Hire Me

Folks, I’m asking for your help. You can skip to the last section for specifics. Thanks in advance!

Birth of Broke

Three years ago, life never looked more promising. I was living in Brooklyn. My never-ending divorce was ending, I thought. Things were great with my two sons. I had an impressive new girlfriend. I was fit as hell, running a 5:23 mile at the Brooklyn Mile that June. And I enjoyed a reputation as a top global real estate authority with a network reaching the highest elevations of economic power and influence. At 43 years, I felt like I was starting life anew, and there was no limit to what was possible.

In true Icarian fashion, my elevated feelings were preludes to a fall. The divorce did not end. Access to my children was removed. The nifty girlfriend had a secret identity. And when my personal life — always intertwined with my professional life — unraveled, my vaunted network wanted nothing to do with me. In the loneliness and despair of my ordeal, I lashed out, letting forth a public and private torrent of accusations — ones I previously sugar-coated or concealed — at some of the world’s most rich and powerful people.

Me and my sons in early 2019 before shit hit the fan.

Initially, my voice was too filled with hurt and rage to hear. Despite my semi-coherence, everything I attacked and was trying to change — a lack of affordable housing, continual investing in ludicrous startups, systemic political corruption, truth in media, a lack of climate forbearance — kept happening in real time. I knew the war I was waging was a worthy one, so I kept changing tactics, hoping to find the one that would land a decisive blow. In these last three years, I dealt many blows, writing, interviewing, and pushing startups that brought truth— and provided practical alternatives —to the broken status quo. I’m not done by a longshot, but I could really use outside support to keep me going.

Some 2021–2022 highlights:

• My 2021 interview on Dwellings, the podcast of the City of San Jose California’s housing department.
• A 2021 piece I co-wrote with Lou Cespedes in the Brooklyn Paper, “The City that No One Asked For.”
• A 2022 piece I wrote in Propmodo, “The Problems Keeping Us From Tapping Real Estate’s Full Potential.
• A 2022 opinion piece in Boulder, Colorado’s Daily Camera, “When did Boulder stop caring about equitable, sustainable housing?”

Fulfilled, but Broke

My sloppy early attacks, as well as subsequent eloquent ones, made me a host of haters in the small, but powerful real estate development and property tech investing industries — I was also blackballed by the media channels that maintain those industries’ credibility. On a practical level, this situation made it nearly-impossible to land consulting clients, my main source of income since 2016. And I’ve been unable to secure funding for my two main startups, the Change Order Group and Run Haus, despite the firepower of the former or the important mission of the latter. I applied for a number of jobs in my industry, but most didn’t even acknowledge my application. All of this is a shame, because I’ve never been more on top of my game than I am now.

Without clear direction and money, I’m doing what I do best: write and communicate. In this case, I’m not communicating about drowning real estate or wasted venture funding, but about my own underwaterness and lack of funding. In the interest of doing something about that, I’m asking for YOUR help (yes, you). The following are a few practical ways you can do that.

• A donation. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please consider donating some money to my cause, which will keep me fed and housed while I do my thing. Donations can be in any amount, though ones over $50 will add up faster than the $10 ones. Venmo is @deepfriedlander (same as Twitter and Instagram).
• On spec editorials/op-eds/posts. Got an issue you want written and pushed out into the public sphere? I can help. I’m currently writing a piece entitled, “The False Dichotomy Fueling the YIMBY/NIMBY Feud,” but am open to other topics. I am tuned in with global real estate markets, but am especially intimate with the intricacies and characters in New York, California, and Colorado markets. Price for an editorial is negotiable, but higher than a donation, the higher priority it will get, as these things take time to craft and pitch.
• Consulting. My main jam is research-based real estate innovation, trend, market, and communications consulting. I’m open to all scales of scopes.
• Jobs. I’m open to the right organizational position. Lately, I’ve been looking mostly in the web3 real estate world, owing to the deeply rooted inefficiencies and corruption that plagues mainstream funding. Areas of authority include market future-casting, coliving, coworking, modern methods of construction (MMC), climate adaptive real estate, social housing, micro-housing/tiny homes, affordable and homeless housing.
• Investors. I have two startups waiting to be global brands.

If you’re interested in any of the above propositions, please contact me via my contact link on Linktree, Twitter, or Instagram. I encourage you to not do what I did for my first 43 years and assume your contribution doesn’t make a difference. I can and it will.

With love and thanks.

David