Chris Spoke’s Post

I've been working in real estate development in Toronto for just over five years now—first as a Development Manager for a midsized firm and now on my own. I've learned a lot in that time but still have to regularly reach out to the architects, engineers, lawyers, lenders, and planners I work with for quick answers to simple questions. There's just so much to know! And that's all before getting into actual construction. To be a developer is to oversee a team of specialists across multiple domains, which requires that you too understand these domains. I've found that group chats with other developers are another useful way to get quick answers to simple questions. After all, most of the issues I'm dealing with on a daily and weekly basis have been successfully dealt with in the past. It's not an exaggeration to say that I've saved many thousands of dollars on many occasions thanks to a text from a friend along the lines of "oh yea, we had to deal with that at bla bla bla address.. this is how we did it". With that in mind, I think there should be more and better knowledge sharing in this industry. Last year I launched the Missing Middle Summit (https://lnkd.in/gugZz6cr) to start pulling those of us who are interested in missing middle-scale development together for a full-day event. It was a big success. I've learned of no less than 17 people who've since done some business with someone they met at the event. That's wild, and a great start. I think that we need to keep the conversation going throughout the year though. Specifically, I'm thinking about launching a private community exclusively for real estate developers. This would be a space for us to trade notes on our projects, ask each other questions, share our experiences, and so on. It would also be a space for us to find our next employee or job, our next partner or backer, maybe our next deal. I think it could be cool. What do you think? Would you join such a community? (Note: it wouldn't be free.) If yes, comment below or send me a message and I'll share some more of what I have in mind.