Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of EDAWN, welcomes Capstak, Inc., a web-based market network for commercial real estate professionals, to Reno at a press conference held Monday, Sept. 19 at the Whitney Peak Hotel.
The founders of Capstak, Inc., a web-based market network for commercial real estate, announced that the company has chosen Reno for its corporate headquarters at an Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) press conference held Monday, Sept. 19.
Capstak is an online meeting platform for commercial real estate professionals to find deals, source capital and identify business partners and commercial real estate service providers.
“The commercial real estate deal market is massively inefficient, time consuming and costly, especially outside of the primary US markets,” CEO and co-founder of Capstak Michael Schnabel said in a press release. “This difficulty in sourcing good debt and equity partners has, in the past, kept me from investing. Capstak is providing important, profitable commercial solutions for my business.”
Capstak was co-founded by Schnabel and Heather Goldman in 2014. They both have more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry.
“We started with an idea to make our markets better and more efficient using leading-edge technology,” Goldman said at the EDAWN press conference. “And now our idea is a reality with Capstak.com.”
They used the Reno market to launch a beta product of the website. Schnabel and Goldman plan to launch Capstak nationally in 2017.
“We are extremely excited to be building this local technology company and to be headquartered here in Reno,” Goldman said.
According to Schnabel, they had originally been looking at several other cities such as San Francisco, New York and Tel Aviv, Israel for Capstak’s headquarters. However, it was Doug Erwin, vice president of entrepreneurial development at EDAWN, who encouraged Schnabel and Goldman to consider Reno for their headquarters.
Through their connection with Erwin, they met Ben Lucchesi, who is now Capstak’s CTO and Mridul Gautam, vice president for research and innovation at UNR, who helped provide the startup with office space at the University of Nevada, Reno Innevation Center. These connections and the support of the Reno community lead Schnabel and Goldman to choose Reno for their headquarters.
Capstak is currently operating out of the Innevation Center and is working to build their employee base in Reno.
“Honestly we are hiring,” Goldman said in a prior phone interview with NNBW.
They are looking for employees to aid in developing their technology side of the business and the community building side. The company anticipates the addition of 25 jobs in the first year and eventually to create over 100 jobs for the Reno economy.
“We are extremely excited to have Capstak relocate to Reno and bring with it high value jobs paying top salaries and benefits,” Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said in a press release.
According to Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of EDAWN, Capstak offers jobs with salaries at an average yearly wage of $50,000.
“I really love when we see technology modernize and improve traditional industries.” Governor Brian Sandoval said at the press conference. “And that is exactly what Capstak does.”
“I am confident that this is just the beginning,” he said about the company.
For more information about Capstak, visit www.capstak.com.
