Ben Miller: I don’t care about your deal. Software will eat real estate. Go. Learn. Scale.

On this episode, Kevin chats with Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, about how he transitioned from being a "deal junky" from a real estate family to leading a tech-first company that prioritizes processes, specific market segments, and scalability over individual transactions. The conversation explores Fundrise's fundamental principle of prioritizing investor interests and their innovative fee structure in which neither their fund companies nor real estate operating firms take a carry through vertical integration. Ben discusses the inherent fragility of individual deals and why building diversified portfolios is wiser for investors, the art of recognizing good deals while avoiding bad ones, and why great deals are rarely handed to you on a silver platter. They cover the value of developing talent internally versus hiring externally, the difficulty in identifying talent before they prove their abilities, and how interest rate changes influence capital flows into real estate and impact values. Ben shares his views on how AI will certainly impact real estate even if the exact mechanisms remain uncertain, and emphasizes the value of determination, perseverance, and fulfilling responsibilities while taking time to recharge. The discussion highlights how noble intentions often fail to overcome incentive structures and why being tech-first rather than real estate-first fundamentally changes perspective.