Top 10 Real Estate Entrepreneurs To Watch In 2023 These entrepreneurs will significantly impact real estate over the next few years, and we are excited to see what they will bring to the table

The Real Estate sector is an ever-evolving industry, and entrepreneurs are at the forefront of innovation. This article will look at some of the top inspiring real estate entrepreneurs to watch in 2023. These innovators have already made strides in their respective fields. These entrepreneurs will significantly impact real estate over the next few years, and we are excited to see what they will bring to the table. Read on to learn more about these bright minds and why they should be kept on your radar!

Goose McGrath, Dashdot, Global Proptech Solutions

Goose McGrath is an entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host. He is the co-founder and CEO of Dashdot: Australia's 14th fastest-growing technology company and also Australia's leading Property Portfolio Growth Partners, and Global Proptech Solutions: a company transforming the way the world invests in real estate using advanced data and technology solutions. His companies have helped over 1,000 people to start and scale their property portfolios, in just the last 4 years.

He's the host of The Investor Lab podcast and author of Limitless: The Renegades Guide To Building Wealth Through Property. Goose dropped out of high school at 17 to start his first business, organising music festivals and continuing to operate businesses on three continents, serving both the public and private sectors.

In 2018, Goose and his partner Gabi decided to buy an investment property, but successfully bought the wrong property, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and lost a bunch of money. This proved to be a catalyst which set them on a quest to understand and solve the property market and, ultimately, to transform the way the world invests.

Bryan Granum, Beam & Co.

Bryan Granum is a founding principal of Beam & Co., a real estate investment and development firm focused on long-term opportunities that will serve, strengthen, and benefit not only individual communities, but also society as a whole. Prior to starting Beam & Co., Bryan co-founded Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH) in 2012, the nation's premier single-family operator, which owns and manages nearly 80,000 single-family rental homes in 16 markets across the country. His experience, which spans every aspect of the real estate industry, includes time working in the Real Estate Development Group at Rose Associates, in the Real Estate Acquisitions Group at Thor Equities, and in the Fixed Income Division – Securitized Products Group at Morgan Stanley in New York City. Bryan holds a B.S. in accounting from Brigham Young University, and an M.S. in real estate from New York University. He lives in California with his wife and five children.

In addition to a lifelong passion for real estate, Bryan is driven by an innate desire to help others. Bryan's work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation is near and dear to his heart—one of his family's favorite annual traditions is participating in the Foundation's Adopt-A-Wish program, which connects them with another family and allows them the opportunity to make the wish of a child with a critical illness come true. He is also involved with WeHOPE, a Bay Area organization committed to bettering the community by addressing homelessness, hunger, underemployment, and recidivism with services proven to truly support those in need.

Donald Bren, Irvine Company

Donald Bren is a real estate mogul and the chairman and owner of the Irvine Company, one of the largest real estate development corporations in the United States. He was born on May 11, 1932 in Los Angeles, California.

Bren's career began when he purchased the Irvine Company along with two partners. Under his leadership, the company established the largest urban open space network in America and has become one of the most successful real estate investments in history. His empire includes more than 570 office buildings and 124 apartment complexes across California. Bren is known for his philanthropy as well as his business success. He has donated millions to educational institutions such as UC Irvine, UCLA, USC, and Stanford University. He also supports numerous charities including The Nature Conservancy, The Children's Hospital of Orange County, and The Orange County Community Foundation.

Donald Bren is an inspiration to many aspiring entrepreneurs due to his dedication to success and commitment to giving back to society. His accomplishments have earned him recognition from Forbes magazine as America's richest real estate baron.

Mikael Hastrup, PropBidder

Mikael Hastrup is Co-Founder and CEO of PropBidder, a software enabled online bidding marketplace for homes and condos. Through its patent protected platform, PropBidder helps instill greater trust, confidence, and transparency in how we place and receive offers on homes. PropBidder is backed by the Google chairman, former CBRE chairman, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Mikael is also a licensed real estate agent and previously held roles in real estate at The Irvine Company, The New Home Company, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank, as well as real estate technology focused roles at Matterport and Fifth Wall Ventures. He previously founded another startup called BidWorks, a software platform for new home sales that he later sold in 2018 to a Top 5 US homebuilder. Mikael obtained his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and his undergraduate degree from UC Irvine.

In his spare time, Mikael is also a professional level classical musician, and while at Stanford, served as Principal chair double bass of the Stanford Symphony, where he performed Mahler's Symphony No. 1 bass solo with the orchestra.

Michael Kalles, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Limited

Michael Kalles, MBA, is President of Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage. His vision and stalwart leadership are a large part of the continued success of the company. Over the past 31 years, Michael has built the company from $147 million in gross sales to over $4.5 billion in 2021 alone. One of Michael's core values is giving back to the community. Harvey Kalles Real Estate currently supports over 250 charitable organisations.

Douglas Thibault, Property IQ

Doug is a driven and ambitious entrepreneur raised in Weymouth, a small village in Nova Scotia, Canada, and now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. He began his entrepreneurial journey in 2006 when he graduated from St. Mary's University in Halifax with a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing.

Doug is the Founder and CEO of PropertyIQ, a startup real estate data platform that empowers investors and buyers with advanced data insights. Having more than ten years of experience in the real estate data industry, Doug has a wealth of expertise in marketing strategy, data acquisition, and project management. He is dedicated to continuously growing and evolving the business through strategic industry and data partnerships, providing the tools and information needed to make more informed decisions during real estate purchasing.

Jeevan G, Hatch Sri Lanka

Jeevan strives to be an entrepreneurial idea generator like his grandfather late Mr. A. Y. S Gnanam, founder of St. Anthony's Group (SA Group). SA Group is one of the oldest and largest conglomerates which pioneered industrialization in Sri Lanka by manufacturing textiles, building materials, plastic products, industrial fasteners, cement, fiber cement and corrugated roofing sheets.

Jeevan is the visionary behind Sri Lanka's first operational IT Park – Orion City, home to some of the world's leading IT firms. Since its inception in 2008, Orion City has experienced steady growth and has achieved its goal of a 1Mn square feet facility by 2020. After being actively involved in the startup ecosystem Jeevan also co-founded with his wife Brindha Selvadurai-Gnanam Sri Lanka's first and largest incubator, accelerator and co-working space called Hatch. Hatch won the global startup awards as best co-working space in the world and South Asia's regions best Incubator and Accelerator.

Cris Burnam, StorageMart

Since the founding of StorageMart in 1999, Cris and the Burnam family have grown the company into the largest privately-owned self storage provider in the world.

Throughout his tenure with the company, Cris has overseen unprecedented growth and completed over $8 billion in self storage transactions. His accomplishments include bringing over 60 Canadian properties into the StorageMart family in 2008, and expanding into the United Kingdom in 2016 with the acquisition of the fifth largest storage company in the UK. Cris and the executive team acquired Manhattan Mini Storage in 2021, which holds record for largest transaction within the self storage industry.

Over the years, Cris has received many awards and recognitions for his dedication to the self storage industry. However, his greatest accomplishment is building a storage legacy that is worthy of the respect and admiration of family, friends, and business associates.

Adam Steckler, truStorage

Adam Steckler has been forging a path of success in real estate since 2005, most notably operating Manhattan Mini Storage for more than a decade, where he served as VP of Strategy and Analytics, going on to serve as President.

His latest entrepreneurial endeavor in 2022 was launching truSTORAGE, StorageMart's newest third party management business. Through Adam's leadership, truSTORAGE is poised to expand the StorageMart brand, while bringing turn-key self storage business models to existing storage owners and those looking to enter the industry.

Adam serves as President of truSTORAGE and continues to enhance StorageMart's offering to bring the truStorage division to the forefront of the storage industry. His love for people and the storage industry are what helps him guide other storage operators into more profitable facilities for years to come.

Ashley Sweet, Maven Consulting

Ashley Sweet is the Founder of Maven Consulting,, a sales and business development consultancy. Since 2015, Maven has provided invaluable expertise and strategy to leaders in the commercial real estate industry. More specifically, Ashley has been leading the charge in PropTech, where she has helped real estate firms nationally drive digital transformation. She is a leader in the PropTech space through experiences in sustainability, leasing and asset management, and building operations. With Maven, Ashley designs effective go-to-market strategies that allow growing firms to capitalize on their momentum and create lasting revenue streams.

These 10 real estate entrepreneurs have shown great promise and have the potential to do incredible things in the years to come. From sharing their insights on the industry, to investing in new technologies, these individuals are trendsetters who are poised to make a lasting impact on the field. We can't wait to see what they accomplish over the next few years and we look forward to being inspired by them for many more years after that.