IAM1413 – CEO Combines Real State and Digital Technology for the Investors

Before founding Groundbreaker, Jake held a number of roles involving real estate and technology, supporting the growth of early-stage digital technology ventures. In 2011, he started his real estate career while underwriting distressed hotel investments for Watermark Capital Partners, a private REIT based out of Chicago. He graduated from The Hotel School at Cornell University with a concentration in Real Estate Finance. At Groundbreaker, Jake owns the Company's strategic vision and investor relations. Before moving to Chicago, Jake lived abroad in Europe, Brazil, and Puerto Rico where he became fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

• CEO Story: Jake had a fantastic corporate job in New York but really wanted to start in real state investing, so he joined a group of 3 entrepreneurs who were doing real state crowdfunding. Started doing sales, then transitioned to getting more responsibilities until he became the CEO.
• Business Service: Simple way of raising money for the real estate investor.
• Secret Sauce: Taking all the back-end work off of the investor’s shoulder. Make the process compliant, secure, professional, and easy.
• CEO Hack: Taking care of your mental health and wellness is so important. Make you more optimistic and have a positive outlook on life.
• CEO Nugget: Building a network around you internally and externally. Make use of the people inside your company who are extremely valuable and useful to get clarity on decisions. Practice humility and vulnerability.
• CEO Defined: Visionary and leader of the company. Support your team and your customers.

Website: groundbreaker.co

LinkedIn: groundbreakerco

Twitter: groundbreakerco

Facebook: groundbreakerco

Instagram:groundbreakerhq

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Transcription

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00:26 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello, this is Gretch from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jake Marmelstein of Groundbreaker. Jake, it's great to have you on the show.

01:02 – Jake Marmulstein

Hey, Gresh, good to be here.

01:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, definitely. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Jake so you'd hear about some of those awesome things before founding Groundbreaker, Jake held a number of roles involving real estate and technology, supporting the growth of early-stage digital technology ventures. In 2011, he started his real estate career while underwriting distressed hotel investments for Watermark Capital Partners, a private REIT based out of Chicago. He graduated from the hotel school at Cornell University with a concentration in real estate finance. At Groundbreaker, Jake owns the camp of the company Strategic Vision in Investor Relations. Before moving to Chicago, Jake lived abroad in Europe, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, where he became fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. Jake, excited to have you on the show again. Are you ready to speak to the IAM CEO community?

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01:53 – Jake Marmulstein

Absolutely. Let's do it.

01:55 – Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:02 – Jake Marmulstein

So being the CEO for me wasn't as straightforward as just starting the company and being that CEO. I think first of all, it's something that you grow into over time. And as a first-time entrepreneur, that was my case. And I started off just basically working in New York for a company where I was doing institutional capital introductions between pension funds and endowments and Latin America. Latin American Hedge fund managers. Super interesting job. I was having a good time doing it, but I wanted to be able to start something in the real estate investment space. So I actually joined a team of other entrepreneurs who were working on a real estate crowdfunding play.

And I was going into the office on weekends working with them. It was just a team of three people. They were all remote. And I latched onto the idea and the concept of democratizing finance for real estate and what was happening at the time with the Jobs Act. So it was an exciting opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a startup. I was working directly with the founders. They had an article in VentureBeat that launched the company and made a huge splash.

And I was just answering the phones and talking to early people who were figuring out about the solution and just trying to iterate on what it is that we could provide them before we actually had a product model. And so for me, it started out in sales and then it transitioned over time to being able to get more and more responsibility over the business until finally I became the CEO. So that's. I'm going to stop there. But that's basically how it all started. And eventually, I made that transition.

03:57 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. That's why I love what you said. It's something that you grow into. I think when you become CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner, you start something or you step into something or whatever it might be. I think often we forget about the journey that the business itself takes, but also the growth and the vision and the evolution I think that we take as well too. So it kind of sounds like they synced at the same time and that opportunity presented itself and you stepped into it.

04:26 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah. I mean, for a lot of people who are just getting into being a CEO for the first time, it's just a totally new role. It depends on the stage of the company and what you're doing at that point. And because this was a startup for me, it was doing everything, billing, sales, marketing, and hiring. And then over time, the job changed and I got a salesperson and I got a marketing person and my job gets whittled down and focused and it actually changes to what a CEO is supposed to do. And that's everybody in venture capital that they say that the CEO's made job is to own the vision of the company, recruit amazing talent, and make sure that the company has enough cash in the bank.

05:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that makes so much sense. And I think so many times, as you mentioned, that using that word startup is, I often say, is. Even if you understand that you are Supposed to hold onto that vision. Sometimes you have to do a lot, to do a little, to do a little less, to do a little less. And it's part of that process to kind of drill down so that you do get people that are in the right places so that at the end of the day, you can kind of shine in the best light that you can. So I love that you've been able to kind of do that and see that journey as part of your story. So I wanted to drill down more. I know you touched on it a little bit, and I did, of course, when I read your bio. Could you take us through a little bit more on what you're doing at Groundbreaker, and how you're making that impact and serving clients?

05:53 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah. So Groundbreaker, which started as a real estate crowdfunding platform, became a way for people who are investors in real estate to make it extremely simple to be able to raise money for their investors. And we had a fork in the road. We could have been a platform that gets people access to investors, or we could be the tools that help them be able to structure their workflow and save time so that they can raise money own their investor base own the process, and automate a lot of the things that take away their time from doing deals and raising money. And we believe that the future is a hybrid solution of these two things where you can get the software and you can get the capital. But where we've decided to focus is to provide a tool that makes it ridiculously easy for someone who's an investor to pop up their business and be able to raise capital on people that they already know.

06:56 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I love that. And I think that so many times there's so much. I'm going to use the word friction sometimes, where you see that in a lot of different ventures. But I imagine it's also this, on both aspects from the investor and looking for investing space that you want to make sure that it is as easy as possible. Because. Because you want to make sure it's something that's used. And I think it sounds like having that. I don't know if it's autonomy or that, you know, to empower the people to be able to use the platform but also have the connections in the same place.

07:24 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah, it's, you know, a lot of people who are raising money, who are getting that put together, are doing a bunch of different things. They're handling legal, they're doing underwriting, they're looking for deals, they're working with partners, they're doing accounting. Office work. And if you can just pick a couple of things to focus on, you'll do so much better at those things. So what we try to do by providing groundbreaker is take all that back office work off of their shoulders, make the process of being compliant, make it secure, make it professional, make it easy so that all they have to do is bring a deal, bring investors, and the whole rest of the process is done for them.

The presentation layer looks extremely professional. Investors take them seriously because the process is very secure, it's gated behind a password-protected site and they don't have to herd, you know, like investing, raising money is like because you're having to chase your investors down. We make it so actionable that the investors can log login and just click to sign and fund your deal and it's all hooked up electronically. Process and giving people a structure on both sides, you just take so much of that mental stress out of the process for both parties.

09:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like we all have our zone of genius, the thing that we do better than other things. And a lot of times when we start a venture and we're a startup, sometimes we say this is the problem that we want to solve, this is the thing that we want to do, whether it be investing or anything else. But we often find very quickly that it doesn't include just that. So I love that you kind of, and this might be part of your secret sauce, you've created something that allows people to spend time in their zone of genius, doing the thing that they're ultimately hoping to do, making it, you know, easier and sometimes maybe not even necessary to do all the other things that aren't. They're going to sometimes take away from their zone of genius.

10:20 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah, we, you know, we structure that process, but we just make it really, really easy to use a complex process. It's a very, you know, it's very time intensive. And breaking down something that, you know, highly creative into a software tool takes a lot of expertise to be able to design and understand how that workflow is going to work for you and the investor. So that it's, it's, it's just effortless and we've just honed in on that. So the process for an investor and the experience that they have is incredible. It's super duper simple.

And I think the thing that really differentiates us as well is you don't just get the tool, you get the whole team behind it. So Groundbreaker has a support team, and that team is like an extension of your team. We'll talk to your investors, like, we'll make sure that they're taking care of so you can be a small operator and still get a ton of value out of using something that's going to make you look professional in more ways than just the technology. You get, like this whole team behind you that's going to make sure that you're successful and be proactive.

11:31 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:43 – Jake Marmulstein

So this might be controversial to some of the people listening. I don't know, it's kind of on the rise. But microdosing is a big thing that I was hesitant about doing. And I think mental health and wellness is something that is super important. As a CEO, you don't realize how hard it is to be able to be the one who's responsible for the business running. And I think that taking care of your mental health is key. There's a lot of ways to do that. But I did discover microdose on Mushrooms to be a really effective way to get some, some additional, like a mental boost.

It rewires the neurons in your brain so you can have more creativity and detachment from other experiences that might be weighing you down and a more positive and optimistic outlook on things that you might have already experienced in your life. But you'll get to sort of see a new way, and that unlocks you and actually makes you more mentally free. So that's my hack.

12:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. So would you consider that to be like part of your what I like to call CEO nugget, A little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice? I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

13:03 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah, that's a really good question. Part of it is absolutely, you know, building a network around you internally and externally. But advisors can only really see so much in your business. And I think that early on I relied on advisors a lot. But my own team and the people inside my company are extremely valuable and extremely useful in helping to get clarity around decisions that you need to make as the CEO ultimately. So it's a tough one. Practice humility and vulnerability in the right moments so that you don't have the answer to everything.

You know you don't have the answer, but at the same time, you're able to ask questions and be confident and explore with other people around you, your team, and externally, so that you can get answers to questions and be approachable and be coachable and give yourself time and forgive yourself for making mistakes and not knowing the answer all the time. Because I believe that there's a tremendous amount of pressure on a CEO and there's a lot of pride that comes with that position. And actually, you know, the more open and flexible and vulnerable you can be, it works kind of conversely for you to be able to find those folks that are going to. To help you get to where you need to be and fill in your blind spots.

14:30 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome, Awesome. So we might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Jake, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:42 – Jake Marmulstein

The CEO is, aside from those three things I mentioned earlier on the responsibilities, the CEO has to be a really visionary leader in the company. Your job is to really support your team and support your market, your customers, and your industry. So a CEO to me, is somebody who's really more looking out into the future and supporting the organization, the team under them, to be successful by being a really good sounding board, building consensus, setting direction based on what they're learning in the market combined with what other people are giving them, and filtering that information in and out by just asking really good questions and being a supportive leader. In the team. It doesn't mean you have to be ones who are the ones who making all the decisions. You're supporting people to be able to get there so that we can make the right decisions and move the organization forward.

15:51 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome, Awesome. Well Jake, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best people can get a hold of you to find about all the awesome things you and team are working on.

16:07 – Jake Marmulstein

Yeah, well Groundbreaker is here to support anyone who is raising capital for their deals, so I'd love to hear from you. Also, as a CEO and founder, I love meeting other founders or people who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs and founders of companies. I'm also open to mentorship and folks who like my business and want to reach out and possibly invest in the company. I'm totally open to the opportunities that from a conversation like this. So I'd love to hear from you. And my email is jakeroundbreaker.co. You can also find me on LinkedIn. There's. There's no other Marmelstein out there, so at least I think it's kind of a unique name. So please find me and connect.

16:59 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. And to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information that show notes as well. So you can make sure that you connect with the right Jake Marmelstein as well. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

17:11 – Jake Marmulstein

I will man. And you too. Thanks so much for the interview.

17:15 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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