Disrupt Chicago: Future of CRE Tech

Here are a few ventures recently backed by Thad: (1) Yapmo – Internal communications tool used by all 2000+ @properties brokers and employees. Facilitates real estate transactions (helps match buyer needs with seller inventory), houses agent knowledge base in searchable library. Benefits: Has drastically reduced companywide e-mail load and clutter taking up broker inboxes. Has directly facilitated hundreds of transactions. (2) PointDrive – Online presentation tool that allows users to send professional presentations through e-mail and to track user engagement. Used for listing presentations, showing reports, marketing reports, etc. Broker can view back-end reports to see what information clients are most interested in, how many times it’s being viewed, whether it’s been forwarded, etc. (3) TurboAppeal – Online Property Tax Appeal service that uses big data and machine learning to produce appeals that are more likely to be successful and reduce property taxes by a greater amount than traditional methods. Just received venture funding from a group of Chicago’s preeminent tech investors (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160128/BLOGS11/160129813/kiphart-invests-in-online-property-tax-appeal-firm).

Ezra focuses on all facets of the firm’s consumer facing investments and has helped lead investments into Blitsy, BloomNation, Grace, Havenly, Kapow, Luxury Garage Sale, Pluto.tv Shiftgig, SpotHero, and Zipments. Ezra’s thoughts and bylines on startups, gaming, marketplaces, millenials, e-commerce and bitcoin have been published over a dozen times in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Forbes, VentureBeat and Re/code. Ezra joined Chicago Ventures in March, 2012 and prior was a Young Entrepreneur at Foundation Capital. Before business school, Ezra served as the Director of Marketing for CardRunners Gaming – the parent company of CardRunners, Hold’em Manager and DraftDay – and before then earned a living as a professional poker player. He launched his first startup at age 13 and served as Director of Interactive Marketing at Buzz Marketing Group from 2003-2005 working closely with Midas Records, Sony Records and MTV. Ezra is a proud husband and father to two beautiful boys Akiva and Eli. His varied interests have led him to launch a record label and produce a festival screened short film. He is a Kauffman Fellow Class 18, holds an MBA from Chicago Booth and a BA from New York University. Red wine and pop-punk are the keys to his heart. He blogs regularly at www.breakingvc.com.

Susan Tjarksen joined Cushman & Wakefield in October 2018 serving as Managing Director of the firm’s multifamily investment sales team in Chicago. Susan co-founded KIG CRE in 2015 which was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield in 2018. She brings more than 30 years of real estate experience working with both private and public investment institutions throughout the country. Prior to brokerage, Susan was a leader in apartment and mixed-use development, having planned, built, designed, financed and delivered projects totaling more than $3.5 billion in revenue. She has also successfully developed and sold 12,000 residential units, 2,500 hotel rooms and more than 2M square feet of retail and office space. Additionally, Susan is the co-founder and chair of Enodo, an AI-assisted multifamily underwriting and valuation platform. She is an active in the commercial real estate industry and her community. Susan is a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council, Roosevelt University’s MBIRE Advisory Board and the Lincoln Park Builders Club of Chicago.

Mark Achler is a Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Additionally, Mark teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. Prior to MATH, Mark was the Senior Vice President of New Business, Strategy and Innovation for Redbox. He is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four companies as well being a partner is an earlier venture fund called Kettle Partners. Mark has an undergraduate degree in Social Studies Education from Purdue University and is a frequent speaker, resource and ardent champion for the entrepreneurial community.

Jack Buck is the founder of Free Market Ventures (FMV), a private equity real estate development and investment firm, headquartered in Chicago. In addition to his real estate fund, Jack is also the CEO of CRE tech startup, (RE)Meter. Jack co-founded the company in 2014, developed the product, and launched in January 2015. Prior to his current roles, Jack served as a Principal of the John Buck Company, a privately owned, vertically integrated, full-service Real Estate company. Jack was responsible for a vast range of office, retail, hotel and residential projects. Jack is a board member of the Big Shoulders Fund and Vice Chairman of One Chance Illinois OCI; a charity dedicated to advancing public policy that advocates for a 21st century educational system designed to serve today's children. Jack earned his BA from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from the University of Chicago. Jack's proven process in hunting and sourcing deals while forming effective teams helped establish FMV as the driving investment force in developing (RE)meter as a brand and product.

With a love for technological innovation Nick started his first company, Ingenious Development, at the age of 23. His driving passion for software development and defining it with efficient business processes is what motivates him. Starting out as an engineer at Cisco System, working with various startups, consulting with Fortune 100 companies, to purchasing companies and implementing streamlined solutions has defined his career path in technology, business, and economics. Nick’s past year endeavor of owning and selling a concrete company, in addition to starting an architecture firm, lead him to understand the challenges the construction industry faces. iCON was born during this time and was implemented successfully at his own company.

Bryan Colin is the Co-Founder and CEO of VirtualAPT, a digital visualization technology company based in NYC. The company uses autonomous robots to create interactive 360° videos of the built world. Bryan graduated from Skidmore College in 2006 with a degree in Business Management.

Richard is a seasoned entrepreneur and private equity professional with experience buying, growing and exiting from a wide variety of early to mid-stage growth companies. He founded Centurion Capital in London in 2003, a mid-market buyout firm targeting deals in a variety of sectors including retail, financial services, distribution and real estate. Richard was also a Managing Director of Dubai Capital Group’s private equity activities in the CIS Region where he helped to set up and run a private equity fund group affiliated with Dubai’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Richard was also the co-founder of several successful emerging market funds including Troika Capital Partners’ $300 million (Moscow) Russia New Horizon Fund targeting private equity investments in Russia; and the €150 million European New Horizon Fund (London) targeting private equity investments in Central Europe and Russia. Previously he was one of the founding members of Emerging Markets Partnership (EMP) in Washington DC where he helped launch the $1.1 billion AIG Asian Infrastructure Fund in 1994, the world’s largest emerging market private equity fund at the time. At EMP he also worked on the $1.8 billion AIG Asian Infrastructure Fund II and the €550 million Emerging Europe Fund. Earlier in his career Richard was an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector part of the World Bank Group; he has also Senior International Finance Director at Martin Marietta Corporation as well as a senior management consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Richard was also an adjunct professor of International Finance at Johns Hopkins University and at the Georgetown University School of Management, both in Washington D.C. He holds a Masters degree in Applied Finance and Economics from Harvard University and a BS with honors from the University of Toronto. Richard was the Chairman of the Uplift Equity Investment Committee where he assisted Uplift in sourcing, managing, and funding socially responsible investment opportunities. He also served as a Member of the Supervisory Board at ESCADA AG and headed ESCADA’s audit committee. Richard has held operating level positions at a variety of large and small cap companies including positions as finance director (Martin Marietta) and CEO (YTR Group, a financial services company). Since moving to Colorado in 2010, Richard has focused on investing his own portfolio in a variety of privately held companies. He acquired a 3PL white glove logistics company (www.ldklogistics.com) in 2014 and has been growing the company successfully. In 2016 LDK was selected as one of Colorado’s top 250 privately held companies. He is also a co-founder of DropSpot, a logistics start-up focusing on making home package delivery painless and rewarding.

Sonia joined Pritzker Group Venture Capital in 2016. She is responsible for sourcing, diligence and oversight for the firm’s investments in consumer, enterprise and emerging technologies. Most recently, Sonia was vice president of product and head of mobile apps for RetailMeNot (NASDAQ: SALE), responsible for cross-platform strategy and leading an app redesign that earned a 2015 People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Shopping App. Sonia joined RetailMeNot in 2014 following its acquisition of Pickie, the venture-backed mobile shopping start-up she co-founded in 2011. Prior to Pickie, Sonia was a senior associate for Booz & Company leading post-merger integration and growth strategy projects for digital media and retail clients. Previously she worked in product management, investment banking, and engineering roles with Amazon, Goldman Sachs and General Motors. Sonia holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kurt Ramirez is a Vice President at Moderne Ventures. Before joining Moderne, Kurt was a consultant at Bain & Company where he used his analytic, management, and technology skills to advise multi-national corporate clients across various industries. His project work included providing post-merger integration services for a $70B retail company, advising on the strategic positioning of an underperforming asset owned by a building products company, and optimizing the manufacturing and distribution network of an industrial gases manufacturer. In addition to his case work, Kurt oversaw portions of Bain's MBA and undergraduate recruiting efforts in the Midwest. Earlier in his career, Kurt was a Senior Associate at Cue Ball Capital, a venture capital firm focused on consumer and information media investments. His responsibilities at Cue Ball included deal diligence, transaction structuring, and operational improvement of portfolio companies. Kurt started his career in PwC's Strategy & Operations group and also spent time working with Greenfield Partners, a Chicago-based real estate private equity firm. Kurt received an MBA from Harvard Business School and BS/BA degrees from Vanderbilt University.

As the Director of Business Development, Krista is an integral part of Solomon Cordwell Buenz, a design studio with extensive experience in the evolving corporate office and residential market. With a commitment to client service, Krista focuses on connecting SCB’s resources and capabilities with clients looking to make sound real estate investment decisions. Krista works across a variety of market sectors, building new client relationships and strengthening existing partnerships nationwide. Before joining SCB, Krista held various titles across multiple functional areas at the Kraft Heinz Company. During that time, she gained expertise pertaining to project management, integrated business planning, and profitability analysis. She has an understanding of workplace strategy and best practices for a growing corporation. Krista holds a Bachelor of Science in International, Resource, and Consumer Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is active in a number of philanthropic and professional organizations including Chicago Cares and the Network of Executive Women.