SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RealtyShares, a leading online marketplace for real estate investing, today announced Kristina Wallender has joined the pioneering startup as senior vice president of marketing, focused on helping the company reach more investors and sponsors.
RealtyShares quickly gained traction among early adopters, with more than 100,000 investors registered and hundreds of deals funded since launching its investment platform in late 2013. The next step for RealtyShares is to reach the millions of potential accredited individuals, institutional investors and sponsors who don’t yet know about the benefits of online real estate investing, all while evolving its solutions based on a deep understanding of customer needs. These are areas where Wallender has excelled over the years.
“Kristina’s marketing acumen is unquestioned, but she also brings a rare mix of qualities to RealtyShares that will make her an invaluable asset across all facets of the organization,” said Nav Athwal, the founder and CEO of RealtyShares. “Kristina has exhibited exemplary leadership to scale marketplaces at companies of all sizes, and we are tremendously excited to welcome her to our leadership team.”
Wallender joins RealtyShares with marketplace and marketing leadership experience spanning large enterprise businesses like Amazon and early stage companies like Ticketfly, where she was the head of marketing for the past four years. Over her tenure, Ticketfly grew from a small startup to a leading live entertainment brand serving over 1,800 venues and promoters across North America. Wallender also played a key role in Pandora’s acquisition of Ticketfly in 2015, earning her a spot on Billboard’s 40 Under 40: Top Young Power Players in music. As part of the RealtyShares team, she will be responsible for growing both sides of the marketplace.
“RealtyShares has a tremendous opportunity to make real estate investing easier and more accessible. We’re breaking down barriers in the industry for investors and delivering a vastly improved financing experience for borrowers,” said Wallender. “We want to make investing in real estate is as easy as buying stocks.”
Along with Wallender, RealtyShares recently added Vartika Ambwani, who joined as RealtyShares’ director of investor operations, bringing several years of finance and operations experience from Earnest Inc. and Scotiabank. Barbara Silvermann also joined RealtyShares as the director of residential mortgage operations after nearly 30 years in credit risk and underwriting management at top mortgage firms, including Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Since January 2017, more than one-third of all new hires at the company have been female, and all three leadership hires have been women, bucking the standard within the real estate sector which has historically lacked diversity across the leadership spectrum.
About RealtyShares
RealtyShares is transforming the real estate investment landscape by connecting borrowers and sponsors to debt and equity capital from accredited and institutional investors, across an array of financing products. Private investments are highly illiquid and risky and are not suitable for all investors. Through the RealtyShares website, these investors can browse investment opportunities, perform due diligence, invest online and gain 24/7 access to an investor dashboard to watch how their investments are performing. RealtyShares offers securities through North Capital Private Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC. For more information on how to become a real estate investor or to seek capital through the RealtyShares marketplace, please visit www.realtyshares.com.
