Building the Thesis Driven Database
Our journey to craft the biggest database of active CRE developers and buyers out there, including some new features
Since launching the Thesis Driven Database this past summer, we’ve gotten a great reception from a wide variety of folks looking to reach the real estate industry: vendors and proptech companies as well as capital markets brokers and even some developers themselves on the hunt for co-GPs.
Late last week we rolled out a new feature we’re really excited about: a leadership search function that allows users to sort—and export—lists of individuals rather than firms. We have over 22,000 real estate executives documented in the database, so it’s another useful tool for our subscribers. The new search function enables you to filter by role as well as sector, so you can pull things like:
All acquisitions roles at ground-up multifamily developers;
All accounting and finance roles at urban office owners;
All CTOs at industrial developers.
As I’ve mentioned before, our data isn’t scraped, crawled, or bought—it’s an extension of our editorial efforts here at Thesis Driven. Our very human content team is now updating over 150 developer and owner profiles per day, so we’re always keeping it fresh.
To that end, formed a partnership with Thesis Driven sister company ReZone to provide insights on zoning decisions nationwide through the Thesis Driven developer database. So starting next month, you’ll not just see news articles featuring each developer, but also public filings and zoning decisions of which they’re a part.
Where’s this all headed?
We have a fun list of features planned for next year. One, we’ve begun to actively catalogue LPs and strategic investors to complement our current focus on GPs and owner-operators. This will make what we’re doing far more relevant to the capital markets world. This isn’t very obvious from the site today but we plan to open it up early next year.
We’ll also likely increase the price for new database subscribers in the coming months. We’ve gotten the feedback that our current pricing—$99 per month or $799 for a full year—is too low for what we’re offering. (Our demo conversion rate of above 50% also indicates we’re underpricing.) We’ll grandfather in existing paying subscribers at the old rate, so it might be a good idea to sign up now.
As a reminder, Thesis Driven isn’t venture-backed. In fact, we haven’t taken a dollar of outside capital. For two years we’ve been profitable and entirely self-funded, and we plan to keep it that way on our way to building a thoughtful, future-centered real estate brand. As we kick off 2025, we’re thrilled to have all of you along the journey with us!
—Brad Hargreaves