By Melina Denebeim '12 and Nikita Prithani '12
Biannually, the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate hosts a panel discussion on a certain aspect of women’s careers in real estate. The 2011 discussion was focused on women’s entrepreneurial ventures in real estate. The panelists were five exceptional women who have started real estate ventures and showcase the spirit of entrepreneurship in the real estate sector. All five are Columbia Business School alumni and enjoy successful careers in real estate.
Cia Buckley ’93, partner of Dune Real Estate Partners, moderated the panel and focused on three key topics: (1) What are the sources of entrepreneurship – necessity, opportunity or creativity, (2) Does one need significant capital to start a real estate business, and (3) What are the risks involved in starting a new real estate venture?
Nancy Lashine ’81, managing partner and founder of Park Madison Partners, a real estate private equity placement firm and third party marketer, emphasized starting her firm out of necessity. After ten years of independent real estate consulting that began after a 13 year-long chaotic and demanding investment banking and investment management career, Nancy was ready to find a way to maintain the flexibility of consulting. The key to her new venture was to have the ownership and scale beyond consulting. Nancy also stressed the importance of having the right partner and a sounding board for ideas and how that can be instrumental in overall monitoring. When asked about how to maintain work-life balance, especially as a young mother and the option of part-time working, Nancy replied that in today's market scenario, working part-time for someone else is not feasible and being an entrepreneur requires immense devotion, passion, and time commitment.
Andrea Wenner '05, founder and executive director of Out2Play, a playground development organization, was the "young entrepreneur" of the panel and incubated Out2Play while she was an MBA student at Columbia. She launched her business immediately upon graduation. Since then, Out2Play has completed 120 playground projects, focusing on New York City inner-city schools. Andrea’s drive to make a positive impact on her immediate community complemented her drive to start a niche business. She shared how her entrepreneurial spirit and ability to be a measured risk taker was crucial in taking the next big step of starting her own venture. She found an underserved public-sector real estate market and attacked the gap with a great idea – although noting that while a good idea is critical to launching a business, establishing strong connections before actually "taking the plunge" is critical.
Suzanne Sunshine '92, founder of Sunshine & Associates, a women-owned business enterprise that has completed over 100,000 square feet of transactions for non-profit organizations, also felt a burning desire to marry "doing good" with running a business. She used a long-standing leadership position in the private sector running the Nonprofit Practice Groups at CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield as her launch-pad for expertise in the nonprofit real estate sector. Her motivation was passion. When asked about the risk of pursuing something based on passion, Suzanne responded, "The risk of not doing what you love is greater than taking the actual risk of launching the business you are passionate about." She emphasized that the institutional platform behind her experience was critical to a successful launch of Sunshine & Associates. She also stressed that her passionate and emphatic attitude towards each of her projects distinguishes her from her male counterparts in the not-for-profit industry and is largely responsible for her success.
Gentry Ashmore Hoit '90, partner at Atlantic Assets Group, also transitioned into running her own business through necessity. Her desire for more flexibility was responsible for the career change in her life. After 13 years of traveling across the U.S. and dealing with the frustration of not seeing her family, she was presented with an opportunistic real estate deal that led her to branch off and start Atlantic Assets Group in 2009. For the first time, she has had female partners and loves the dynamic of collaboration in her firm. She explained how being an entrepreneur allows her to wear different hats, enjoy more control, and eventually also make more money.
After the series of questions related to motivation, Cia commented that although being an entrepreneur is liberating, it’s often "like being an analyst again" because in the early stages one has limited resources and works on every part of the business. Nancy and Suzanne commented they both make more money running their own business. This sentiment was echoed throughout the panel. Each panelist identified finding a strong partner as a challenging endeavor, but perhaps the most crucial part of the process.
The questions of capital and risk taking were met with varied responses, from looking at FFFs (friends, families and fools) for initial capital (Andrea), to putting in your own capital (Nancy) to Suzanne’s combination of personal and outside capital. All of the panelists commented on the necessity of frugality, and Gentry mentioned specifically bidding out services to always know market price. However, Cia discussed the tendency of women to "underfund" themselves, i.e. to not ask for as much capital as necessary and generally have tough time raising sufficient money for their business. "Men see it as a game, which puts them at an advantage in raising capital after a failed deal," remarked Nancy, who said it is harder for her to ask for capital when coming off of a failed deal or market downturn.
Cia also talked about the unique skills that women possess and can bring to the table and how it was important to realize one’s core strength and build upon it with time. She also stressed that real estate, unlike other industries, is a private market and to be successful and get the correct information on deals it is important to have the right contacts and "best friends" in the industry to rely on. All of the panelists agreed on the philanthropic reach of real estate and how if channeled, can have a major positive impact on society.
Risk taking was unanimously viewed as necessary in launching a new business, particularly in the real estate sector where capital barriers to entry are higher. Gentry, Suzanne and Nancy wished – in hindsight – that they had taken more personal risk in their careers leading up to their new businesses. The panelists presented an interesting view that in general, women take less risk in business than their male counterparts. They acknowledged the prudence in this trait, and also the limitations. Cia posited that women have better intuition in deal making because of their tendencies towards risk-aversion and that their decisions depend more on having the faith to make their decisions work.