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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 65 its wake. Actually, most other companies have scurried to stay alive. Many went down with the economy after the recession hit in 2008, and H&M now stands as the oldest surviving firm of its kind. at stability certainly attracted Weiss, who came to find that her own process of being part of the transaction from end to end closely mirrored H&M's. Weiss herself is no stranger to bold thinking. At the ripe old age of 14 she decided to start her own business, Trixy's Tutors, with which she found a way to franchise herself. She taught sixth-graders to tutor second-graders so that she could simultaneously work and have others working for her. Within a year she was earning more money than her parents. At age 20, while working for Wells Fargo, she noticed the space she came to occupy in the real estate sales and disposition world. While banks and lenders had a role in these sales, they were lacking a critical thing for their clients— speed. Investors in and sellers of distressed properties want to get from finding to closing quickly. e Internet offered a niche for Weiss to fill; a way to combine speed with access and expertise with new ideas. As you may guess, investors for her business were notably hard to convince back in 2007. "Here I was, 20 years old, saying 'Give me money,'" Weiss laughs. Large-scale investors brushed her aside, so she took to crowdsourcing, gathering smaller investments from a large number of venture capitalists who saw the obvious benefits of creating an online property auction empire. Four years after getting her auction site up and running, Weiss has become a major factor in real estate disposition. And she's also realized the value of alliances. Beyond the crackling rightness of her partnership with Webb and H&M is her synergy with the company's president, Mathoda who joined Genesis last year, with an eye toward growing and shaping the future of the company. is blend of values and vision is the core of the partnership between Genesis and Hudson & Marshall that will likely see the companies' combined 150-strong staff grow to 200 or more by the end of this year. is growth, says Weiss, who will serve as CEO, will come from the increased market share each company brings to the merger. No longer will each company be marketing only to its existing clients ‒‒ who've each been looking across the fence at each other from a computer or an auction site ‒‒ they will now have that tech-savvy, multi-channel platform ready for any and all. Under it all, though, keep in mind that the companies came together not because of technology, but because of vision, Webb says. e technology happens to fit the attention to buyer and seller needs. But technology is the vehicle, not the highway. "e way the market is going, we'll definitely be the ones to watch," Weiss says. "I think we're going to redefine the entire industry. Because we're already doing it." P "The game started changing last year, when Weiss and H&M principal David Webb realized that they had a lot more in common than just a few professional contacts. " COVER STORY M ARKET PUL SE SUCCESS FORMUL AS INDUSTRY INSIGHT INDUSTRY INSIGHT

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