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C O V E R S T O R Y / S O N Y A M A N N
Maybe it sounds like the beginning of a joke: A retired NFL
pro and a software engineer start a company together. Wait,
two companies, one after the other! But nope, that's just reality.
Former football placekicker Doug Brien and engineering
consultant Colin Wiel first joined forces to create Waypoint
Homes (now part of Colony Starwood), partially in response to the 2008
financial crisis. Home prices were crashing, and the catastrophic low seemed
like the right time to ramp up their real estate investments. e pair started with
their own money, then went to banks and private equity firms for more.
Wiel said he and Brien "were both
talking about this same idea, of buying
single-family homes as a long-term real
estate investment, as a rental property. at
hadn't really ever been done at scale before
we did it with Waypoint."
e company grew to hundreds of
employees and billions of dollars' worth
of properties under their management.
Eventually, Waypoint merged with
Starwood Property Trust and went public.
But after a year on the NYSE, Wiel
departed, followed by Brien in early 2016.
Both men longed for the exhilarating
challenge of building an early-stage
company.
STARTING OVER
Last year Brien and Wiel launched
Mynd as co-CEOs. eir new venture is a
A former NFL player and a software
engineer are teaming up to alter the property
management industry for the long haul.
