Robert Reffkin

Last updated
Robert Reffkin
Born (1979-06-07) June 7, 1979 (age 44)
NationalityAmerican
Education Columbia University (BA, MBA)
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Compass, Inc.

Robert L. Reffkin [1] is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the online real estate brokerage Compass, Inc. and serves as the company's CEO. [2]

Biography

Reffkin is African American and Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, California. [3] His father was an African American man from Louisiana, who already had two children, and shortly after Reffkin was born abandoned him and his mother. [4] Emigrating from Israel at age 7, his mother Ruth Reffkin, after having her son, was disowned by her family after learning that their grandson was of African American descent. [5] Since his mother never married his biological father, his mother gave Reffkin his last name, from her first marriage to Gene Reffkin, also Reffkin's Godfather. [5] His father, a jazz musician, [6] passed away when he was 11 years old. [7]

Through A Better Chance, he was matched with and enrolled in San Francisco University High School, where he also delivered its 2021 commencement address. [7] [8] In 1994, Reffkin started his first business at age 15—a DJ company funded by his bar mitzva and babysitting savings. [7] He was involved with the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship as a teenager. [7]

In 2000, Reffkin graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in under two years. [7] After graduating from Columbia, he worked for McKinsey & Company from 2000 to 2002 before returning to school and graduated from Columbia Business School with a M.B.A. in 2003. [7] [9] At the time of his hiring, he was the youngest analyst hired by McKinsey. [1] [10]

He then moved into investment banking and spent two years working for Lazard. [7] [11] Between 2005 and 2006, Reffkin was a White House Fellow and worked for Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow. [1] He returned to investment banking afterwards as a vice president for Goldman Sachs, becoming chief of staff for President and COO Gary Cohn. [12] [13]

In 2007, Reffkin began a nonprofit, New York Needs You (now America Needs You) to mentor low-income college students. He did a $1 million fundraising by running a marathon in each of the 50 states in the United States and launched NYNY in 2009. [6] [14]

In 2012, he co-founded the online real estate technology company Compass, Inc. with Ori Allon. [2] The inspiration for his business came from his mother, who suffered hardships working as a real estate agent. [9] [15] Reffkin was inspired to use technology to improve the ability of agents to build their brand, analyze data, and conduct market research to make their business more efficient and profitable. [16] In April 2021, Compass, Inc. went public and, according to Black Enterprise , Reffkin was projected to become America's youngest black billionaire. [17] [18] His net worth stood at $500 million following the IPO of his company. [19]

Reffkin worked with Peter Koechley, Upworthy co-founder and former managing editor of The Onion, in writing the book No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can, published in 2021. [20]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "White House Fellows: Class of 2005-2006". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  2. 1 2 Glazer, Emily (2021-07-10). "Where the CEO of Compass Found His Direction". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  3. ↑ GmbH, finanzen net. "6 important things everyone should know about Robert Reffkin, who left a successful career at Goldman Sachs to take a chance on real estate - and is now poised to become America's youngest Black..." markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  4. ↑ "No One Succeeds Alone by Robert Reffkin". Lanre Dahunsi. 2022-09-23. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  5. 1 2 "Robert Reffkin: Compass". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  6. 1 2 Zax, David (2013-10-25). "How A Darling Of The New York Tech Scene Gives Back". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Raposo, Jacqueline (Summer 2017). ""The Journey Was the Exciting Part"". Columbia College Today. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  8. ↑ Reffkin, Robert [@RobReffkin] (June 7, 2021). "This morning I had the privilege of delivering the commencement speech at my alma mater, San Francisco University High School. It was really special to be introduced by Nasif Iskander, my former AP Physics teacher, and the current Dean of Faculty, and getting to share this place https://t.co/BYV9wNg4hi" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2021-06-07. Retrieved 2022-03-27– via Twitter.
  9. 1 2 "How did this alum's mom inspire him to create a $4B startup? | McKinsey & Company". www.mckinsey.com. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  10. ↑ "40 Under 40 - Robert Reffkin". Crain's New York Business. 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  11. ↑ "Robert Reffkin". Fortune. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  12. ↑ "Talks at GS | Robert Reffkin, Founder and CEO of Compass". Goldman Sachs. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  13. ↑ Lovelace, Berkeley Jr. (2017-12-07). "Softbank invests $450 million in real estate tech company Compass". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  14. ↑ "5 lessons I learned from running 50 marathons". Inman. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  15. ↑ "Why Robert Reffkin's Mother Is Coming To Work At Compass". Inman. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  16. ↑ "How Robert Reffkin went from being a C-average student to the founder of Compass". TechCrunch. 6 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  17. ↑ "Compass Just Went Public, Placing Robert Reffkin on a Path to Become America's Youngest Black Billionaire". Black Enterprise. 2021-04-03. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  18. ↑ Dailey, Natasha. "Here's what drives the success of Robert Reffkin, who left Goldman Sachs to take a chance on real estate and is now poised to become America's youngest Black billionaire". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  19. ↑ Kirsch, Noah. "Compass Cofounder Robert Reffkin Is Worth $500 Million Following IPO". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  20. ↑ Reffkin, Robert (2021). No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   978-0-358-45461-8.
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