After experiencing the pain of starting his own real estate venture, Joseph Jelink ’11GSAPP realized he was not alone. Fundraising is a real pain for both new and veteran real estate entrepreneurs. It drains precious resources away from buying or building.
GroundBreaker.co is a kickstarter for real estate. It handles most of the administrative aspects of fundraising, including the introduction to new capital sources. Mr. Jelink also noticed that there are a ton of folks who would love to invest in commercial real estate but don’t have the network or the ability to write large checks. By bringing the fundraising process online, the cost to service investors is reduced. By syndicating smaller checks, investors can participate in commercial real estate with only $1k. Additionally, GroundBreaker.co oversees entrepreneurs on behalf of investors as an asset manager so investors don’t have to worry about their investment and entrepreneurs only have to deal with one entity – GroundBreaker.
GroundBreaker was launched to friends and family in July 2013. After eight beta deals, it opened its doors on August 19, 2013 to the public in the form of a public beta. Groundbreaker.co is currently focused on growing its network organically and has focused on connecting entrepreneurs and investors solely from The Ivy’s, MIT, and Stanford for now.
Joey Jelinek previously financed over $8.5 billion in real estate projects while at Morgan Stanley and CBRE and built over $500 million in design and green driven projects while at ZOM. He studied entrepreneurship at Cornell and architecture and real estate development at Columbia.