015: This 30-year old CEO went from $0 to $285 MILLION in Commercial Real Estate. How Jilliene Helman built RealtyMogul…

Background on Jilliene Helman:

Jilliene Hellman is CEO and Co-Founder of RealtyMogul. She's responsible for the company’s strategic direction and operations. Jilliene, who sits on RealtyMogul.com’s board, has underwritten over $5 billion of real estate and was previously a Vice President at Union Bank, where she spent time in Wealth Management, Finance and Risk Management. Jilliene is a Certified Wealth Strategist, holds Series 7, Series 63, and Series 24 licenses and has a degree in Business from Georgetown University.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

[0:50] Jilliene is the CEO of RealtyMogul, an online market place for Commercial Real Estate Investing that connects investors through cutting-edge technology.
[4:01] RealtyMogul has over 80 employees, done almost $300 million in transactions and about 130,000 registered investors in their platform.
[4:27] Jilliene talks about how Realty Mogul was started. She started the company in 2013 with his co-founder, Justin Hughes. They wanted to leverage the internet and technology to make real estate investing more accessible.
- [4:48] She was in the wealth management business. The wealthiest clients where she worked were all investors in commercial real estate.
- [4:58] 💡 She thought – there must be a better way to give access to commercial real estate to other investors.
[5:30] “Starting any business and entrepreneurship in general is all about – HUSTLE.”
[7:56] A Seed Round is typically the 1st round of capital for a company to grow.
[9:37] Their biggest investor invested $100,000 when they started.
[9:49] “When you’re raising money, you’re getting into bed with these investors.”
[10:24] “The first 10 hires of a startup, you want them all to be Swiss Army knives.“
[11:37] She personally emailed and called the first couple of 1,000 people that signed-up to the website.
[17:20] They returned over $65 million back to investors.
[19:58] “Success should be synonymous with happiness.”
[20:45] Your host asks, “What do you do for fun?”
- [20:55] She loves to travel & mentions she was most recently in Morocco.
- [21:24] Your host try's to be funny by asking, “Were you looking for commercial real estate properties over there?” Failed joke by Austin.
[22:05] Discusses different type of REITs
[22:15] Talks about volatility & liquidity premium with difference in type of REITs (Publicly Traded vs Private)
[23:40] Talks about cost & capital to start a company like RealtyMogul.
[24:31] The company’s largest expenses is human capital.
[28:30] Jilliene thinks that Commercial Real Estate is a lot more complicated than Residential Real Estate.
[31:08] “Knowing what stage you’re at as a company and hiring the right people for the right stage is really critical.”
[33:00] They’ve always been well capitalized as a company.
[32:08] When they first started, she was “an execution machine”
- [32:09] Your host try's to be funny by saying, “I don't believe you.” Another failed joke by Austin.
[33:15] Talks about what she is most proud of… a few of her team members for example. She gets excited about seeing personal growth within the company.
[33:51] Reading & learning have been fundamental to Jilliene's growth.
[34:01] Listening to podcasts (like this amazing one) helps people grow as a person & employee.
[39:22] “To be a great leader, you have to be healthy.”

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Vitamins
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Amazing People
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Time