From the Founder

For as long as he could remember, David Ash has always loved people and connecting people. So much so, that he describes himself as a matchmaker. Growing up, he connected friends through sports, in college, his job was to connect NYU students with a nightclub, and today he connects institutions and funds with property owners. Am I oversimplifying his life? Why, yes I am. But who has the time to talk about David climbing out of debt? Or how he pulled off a $300M record-setting deal with Zara in SoHo? I certainly don’t. And you’re right - it’s a different level of matchmaking when you’re connecting Kaufman Organization with Extell Development for the $200M sale of the Ring Portfolio. I agree. Selling $4B worth of real estate did take ingenuity, creativity, and a whole lot of persistence.

Milain was born in The Democratic Republic of Congo and although he no longer lives there, his life’s mission is to help his country and empower its natives. That’s been the theme across all three companies Milain founded. Milain was driving around Congo one day when he saw a billboard advocating for skin bleaching and it really bothered him, so he created Eben. Eben is a cosmetics brand catering to the specific skincare needs of people of color. He wanted people to embrace their natural skin tone. Eben has been featured in Forbes and Miami Herald, but Milain knew he needed a lot more funding to really scale it. So he started another company in the real estate tech space to pump cash into Eben. This property management and hospitality company, Flashstay, now generates over $1M in annual revenue. But that wasn’t enough. Milain still felt like he could do more to help his country so he partnered with a Nobel Peace Prize recipient to start his third company, called Congo Clothing, to raise awareness for rape and war in Congo. From cosmetics to real estate tech to clothing, this serial entrepreneur has set out to create successful companies that can make a real impact on his country, solving one problem at a time.

Lottie is a holistic nutrition coach for some of the best Olympic athletes around the world. She worked with Tour de France winner Team Sky. She ran multiple triathlons and was on the cover of Triathlete Magazine. She formed partnerships with brands including Equinox, Whole Foods, and Proctor and Gamble. Adidas Runners created a position for her that never existed before. She is now the North America Nutrition Coach for Adidas Runners - and she’s the only one. They fly her around the world. She’s done panels in Austria and workshops in Istanbul, Turkey.

How in the world did Doris go from planning her one-year-old daughter’s birthday party to now, 24 years later, planning hundreds of events a year around the tri-state area?

When Morris was 11 years old, he was the only kid on the block building amusement park models in his attic. After a short stint at IBM in Bentanharbour, Michigan, and Munich, Germany, designing internet-connected home appliances and cars for companies including Whirlpool, BMW, and Allstate, Morris started his own industrial engineering consulting firm and is now building a smart city.

Without having studied fashion or having any prior work experience at a fashion house, how did Gracy Accad, in just four years, become a fashion designer who Martha Stewart said could be the next Monique Lhuillier?

After graduating from NYU Stern, Jake Elias found himself alone in a new city recently fired from 3 different jobs. How did Jake start his own recruiting firm poaching software developers from Google, Uber, and Facebook?

How did a culinary instructor go from teaching to becoming a microinfluencer to creating exclusive high end pop up restaurants?

Inspired by her grandmother, Florence started selling string cheese when she was in high school. Along with her husband Maxie, Florence built a wholesale and retail cheese company called Grandma’s Cheese.

Most of us grew up watching cartoons, but not Raquel. When Raquel was just 6 years old, would pop in workout videos into her VCR. 20 years later she's running Raq That Body a workout lifestyle. In the past 4 years, she's taught thousands of classes.