Breakout: How to Start Your Own Real Estate Venture
11:00-11:50am Aldrich Room 112
Launching a venture is a complex endeavor, and the real estate sector presents its distinct set of hurdles and prospects. This panel brings together founders who will share their journeys of breaking into the real estate industry and the paths they took to build their ventures in various real estate niches. The session aims to offer a guide for budding entrepreneurs on establishing and expanding a thriving real estate venture.
Panelists:
Maggie Wu
Founder | The W Team
Maggie Wu is a real estate advisor and the founder of The W Team at Compass, a top-producing team ranked #21 in NYC (Small Teams by Transaction Volume - RealTrends 2022)
A proud graduate of New York University with over $500 million worth of closed real estate transactions ranging from new developments, condominiums, co-ops, townhouses and estate sales under her belt, Maggie has developed a sophisticated understanding of the New York City real estate market that has made her indispensable to her clients. Her unparalleled service and discretion, in-depth analysis of market data and research, as well as her trustworthiness has led to a loyal network of top-tier clientele from all over the world. The W Team and Maggie has been recognized in numerous publications, including Business Insider’s 30 Under 35 (2022), The Hollywood Reporter’s list of New York Power Brokers (2022), The Real Deal, Inman, HousingWire, RealTrends, and others.
Born in Hong Kong and raised globally, Maggie’s passion in real estate stems from her childhood interest in witnessing one of the most impressive real estate markets in the world. From a young age, Maggie has been immersed in the industry - whether it is fundamental analysis, the building and design of a project, or calculating value and returns of a property. Her natural instincts to identify value proposition truly makes her stand out. Maggie will make your real estate transaction as smooth and seamless with her market knowledge, attention to detail, and her natural ability to make complex terms and financial hurdles comprehensible and navigable.
Maggie is fluent in Mandarin Chinese as well as English, and specializes in servicing both foreign investors as well as domestic buyers and sellers of residential and investment property in the city.
In her spare time, Maggie enjoys playing tennis, going to yoga and pilates classes, spending time with her friends and her toy poodle Katsu, and exploring all of the new restaurants, bars and lounges that New York City has to offer. She is also well traveled, having visited over 30 countries to date.
Dan Goldstern
Co-founder and CEO | Dojo
Dan is co-founder and CEO of Dojo, an AI platform that helps companies plan and optimize their hybrid workplaces. Dan’s experience in urban development spans the public and private sectors. Before starting Dojo, he was a policy advisor in the NYC Mayor’s Office, working on housing, economic development, and labor policy. Prior to that, he worked on multi-billion dollar mixed-use real estate and urban development projects, including NYC’s World Trade Center, at Silverstein Properties.
Dan was a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, and studied political theory at the University of Pennsylvania. Dan lives in Brooklyn and enjoys riding his bike around the city.
Kaitlin McCarthy
Founder and CEO | Ionic Development Company
Kaitlin is the founder of Ionic Development Company, a Boston based real estate development and consulting firm. Ionic's life science portfolio includes developments in Boston, Cambridge and Waltham. Ionic is also partnered in affordable housing projects in Boston and Cambridge including a 200 unit affordable housing development set to be the first all affordable building in Boston's Seaport neighborhood.
Previously, Kaitlin was a Vice President at The HYM Investment Group. While at HYM, Kaitlin’s projects included The Sudbury (a 46 story residential tower with 368 apartments and 55 condos), One Congress (a 52 story, 1M sf office tower) as well as other projects within the Bulfinch Crossing development, a 2.9 million sf mixed-use project in downtown Boston.
Kaitlin holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University.