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Josh Dorkin bets on social network for real estate investors
A laundry list of real estate-related inquiries led to a one-of-a-kind digital hub, Bigger Pockets
Jamie Siebrase //May 17, 2017//
Josh Dorkin bets on social network for real estate investors
A laundry list of real estate-related inquiries led to a one-of-a-kind digital hub, Bigger Pockets
Jamie Siebrase //May 17, 2017//
Age: 41
Some of the best business ideas are the ones that come from an unanswered question — or, in Joshua Dorkin’s case, a series of unanswered questions.
Dorkin was a special-education teacher and first-time real estate investor living in Los Angeles when he discovered that buying land isn’t anything like buying, say, a television. He had a long list of real estate related inquiries, and when he couldn’t find the answers in the public domain, he started BiggerPockets, a one-of-a-kind social network for real estate investors.
Before long, BiggerPockets grew from a hobby to a lifestyle business to, Dorkin says,
But hard work paid off. BiggerPockets has doubled its revenue and income every year for five years, and it has doubled its staff size, too, since relocating to a storefront in RiNo. That’s not to say there weren’t growing pains. Scaling his company meant studying other companies and talking to lots and lots of people.
“It’s true what everyone says about how hard it is,” Dorkin says, adding, “You have to be committed to your idea if you want to succeed.” In his company’s earliest hours, Dorkin experienced plenty of ups and downs, and he’s not afraid to admit that he questioned himself — a lot. “I wish I had known then that the business was going to do as well as it has done,” he says.
