The CrowdStreet Story
Making the markets work better for everyone.
During the Great Recession, our co-founders Tore Steen and Darren Powderly saw how many people were overly reliant on Wall Street for their investment opportunities. Realizing the importance of diversification outside of public equities, combined with the rise of a new investment vehicle known as equity crowdfunding, the two co-founded CrowdStreet in order to give individual investors better access to real estate, the 3rd-largest asset class in the U.S.
The CrowdStreet Story
Our VISION
We’re reinventing real estate investing to deliver better financial outcomes.
Together–the investors, sponsors, and partners of CrowdStreet–we are reinventing real estate investing end-to-end. Fundamental to this transformation is a major shift, not only in how investors and sponsors connect online, but also in how we can create a more efficient, transparent, and trustworthy market for all participants.
By combining our team’s commercial real estate investment expertise with our proprietary technology, CrowdStreet gives individual investors direct access to a range of institutional-quality investment opportunities and all the online tools needed to manage those investments. To date, thousands of investors have invested over $1.69 billion in more than 473 projects, earning over $197 million in distributions.
Our MISSION
Deliver the best online real estate investing experience and make it easy for individual investors to diversify their portfolios.
With direct access to institutional-quality commercial real estate opportunities, CrowdStreet enables accredited investors to diversify their portfolios with the 3rd-largest asset class in our country. Browse the Marketplace.
MEET OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
The CrowdStreet team has 120+ years of combined experience in real estate, software development, online marketing, and private equity.
Tore Steen
Chief Executive Officer, Co-FounderTore is a business leader in the internet and software industries with deep expertise in strategy, business development, sales, and marketing for both publicly traded and private enterprises.
Prior to CrowdStreet, Tore was instrumental in leading the product, sales, marketing, and business development efforts for Janrain, taking them from early stage rapid growth phases to becoming the recognized leader in the social identity space with a full user management platform and global enterprise customers. He has held senior leadership roles as the Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at WebTrends and Director of Business Development at EarthLink.
Tore earned a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Notre Dame.
Darren Powderly
Co-Founder, VP Capital MarketsDarren founded CrowdStreet in 2012 after identifying the need to radically improve people’s access to commercial real estate investments via technology. Over his 20+ year career, Darren has transacted billions of dollars’ worth of commercial real estate investments and enterprise software contracts. Darren is a driven leader who loves building relationships based on mutual success. In addition to building businesses, leading teams and advising a prestigious list of national clients, Darren has personally owned commercial real estate, syndicated investment groups and developed properties from the ground up.
Prior to founding CrowdStreet, Darren served as President of Compass Commercial, a full-service commercial real estate services company. Darren launched his career in software at Oracle/ATG in San Francisco where he managed 17 sales people while performing as an individual top-producer. An entrepreneur at heart, Darren started his first profitable business at 19 years old in Boulder, CO.
Darren is a graduate of the Leeds Business School at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a CCIM designee, a recognized expert in investment real estate. Darren is a full member at Urban Land Institute.
Londa Quisling
Chief Technology OfficerLonda is an accomplished engineering and product technology executive who has served in various roles with high-tech companies for more than 20 years.
Most recently she was the Chief Product Officer at Treehouse, which provides online technical education and apprenticeship programs. At Treehouse, Londa led all aspects of product strategy, development, and delivery of products & services. She has also served as the VP of Engineering & Product Development at NAVEX Global and Ethics Point, as well as the VP of Product Development at Iterasi.
Londa holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from the Engineering School at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Kristen Howell
General CounselKristen Howell brings more than twenty years of legal experience in FinTech, corporate securities, and financial services.
Prior to joining CrowdStreet, Kristen was a partner at Am Law 100 law firm Fox Rothschild, LLP, where she lead the firm’s national investment funds practice. Kristen previously served as General Counsel for a registered investment adviser with $19B in assets under management and six publicly traded mutual funds. Kristen has been featured on NPR – Marketplace Tech and InsideCounsel, been quoted in Law 360 and other publications, and has spoken widely on FinTech, investments and crowdfunding.
Kristen holds a BS in Political Science from Texas Christian University and a JD from The University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder.
Claudia Cameron
VP of Customer ExperienceClaudia brings an extensive track record of success in technology services and operations with over 25 years experience with industry leading companies from start-ups to Fortune10 in FinTech, Consumer and Technology Products, and Services.
She previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for Mirador Technology, which provided a Small Business lending platform for Financial Institutions, later acquired by the Cuna Mutual Group. Prior to her time with Mirador, Claudia was the Vice President of Customer Operations for Simple Finance – an early entrant and innovator in consumer on-line banking. Prior to her years in FinTech, Claudia held leadership positions across a range of functions and around the world with Nike, Cisco, and Hewlett-Packard.
Claudia holds a BA in Political Science from Portland State University and an MS in Organizational Development from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara.
Ian Formigle
Chief Investment OfficerIan is a real estate professional and serial entrepreneur with 24+ years of experience in real estate private equity, startups, and equity and options trading. At CrowdStreet, Ian serves as the key decision-maker for all investments on its Marketplace, totaling over 400 offerings and some $13.7 billion of commercial real estate. Ian is the author of “The Comprehensive Guide to Commercial Real Estate Investing” and he is a contributing author at Forbes.com.
Prior to joining CrowdStreet, Ian was VP of Business Development for ScanlanKemperBard Companies, where he managed the firm’s alternative investment platform and served as a senior acquisitions officer on a team that acquired some $500 million of commercial real estate assets during his tenure. Previously, Ian co-founded and served as CEO of Clarus Property Ventures, a regional real estate private equity firm that focused on multifamily acquisitions. Ian began his career as an equity options market maker and member of the Pacific Exchange. Ian holds a BA in Economics and a BA in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and has held numerous securities licenses including Series 7 and 63.
Steve Drew
VP Marketplace TransformationSteve is a seasoned product leader who has spent the last 20 years leading product teams to define, develop and launch multiple innovative SaaS, cloud and desktop software solutions. He is experienced in overseeing the full life cycle of product development, marketing and business development at large enterprises and early stage start-ups. Steve brings a strong reputation for collaborative cross-functional leadership delivering innovative solutions that drive financial and operational success.
Prior to CrowdStreet, Steve was VP of Marketing and Business Development at Paydici, a financial services start-up. Previously, Steve was Director of Product Management in the Construction and Real Estate Division at Sage where he led a three year project to develop and launch Sage Timberline Enterprise, following successfully leading the launch of Peachtree Quantum in the Small Business Accounting Division. Steve also led product management and product development teams at Radiant Systems and BlueCube Software.
Steve earned a Master of Business Administration from Emory University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing and management from the University of Wisconsin.
Brent Hieggelke
Chief Marketing OfficerBrent is a high-growth tech marketing executive focused on start-up and early category innovators and disrupters. He is a seasoned evangelist, and public speaker across a wide-range of topics.
He is a former CMO of several leading SaaS companies such as Urban Airship (mobile), Brandlive (video), Webtrends (data and analytics) and Touch Clarity (AI, machine learning), which sold to Omniture. In 2009, Brent co-founded a real estate start-up, Second Porch, which built the first sharing vacation rental site and ultimately exited to HomeAway, now Expedia. Brent has keynoted and led panels at global events like SXSW, Mobile World Congress, Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, Adtech, and hundreds of other conferences. Brent has been featured or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Advertising Age, and hundreds of other publications.
Brent holds a BA in Economics with honors from the University of Chicago.
Meet Our Board of Directors
Tore Steen
Chief Executive Officer, Co-FounderTore is a business leader in the internet and software industries with deep expertise in strategy, business development, sales, and marketing for both publicly traded and private enterprises.
Prior to CrowdStreet, Tore was instrumental in leading the product, sales, marketing, and business development efforts for Janrain, taking them from early stage rapid growth phases to becoming the recognized leader in the social identity space with a full user management platform and global enterprise customers. He has held senior leadership roles as the Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at WebTrends and Director of Business Development at EarthLink.
Tore earned a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Notre Dame.
Darren Powderly
Co-Founder, VP Capital MarketsDarren founded CrowdStreet in 2012 after identifying the need to radically improve people’s access to commercial real estate investments via technology. Over his 20+ year career, Darren has transacted billions of dollars’ worth of commercial real estate investments and enterprise software contracts. Darren is a driven leader who loves building relationships based on mutual success. In addition to building businesses, leading teams and advising a prestigious list of national clients, Darren has personally owned commercial real estate, syndicated investment groups and developed properties from the ground up.
Prior to founding CrowdStreet, Darren served as President of Compass Commercial, a full-service commercial real estate services company. Darren launched his career in software at Oracle/ATG in San Francisco where he managed 17 sales people while performing as an individual top-producer. An entrepreneur at heart, Darren started his first profitable business at 19 years old in Boulder, CO.
Darren is a graduate of the Leeds Business School at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a CCIM designee, a recognized expert in investment real estate. Darren is a full member at Urban Land Institute.
Dino Vendetti
Seven Peaks VenturesDino has spent his career as an entrepreneur, investor, and exec in leading technology companies and is focused on building and growing the tech eco-system in Bend Oregon. He recently founded Seven Peaks Ventures, is co-founder of the Founders Pad Accelerator in Bend OR, and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Entrepreneurship at OSU Cascades in Bend OR.
Prior to Seven Peaks Ventures, Dino was a General Partner with Formative Ventures, Bay Partners and Vulcan Ventures. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive positions at Qualcomm, Metawave, and Dain Rauscher. He began his career in engineering design and management roles at TRW and US West Cellular.
Active board seats and investments include: Vungle, Droplr, Manzama, CrowdStreet, Inbound Writer, and Capella.
Jeff Hinck
Rally VenturesJeff has been a venture capitalist since 1997 and has focused on early-stage business technology companies throughout his career.
Jeff began his professional career at McKinsey & Company then started his venture career at Crescendo Ventures. He co-founded Vesbridge Partners with Rally Venture Partner Zenas Hutcheson and has been a General Partner with El Dorado Ventures since 2008. Jeff also ran Sistina Software as CEO and has twice been the President of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association (MVCA).
In his spare time, Jeff enjoys biking, boating and fine wine, preferably all in the same day.
Lawson DeVries
Grotech VenturesLawson DeVries joined Grotech Ventures in 2005 and is a General Partner at the firm. He focuses primarily on investment opportunities in enterprise software, SaaS and internet companies. Lawson currently serves on the boards of Atavium, Ceros, CrowdStreet, DirectScale, Optoro, RedPoint Global, TaskEasy, Tethr and UrbanBound.
He was also the first investor in NexGen Storage and sat on the board until its acquisition by Fusion-io. Lawson has also worked closely with a number of other prior Grotech portfolio companies including LogRhythm (acquired by Thoma Bravo), Logi Analytics (acquired by Marlin Equity) BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT; acquired by Cisco), Collective Intellect (acquired by Oracle) and Aztek Networks (acquired by GenBand).
Prior to joining Grotech Ventures, Lawson was in the Institutional Equity Sales division of the Buckingham Research Group, a boutique independent research firm. Previously he was in the Equity Research division at Deutsche Bank where he rolled out coverage on a new division of the Industrials sector that included Caterpillar, Deere and Co. and AGCO. Prior to this, Lawson was an Associate in Deutsche Bank’s Health Care group covering Managed Care stocks.
Meet Our Board of Advisors
Jack Chandler
Majesteka Investments HoldingsJack Chandler is the Founder of Majesteka Investments Holdings, a private firm providing integrated strategic leadership and capital for emerging disruptive companies at the intersection of real estate, asset management, and technology. Prior to forming Majesteka, Jack was Chairman of BlackRock’s Global Real Estate business with a focus on the strategic development of the platform as well as investment and client activities. He served as a member of the BlackRock Real Estate Global Executive Committee, the BlackRock Alternative Investment Executive Committee, and the BlackRock Alternative Investment Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Mr. Chandler held various positions with LaSalle Investment Management during his 25-year tenure.
Tom Byrne
Real DynamicsThomas Byrne is real estate technology evangelist and active business advisor, thought leading, startup mentor and investor within the real estate technology sector. Byrne was previously an Entrepreneur In Residence at Trinity Ventures. For 10 years, Byrne built and managed LoopNet, Inc. until its successful sale in 2012 for $900 million. As President and Chief Operating Officer of LoopNet, Byrne was responsible for LoopNet’s P&L and lead day-to-day strategy, acquisition review and integration, business operations, marketing, sales, client & account management, engineering product development and business development. Byrne helped steward the company thru numerous key milestones including profitability, achieving EBITDA margins of 50%, successful IPO, acquiring and successfully integrating 8 acquisitions, raising $50 million PIPE investment, and the eventual sale to Costar.
Prior to joining LoopNet, Byrne served as Group Vice President of NextCard’s Secured Card business unit responsible for the business unit’s P&L and for all functional groups including strategy, marketing, client services, portfolio management and finance. Byrne successfully led the NextCard business unit to cashflow breakeven and profitability. Prior to NextCard, Byrne held management positions at McKinsey & Company and Prudential Investments working in various investment capacities, including the Prudential Real Estate Group, in both commercial real estate and mortgage loan workout groups.
Byrne holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School and has a B.S. of Electrical Engineering, with highest honors, from Georgia Tech.
Lewis Feldman
Heritage Capital Ventures LLCCEO and Founder, Heritage Capital Ventures LLC, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate at the Anderson Graduate School of Business, where he lectures on real estate capital markets matters and online syndication. Over the past 35 years, including during his tenure as founder of AmLaw 100 Goodwin Procter LLP’s California offices and its online real estate securities practice, Lew Feldman has helped raise and deploy more than $100 billion in debt and equity for real estate, infrastructure and financial technology.
Christopher Keber
McCourt GlobalChristopher Keber joined McCourt Global in 2017 as Head of Investments & Strategy, to lead the firm’s investment strategy, and focus on the growth and sustainability of MG’s global business.
Previously, Chris was Senior Managing Director of Hines Interests L.P, a private firm with $100 billion of assets under management, for nearly five years. In this role, he was responsible for worldwide capital formation and fund-raising, investor relations and managing many enterprise-level special situations.
Prior to Hines, Chris led Starwood Capital Group’s global capital raising and investor relations, during which Starwood raised billions of dollars for new investment vehicles and co-investments for energy and real estate from global investors. Before that, he worked in New York at Credit Suisse in its Real Estate Private Funds Group.
Beyond his professional activities, Chris is deeply committed to charitable projects. He volunteered for two years on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, where he served as a teacher, and later Principal, of a 300-student elementary school.
Chris holds an MBA in Real Estate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he currently serves on the school’s Board of Visitors, as well as a BA in International Relations from Georgetown University. He also studied at the U.K.’s Edinburgh University, where he was a member of its basketball team.
Learn More About CrowdStreet
CROWDSTREET IN THE NEWS
Realty Investors Rush to Crowdfunding Deals
In this "Wall Street Journal" article, Ian Formigle explains why investor demand is up, even as deal flow is down in a post-COVID economy.
CrowdStreet takes pride in its workplace energy, commitment to clients: Top Workplaces 2020
Employees’ comments earned CrowdStreet's a first-time win in The Oregonian/OregonLive’s annual Top Workplaces competition this year.
Advantages of 18-Hour Cities for Real Estate Investors in 2020
The pandemic has forced us all to re-evaluate our priorities, including how we work, play, and plan for the future.
CrowdStreet Provides Unique Perspective into Real Estate Crowdfunding: We feel that we are experiencing our “Zoom” moment
Crowdfund Insider reached out to CrowdStreet for their perspective on the real estate investment sector.
A 47-story North Michigan Avenue high-rise is set to break ground during the pandemic.
Investors include Wanxiang America Real Estate Group and crowdsourced equity raised through CrowdStreet.
