Female Entrepreneur Scaling a PropTech Venture with Over $40M in Funding: PunchListUSA CEO Min Alexander (Part 1)

Min tells a wonderful story of building a scaling a PropTech company with significant funding at a $100M+ valuation.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Min Alexander: I was born in Seoul, Korea in the late 70s. I’m a first-generation immigrant. I have an identical twin sister. She’s a doctor. I also have a younger sister who’s also a doctor. We’re a family of five. We literally had two suitcases and we immigrated to Raleigh, North Carolina when my twin and I were five and my little sister was one. I really do feel that this is common for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do for your education?

Min Alexander: I’m a product of public schools my whole life. When we came to his country, we didn’t speak any English. At that time, in Rayleigh, ESL wasn’t built out as it is now. They had to look for a Korean speaking English tutor for us and create a special ESL class because there wasn’t a lot of diversity in my area.

I went to West Millbrook for middle school and then Millbrook High School. For the core of my high school, we moved to South Carolina and I finished at Spring Valley High School. I had a merit scholarship at Duke. I started in 1996. I graduated in 2000. I also went on to MIT for my MBA.

My education wouldn’t be complete without including trade school. When I started transitioning from a consulting corporate background to real estate, I made so many mistakes. I realized I didn’t know enough. A big part of my education has been local licensing schools. First, I got my agent’s license followed by the broker’s license in Massachusetts after three years. Then the second part is general contracting school. That’s an intense course. You have to pass your license.

Sramana Mitra: You live in Massachusetts now?

Min Alexander: I am bi-coastal. I live in Southern California and in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Our company is based in Charleston and we have teams in eight states.

Sramana Mitra: Did you know I’m an MIT alum as well?

Min Alexander: I did.

Sramana Mitra: When does the journey with PunchList start?

Min Alexander: It’s a journey rooted in real estate. I’m actually a failed pre-med. My sisters followed very traditional and encouraged tracks in medicine. I was pre-med for four years. In my senior year, all my engineering friends were going for these exciting job interviews for consulting and banking. Knowing my personality and what I wanted to do, it dawned on me that I wasn’t the best that a patient would need.

There were realizations that I had on what was going to be the most purposeful path. Business just drew me. I was in consulting for two years. I joined Accenture or Anderson Consulting at that time. I joined their strategy group in Atlanta. There was such immense learning. For anyone who is starting out early and just wants a foundation for the business, it’s a grind.

But for people interested in Consulting and investment banking and finance type of field, you not only learn the subject matter but also learn polish and presence to interact with stakeholders. That was probably the biggest learning that I had. I got to a point where the travelling component didn’t fit with what I wanted to have in terms of family and lifestyle.

Very early on, when we first moved to Boston, Central Square was up and coming. I had a little bit of equity from my work at Accenture. I was able to invest in real estate. Quickly, it dawned on me that the rental rates were double what the mortgage payment was. Anyone can get started in real estate. The value that you create is within your hands. This was very appealing to me. That’s how it started.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Female Entrepreneur Scaling a PropTech Venture with Over $40M in Funding: PunchListUSA CEO Min Alexander
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