, and purchase homes outside the MLS.
Lynley Sides
Co-Founder, President & COO of REX – Real Estate Exchange
Lynley Sides As CEO of The Glue Network, Lynley was recognized as one of “15 Founders & CEOs to Watch” in Women 2.0. In 2001, she founded an interim executive and consulting services firm that has remained profitable while giving back along the way. While leading Sides & Associates and as a consultant with A.T. Kearney, she’s helped companies and non-profits including Genentech, HP, Touch Revolution, Levi’s, Outlook Ventures, and the Sierra Club assess, develop, and market new products and grow responsibly. In 2010, she partnered with The Glue Network founders to launch a platform that enables companies of all sizes to improve their bottom lines through giving and social media. As a member of the Gratitude Network leadership team Lynley created and leads a global award program that recognizes new ventures that create positive social change and systemic impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. A serial entrepreneur herself she is a passionate supporter of social causes, founding and supporting many organizations to operate sustainably while encouraging her companies to contribute to the social good.
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About REX – Real Estate Exchange: REX is a digital platform and real estate service company where homeowners can list, discover, and purchase homes outside the MLS.
Joe Du Bey
Co-Founder & CEO of Eden Workplace
Joe Du Bey is the co-founder and CEO at Eden. Joe is a Stanford MBA who was formerly in venture capital and on the growth team at Tilt.
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About Eden Workplace: The complete suite of workplace software for hybrid companies.
Manish Patel
Founder, CEO of RealYields
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About Arrive Logistics, Mighty Equities, RealYields, SeedSumo, Springdale Ventures: RealYields is an intuitive and relevant real estate financial analysis on the web.
David Kelso
Founder, CTO & Chairman of Beyond (formerly Beyond Pricing)
David is a former YC founder, Ember.js contributor, and experienced developer. He has built & maintained products used by millions of customers daily.
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About Beyond (formerly Beyond Pricing): #1 Revenue Management Solution for Short-Term Rental Managers and Owners to Get, Grow, and Keep Revenue
Greg Clement
Founder & CEO of Realeflow
Greg Clement is the Founder and CEO of Realeflow (2011 INC. 500 Company) and AppGiraffe. He graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University in 1997 with a BA in Marketing. Over the past 6 years he has guided Realeflow from a product development and marketing perspective to become the largest SaaS company in the country for the real estate investing niche. Realeflow is currently expanding it’s CRM and MaaP (Marketing as a Platform) software into many other niches. Around that time period he also started I Don’t Like To Work, LLC and started constructing and selling information products on how to be a successful entrepreneur making more money and working less hours. His success with I Don’t Like To Work, LLC resulted in him being recognized by Fast Company Magazine as one of the “10 Most Influential People Online in 2010.” Greg has since started several other successful companies including investing in and co-founding Everything Happy. Everything Happy is a baby blanket company that sells premium baby blankets and children’s clothing that operates on a, buy one give one business model, giving one blanket to a child in need for every one sold. In 2010, Greg purchased Mapleside Farms, a struggling 110-acre apple orchard in his hometown of Brunswick, Ohio and has since turned it into a thriving agritourism destination. His latest venture, AppGiraffe, is a mobile app company that provides a technology platform for small businesses and organizations to create and manage cost effective mobile apps.
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About Coppertop Golf Club, Everything Happy, FlipComp, Herds, Mapleside Farms, Realeflow: Realeflow is a real estate business management system providing features such as CRM manager, project manager and virtual business adviser.
Edward Kinsey
Founder of Impel
Ed is a serial entrepreneur and was previously a co-founder of Ariba, Inc., a leading provider of spend management solutions focused on business-to-business commerce, where he led one of the most successful IPO’s in Silicon Valley. Between Ariba and founding Impel, Ed was a start-up venture capital investor through his fund Determination Ventures, LLC.
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About Impel: The Intelligent Marketplace for Consumer Service Commerce.
Chris Herndon
Co-Founder of The Guild
Chris Herndon is the Co-Founder of The Guild. He is a serial entrepreneur and amateur investor that is jamming on some hare-brained schemes that he hopes will someday dent the universe. Chris was the Co-Founder of Apartment List and served as President from 2011 to 2015. Prior to Apartment List, Chris spent several years as an investor at GTCR Golder Rauner and Goldman Sachs. He is a co-founder of the 40 Acres Group, an Austin-based real estate investment firm. He is also a co-founder of Philanthropedia, an online resource for strategic donors that was acquired by Guidestar in 2011. Chris has an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ’em Horns!
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About Homestead Partners, The Guild: The Guild is a hospitality company that offers full-building managements and turns upscale apartments into tech-enabled hotel suites.
Brian Carrico
Co Founder, CEO of The Guild
Brian Carrico is the Co-Founder of Chief Executive Officer of The Guild and a Partner at Alexa Management.
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About Alexa Management, The Guild: The Guild is a hospitality company that offers full-building managements and turns upscale apartments into tech-enabled hotel suites.
Zarik Megerdichian
CEO & Founder of 4Over, Inc. of Owner’s Vault
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About : Owner’s Vault is an industry-first property document storage, sharing and collaboration platform
