I learned real estate the way you learn anything real: by owning it.

The path

I studied government and economics at Cornell, then went to Washington University School of Law on a full scholarship. The legal training — contracts, securities, the mechanics of how deals actually hold together — turned out to be some of the most practical education a future developer could get. But the conventional path ended there. Instead of a firm, I chose building: learning to code, shipping products, and working where software has to survive contact with real customers and real constraints.

The ground

Eventually the building became literal. I bought, entitled, and now operate commercial property in Colorado's Vail Valley — parking and fleet operations near a regional airport, a mixed-use commercial yard with tenants and trades, garage-condominium development, and EV charging along the I-70 corridor. That work comes with everything the brochures leave out: permits and utility easements, snow removal, lease negotiations, invoices, and tenants who call you directly when something breaks. I like that part. It keeps the thinking honest.

The idea

Somewhere between the fence permits and the lease renewals, the two halves of my life connected. A parking lot or an airport-adjacent parcel isn't static land — it's an operating business, and software can make it smarter: pricing, access, utilization, charging, safety, the digital layers that will eventually coordinate autonomous movement. That realization became the patents, the platforms — Park Graph and ChargingNear.me — and five books on where property and AI are headed. Everything I write starts on the ground.

Born Dallas, TX
Childhood Grew up in Texarkana, TX
1997 – 2001 Northfield Mount Hermon School
2001 – 2005 Cornell University (B.A.)
  • NCAA Varsity Rower
  • Education Policy Committee (Elected)
  • Academic Integrity Hearing Board (Elected)
2008 Washington University School of Law (J.D.)
  • Full scholarship (“Scholar of Law” Award)
  • Won ABA National Mediation & Negotiation Competition
2008 – 2017 Washington, D.C.
Now Developing and operating in the Rocky Mountains — and writing about where it's all going

Selected experience and background

My background spans real estate development, parking operations, EV charging, startup building, marketplaces, and systems where software has to improve actual outcomes.

Parking, land, and physical asset operations

Built and operated around parking, land use, asset monetization, and physical-world workflows. It keeps my thinking grounded in yield, throughput, utilization, access, and whether a system actually improves the economics of the asset.

Books, teaching, and invention work

Published five books, taught around startups and technology, and filed invention work in safety, communication, and real-world systems. Useful proof points — but the primary story is building.

HomeLight and real estate technology

Early behind HomeLight as real estate technology became more data-driven, marketplace-oriented, and performance-focused. It reinforced my view that real estate remains massively underbuilt from a software perspective.

Authentication and trust systems

Early exposure to authentication through Authy and the broader push toward stronger trust and identity systems. It shapes how I think about reliability, security, and the invisible systems that make products credible.

Ethereum and early digital infrastructure

Worked in the early Ethereum era, when new digital infrastructure was moving from theory to practical use. It sharpened my interest in architecture, incentives, and how new rails reshape entire markets.

Rappi and marketplace execution

Early behind Rappi during rapid marketplace growth. That shapes how I think about supply, demand, liquidity, operational density, and the systems needed to make real-world platforms work at scale.

Why real estate technology is bigger than most people think

Real estate technology usually gets framed narrowly — listings, CRMs, mortgage tools, property management dashboards. The opportunity is larger than that. It includes the systems that govern how space is accessed, monetized, priced, secured, utilized, charged, and connected to customer behavior in the physical world.

Some of the best opportunities sit where real estate and movement intersect: airports, venues, stadiums, logistics corridors, parking assets, and high-traffic land with underused revenue potential.

The future of real estate technology is not just digital paperwork. It is operational intelligence layered onto physical assets.

I am interested in platforms that help owners and operators:

That is where I think the category is going.

Selected proof

Real estate and physical-world operator

Owns and operates commercial property, parking, and land in the Vail Valley — where software has to create measurable operating value, or it doesn't survive.

Books and teaching

Five published books on AI, ownership, and real estate, plus courses on startups, investing, and company-building.

AI and systems builder

Hands-on builder focused on product strategy, technical systems, operational leverage, automation, and AI-supported workflows.

Marketplace and growth exposure

Background shaped by marketplace, infrastructure, and growth-company environments where execution and business-model design mattered.

Vehicle and safety-oriented thinking

Filed invention work and ongoing interest around vehicle safety, communication, and how intelligent systems can improve physical-world environments.

Cross-disciplinary edge

A background combining economics, law, coding, product, real estate, parking, and operational thinking into one operator's lens.

The through-line isn't that I've touched many categories. It's that I gravitate toward businesses where software changes how assets are operated, monetized, and understood.

If you're building, buying, or rethinking a property business, I'd genuinely like to hear about it.