Jacob Sandelson, Founder of Compound, discusses his journey into real estate, capital raising, and starting his own business. He shares insights on operational real estate, investment criteria, and his ideal investments with £500m. The podcast explores the importance of networking, upskilling, and creating micro strategies in the real estate industry.
Started career in real estate by gaining corporate experience, identifying potential in self-storage and consumer industrial sectors.
Securing capital by leveraging network, emphasizing value proposition, and avoiding overpaying for assets.
Expanded business into service office space, providing operational services for better risk-adjusted returns to investors.
Deep dives
Transition to Real Estate
Jacob Sanderson discusses how he accidentally and deliberately got into real estate. Growing up with a father in real estate, he initially didn't want to pursue a career in the industry and planned to start an online fashion business instead. However, after reflecting on the changing world and the opportunities in real estate, he decided to work in the industry to gain corporate experience and understanding. He started his career at Galliard Homes and later joined General Projects, where he led acquisitions, development, and management of properties.
Setting up General People
Jacob's time at General Projects led him to identify the potential in the self-storage and consumer industrial sectors. He realized the rise of e-commerce and the changing needs of businesses could be met by providing flexible, serviced spaces. He co-founded General People, focusing on developing best-in-class self-storage and other consumer industrial spaces, catering to the needs of e-commerce businesses and individuals requiring additional storage or working space.
Raising Capital and Building the Business
In securing capital for General People, Jacob drew on his experience and network gained from his previous roles in the industry. He approached different investors, ranging from private equity firms to family offices and high net worth individuals. He emphasized the unique value proposition and strong return potential of their consumer industrial concept. Jacob was mindful of market timing and wanted to avoid overpaying for assets. With patience and the support of patient investors, he focused on building the team, refining the business plan, and identifying the right assets to set up General People successfully.
Expansion into Service Office Space
The podcast episode discusses the expansion of the speaker's business into the service office space. The decision was sparked by the rise of co-working spaces like WeWork and the increasing demand for flexible and high-quality workspace for small businesses. The speaker saw the potential in providing operational and design services along with the physical spaces and believed they could offer better risk-adjusted returns to investors compared to simply leasing buildings to co-working companies.
Setting up General People
The podcast also explores the speaker's experience in setting up their own business, General People, which aimed to apply the successful model developed in the service office space to other sectors. The team focused on acquiring sites in southeast England, primarily in commuter towns and London. They aimed to create value-driven workspace and self-storage facilities that offered superior quality and affordability compared to existing options. The speaker highlights the importance of staying close to consumer demand and the challenges of hiring the right team to execute their vision.
Compound is an owner-operator with significant firepower raised from a prominent family office and will be targeting a trio of operational asset classes spanning ‘consumer industrial’ – self storage, open storage and multi-let industrial.
Prior to Founding Compound, Jacob was the CEO and Co-Founder of General People, a specialist operator of serviced office and multi let light industrial workspace.
Prior to this he was a Principal at General Projects where he led the acquisition, development and management of the properties that General People operate. Jacob started his career at leading residential developer, Galliard Homes.
I sat down with Jacob to discuss a broad range of subjects which covered some of the following topics: Why he didn’t go to university
How he got into real estate
Upskilling outside of his day job
Importance of network / asking for advice
Capital Raising
Macro trends and creating micro strategies
Operational real estateHow he went about starting his business
Investment criteria
Oh, and one last question - who are the People, what Property, and in which Place Jacob would invest should he have £500m of equity at his disposal. Catch the full episode which will be live on Spotify, Apple and Youtube from Thursday this week. The People Property Place Podcast🎙 is powered by Rockbourne. Who do you want to see on the Podcast? Link in the comments below #podcast #realestate #property #peoplepropertyplace
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