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20VC Special: The Real Estate Fintech OGs on Why This Is Not The End For The Bay Area and What Can Be Done To Solve It, The Pros and Cons of Working with Corporate Investors and How Leading Their Teams Has Fundamentally Changed in a COVID World

Feb 18, 2021

Guest

Assaf Wand, CEO of Hippo Insurance, Nima Ghamsari, CEO of Blend, Max Simkoff, CEO of States Title, and Brendan Wallace of Fifth Wall discuss the evolving landscape of real estate fintech. They tackle the implications of the tech exodus from Silicon Valley, debating whether it's temporary or a fundamental shift. The conversation dives into innovations that enhance homeowner experiences and streamline the mortgage process. They also explore leadership challenges in a remote work environment and the importance of adapting corporate culture in a post-COVID world.

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INSIGHT

Diverse Paths to Success

There are many paths to success, not just one.
Founders can learn from each other's strengths, like tech, operations, or customer focus.

ANECDOTE

Learnings from Fellow Founders

Max Simkoff learned from Nima Ghamsari that naiveté can be a powerful entrepreneurial skill.
He also learned from Assaf Wand to view challenges as temporary chapters in a larger story.

ANECDOTE

Investor Learnings

Brendan Wallace learned from Assaf Wand about persistence and from Nima Ghamsari about navigating corporate relationships.
Max Simkoff showed him the potential for startups to acquire businesses from corporate partners.

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Assaf Wand is the Founder & CEO @ Hippo Insurance, with over $700M in funding Hippo are setting a new standard for home insurance and offer protection for what’s important to today’s homeowner.

Nima Ghamsari is the Founder & CEO @ Blend, with over $665M in funding they are the digital platform streamlining the journey from application to close — for every banking product.

Max Simkoff is the Founder & CEO at States Title, with $229M in funding States Title are using machine intelligence to create a vastly more simple and efficient closing experience for lenders, real estate professionals, and homebuyers.

Brendan Wallace is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, with over $1.3Bn in commitments and AUM across multiple different vehicles, they are the largest venture firm focused on the real estate industry and property technology for the Built World.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) 3 of the largest and most successful founders in the financial real estate market, what have been their biggest learnings from their friendship over the last 5 years? What have been some of the most hotly debated topics they have had as a group? How did their opinions and views change as a result?

2.) How do they think and feel about the tech exodus from Silicon Valley, temporary movement due to COVID or fundamental shift? How closely correlated is the move out of California with the explosion of liquidity from IPOs and acquisitions? What pisses Max off most about people leaving CA currently?

3.) How have their roles as leaders changed in the time of COVID? What have been the most challenging elements? What have they had to embrace? What have they had to disregard or stop? What advice do they give to other founders scaling into hyper-growth in a remote format?

4.) What do they believe is the fundraising strategy that allowed them to raise over $1.5Bn as a group? How do they think about what they look for in each stage of investors? How does it change when entering growth stages? How has their experience been having corporates play a large role in their financing? What are the biggest challenges of working with corporates? What does one need to do to extract the most value from them?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode

Max’s Favourite Book: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

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