Real Estate VP, Tech Investing, Being In Person

This week I spoke with Nina Vascotto, 2016 UVA grad who’s now the Vice President of Real Estate Assets at ICONIQ Capital and Board Member of Sentral.

The Rundown:

I studied engineering at UVA, but was interested in real estate. A Comm school friend of mine recommended I apply to Wells Fargo. I got a real estate lending internship there that turned into a full time job.

It let me see real estate from a broad view, but I felt like a fly on the wall – I wanted to be in the action.

I moved over to a traditional asset management firm, Jamestown, doing an adaptive reuse project where I got to see an old warehouse transform into new office and retail space.

This was around 2017 when real estate was behind the ball on tech as a whole. I saw an opportunity to partner with the tech real estate investing team at Jamestown, and loved it.

I thought I needed a degree to work in investing, so I was about to go to business school when a friend of mine connected me with ICONIQ Capital, just as they were starting a new real estate fund.

It’s a PropCo-OpCo fund, which means we invest in real estate properties (that’s the “PropCo”) and invest in and manage companies that operate the day-to-day of those properties (that’s the “OpCo”) built around one strategy of bringing hospitality operations to multifamily properties.

Sentral is the operating company, that executes this strategy, on over 45 assets and 11,000 units across the country. They do this in two main ways:

I sit 50-50 between the asset investing side and Sentral, where I’m a board member.

Sometimes I’m deep in why hospitality bookings may be down; other times, I’m flying to Chicago for a board meeting discussing five-year strategies.

What’s interesting is unlike most real estate investment firms that focus on real estate, ICONIQ is traditionally a growth venture tech investor, and its real estate arm is a smaller, unique play. Because of that, we approach real estate with more innovation and a “lets try it” mentality.

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Learning I didn’t do well in a big company was a challenge I learned pretty quickly.

I’m naturally curious, and always asked “why are we doing it this way?” I didn’t like accepting “a way” just because it was standard.

At the beginning of my career, I struggled realizing there are times to question things and times you kind of have to do what you’re told.

I moved to a smaller company which gave me a bit more autonomy to do things that were more impactful. I found it a lot more rewarding than being a cog in a machine.

When you’re early in your career, find what motivates you, and lean into it.

Another thing I’ve learned is sometimes your jobs can’t provide you all the skills you need.

For example, at work I didn’t do much managing people starting out, so I became involved in the Urban Land Institute running their New York group. There’s no better way to learn managing people than for a volunteer organization, when you have to convince people to do things they're not required to do.

I love asking real estate people “What’s your favorite building?”

For me, being a New Yorker, I love the Dakota.

Outside of the John Lennon lore and the fact that it's a beautiful building with the courtyard in the center, I think it's super interesting because it was built at a time when Central Park was essentially farmland. The building was off on its own, opened as an artist's enclave. It was constructed during an era where things were built with real care for everyone.

The misconception is that it’s an all-boys club. Part of that is true, but I’ve met both men and women who are phenomenal in this space.

There’s also a lot of personalities in real estate.

Construction people are still running around cursing, wearing hard hats. It’s much less buttoned up and more straight shooting.

The industry is special because, generally, real estate people love real estate. You don’t end up here by accident. Usually you loved some building growing up, or Legos, or the physical world and seeing something start to finish.

Irrespective of your background, you’re always going into a room with people who just want to see things get built.

Be in person. Don’t let your first job out of college be virtual.

For one, older generations generally don’t understand virtual work. Second, I think you lose a lot by not seeing firsthand how things get done.

Early in your career, there’s so much to learn – a lot of it’s done by being in the room and watching what others are doing.

Reading is great — but putting yourself out there, meeting new people, and finding opportunities is what this is all about.

4 things to do right now:

Or, book a night at a Sentral Property. They offer destination stays in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, and Scottsdale.

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