It’s another longy-but-goody.
In tonight’s edition, Random Walk sits down with Blake Janover, Founder and CEO of Janover, a Commercial Real Estate lending startup, that skipped venture capital, and went public instead (JNVR 0.00%↑).
If this email was forwarded to you, please click the shiny blue button:Blake has done a lot of things, including dropping out of college, starting at least three businesses, building automated trading tech in the early aughts, and going very long New Century Financial in 2007.
Blake is a polymath, infovore and generally curious guy, who likes to zig, where others zag, which makes him a Random Walk kind of person.
Among other things, we discuss:
Being a generalist, and learning to focus
The real estate industry, and how it’s changed (or hasn’t) over the decades
Starting out as the smartest kid who had all the answers, and needed no help from no one, to being a guy who learns from everyone, as much as possible
Building two entirely different and successful companies before the age of 30, and losing everything, not once, but twice
Finding mentors and doing the things that make you uncomfortable
Building a commercial mortgage platform when no one will touch CRE with a ten-foot pole, and buying greed n’ selling fear
Filing an S-1 and going public (yes, you read that right) because you’re too small for PE, and not a fit for VC
Building a tech company in Florida, but not betting against SF or NY
LLMs are still underrated; and
The proverbial much, much, more.
Enjoy.
The video is available on youtube, as well, if you prefer to view it that way.
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Random Walk at Night: Of Innocence and Experience, a Conversation with Blake