Cofounder, CEO @_TurboHome and @BuildCasa. Tweets about housing, policy, and startups. Prev CEO @ Spin (acquired by @Ford) + VP Revenue @ Vungle (Nasdaq: LFTO)
Oakland, CA
Joined December 2009
- Tweets5.8K
- Following1.3K
- Followers8.2K
- Likes48.2K
Pinned Tweet
Existing real estate apps like Zillow are great for searching for homes, but homebuyers can't actually take action because their business model involves selling leads to agents. We built @_TurboHome so that we control the entire transaction which allows us the redesign the experience from first principles with the homebuyer at the center.
Today we're rolling out our new buyer app which gives our customers direct access to world class AI tools with their expert real estate agent in the loop for the entire journey. A few things you can do with 1 click:
- Find properties
- Run a valuation
- Schedule tours
- Query live MLS data for insights
- Draft offers
- Chat with your agent
Available on web, mobile, and iMessage at app.turbohome.com
Ben Bear retweeted
One of the glaring flaws in our system: nobody knows what they’re voting for.
Prop 38 reads to everyone as “should we cure cancer”. Therefore if you vote yes, you are good. If you vote no, you are evil.
The reality is everyone just voted to give 3 guys 4 billion dollars.
The only open question tonight is whether Matthew Mcconaughey somehow shows up on stage at Talarico victory party. 50/50 odds.
Ben Bear retweeted
nobody is using web UIs anymore
introducing the Ployee slack bot
- cook up new pages for customer marketing, case studies, videos
- AB test pages, calculate ROAS, and attribute leads
- collaborate with your team members in shared channels
- or just have ploy ask Devin/claude tag what it can do together! (pretty fun to watch agents talk to agents)
Ben Bear retweeted
Congrats to the new WNBA champs, the @Valkyries! Ballhalla was rocking all season, and this team was fun to watch. Enjoy the celebration.
Fascinating podcast on the key drivers behind Weil’s collapse. Even with $5M in profits per partner, law firms are uniquely susceptible to run on the bank style collapses for a few reasons:
- law firms can’t raise equity capital and almost all profits are distributed to partners at the end of the year so there’s not a ton of cash on hand relative to revenue
- legally firms can’t force clients to stay with them when a rainmaker like Michael Aiello leaves
- relative profit per partner matters much more than absolute profit because if another firm is paying rainmakers more in a given practice area, there’s a strong incentive to jump ship
- there’s strong game theory to not be the last partner to leave because up to 2 years of partner equity can be clawed back to pay creditors if the firm winds down
- fixed costs like offices in prime locations and lines of credit are long term obligations while partners can leave at any time
youtu.be/vJiT4qeKAWg?is=R67g…
Ben Bear retweeted
Our society is being torn apart by the inability of many Americans to buy their own homes, yet the federal government taxes developers who build new, for-sale homes at much higher rates than it taxes developers who build rentals.
Ben Bear retweeted
This is the GPT-3 moment for housing.
Ben Bear retweeted
Introducing Demonstration House 2.
Our first home built with our completely redesigned building system, engineered for automated manufacturing and rapid assembly.
Demo 2 – Proto Town, TX
- 2 Bed
- 1.5 Bath
- 1 Office nook
- 1,100 sqft
How we got here... 🧵
Ben Bear retweeted
I've been working on something.
For the last two years, I've wanted to build something that captures the way urbanism is really part of something bigger.
A bigger-tent category around building better places.
Today, I'm launching BUILDPLACES.
🧵
Ben Bear retweeted
Slowly the suddenly!
Very cool to see TurboHome’s market share 10X in the last year as buyers learn they can use their $30K rebate to make their offer stronger and unlock a 50% offer win rate.
Amid all the interest rate doom and gloom nationally, the Bay Area housing market is as competitive as we’ve ever seen.
Buyers are looking for every edge they can get in a market where the average home receives 4-6 offers.
We still have a long way to go. Tech enabled models that provide savings to the customer have 1% market share vs 50% in tax preparation.
It’s hard to imagine that share wont continue to grow as AI models continue to improve and buyers look to benefit from the efficiency created.
Very cool to see TurboHome’s market share 10X in the last year as buyers learn they can use their $30K rebate to make their offer stronger and unlock a 50% offer win rate.
Amid all the interest rate doom and gloom nationally, the Bay Area housing market is as competitive as we’ve ever seen.
Buyers are looking for every edge they can get in a market where the average home receives 4-6 offers.
We still have a long way to go. Tech enabled models that provide savings to the customer have 1% market share vs 50% in tax preparation.
It’s hard to imagine that share wont continue to grow as AI models continue to improve and buyers look to benefit from the efficiency created.
Ben Bear retweeted
New pod drop!! Took a stroll around sunny San Francisco with Bryant Chou (@bryantchou). My first impressions - Bryant is very articulate, fun, chill, and fashionable! After 13 years as a co-founder and CTO at Webflow, he left to start over solo at 40, went back through Y Combinator, and raised a $27M seed.
We talk about:
- Leaving Webflow after 13 years, decided in a single day
- Doing YC again at 40: “I’m scared shitless”
- Building in 2013 VS 2026
- His grandfather, left for dead in a morgue → “Keep going, Bryan”
- 20 → 40 → 100 → 800 employees: the last question his grandfather asked
- Why a healthy fear of death has him wing foiling after 14-hour days
and so much more!
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Bryant Chou, Co-Founder of Webflow & Founder of Ploy
(01:46) What running Webflow's marketing team taught a CTO
(03:05) "Slurping" your website into a brand design system
(07:35) Deciding to leave Webflow in a single day
(11:08) Going after the 99% of websites not on Webflow
(12:34) Turning your website into your hardest working employee
(13:41) Scared of 20-year-old founders and doing YC again
(14:30) Building a startup in 2013 VS 2026
(18:04) Why a 40-year-old third-time founder went back to YC
(20:16) Demoing Ploy cold after his son's baseball game
(24:31) His grandfather's escape from a wanted list in Taiwan
(35:41) 996, FOMO, and the San Francisco rat race
(40:10) Relearning founder mode
(50:58) Running three teams through Covid with two kids under two
(58:00) The redemption he's chasing with Ploy
