MENTORS Magazine

MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 1 | 67

blessed with great weather, outstanding rec-

reational diversity and excellent schools.

And, as you might expect, residential home

prices that are among the most expensive in

the nation.

With a background in real estate, we boot-

strapped Foundation, starting in 2010, cre-

ating a real estate firm

that identified and has

become successful in a

specific niche of the in-

dustry. Foundation cur-

rently manages more

than $150 million (U.S.)

of residential long term,

single family home

property. Most of our

rentals exceed $4000

per month with a

mean/average price of

about $6500, some

renting as high as $20,000/month.

In building our business, we faced the nor-

mal hurdles of a married couple working to-

gether: that of never being able to turn off

work. We chose to embrace the circum-

stance because we recognized that being to-

gether 24x7 can also be extremely valuable

in a startup. Inspiration can strike at any mo-

ment, and your business partner is always

there to bounce ideas off. (Noteworthy to

add: our 70-hour start-up workweeks were

pre-children!)

Early in our business career, we faced a ma-

jor health crisis, not once but twice, even

though we were in our 20’s at the time.

Christopher was diagnosed with Stage 3 co-

lon cancer, underwent “successful” surgery

and then - when the cancer resurfaced -

faced another bout and underwent another

surgery. All the while we were developing

our careers and learning by working in the

field. As much as we wanted to spend

fulltime on our clients, we faced the reality

of Christopher’s illness. (Which didn’t stop

him from negotiating deals when going

through chemo!)

People ask us how we did it. We answer,

“There was no other choice.” While our

“crisis” was health related, there is no end to

circumstances that you might have to over-

come when starting a business. Our advice is