Colton worked in asset management, where he saw firsthand how the most sophisticated investors manage their real estate and the inequities in real estate ownership. After several years in investment management, Colton attended business school to start Ownwell and find co-founders. Fortunately for him, Joseph, a computer science Ph.D. candidate, stumbled into the same law school pitch competition Ownwell had entered. A nervous Colton stood up and gave an early-day spiel on how broken the property tax system is across the country. According to Joseph, it was “in Colton’s incredibly aloof and informal fashion.” Despite this, Joseph was captivated, and after the pitch, they hit it off. Ownwell’s mission and value proposition perfectly resonated with Joseph, whose father and grandfather were real estate investors and whose great-grandfather was an actual property tax collector in Lebanon, his home country. For Joseph, joining Ownwell was a serendipitous opportunity to unite his heritage and technical expertise. In the subsequent months, we fleshed out the business plan, launched a sleek Wix website, and won multiple pitch competitions. We used the winnings to acquire our first customers in the spring of 2020. That summer, our third co-founder, Frank, spent his time focused on sales and marketing. Meanwhile, Joseph worked on building data pipelines and generating PDF evidence packets, and Colton handled filing appeals and attending appeal hearings for hundreds of customers by year’s end. Our commitment to our mission has only escalated since then, improving month after month, and continues to do so today.