Our Mission
We’re on a mission to simplify CRE transactions
WelcomeLend is a platform that brings the right people, information, and tools together to close deals.
We started WelcomeLend to solve a problem: Commercial Real Estate (CRE) financing is inefficient and fragmented. Borrowers consistently fail to find the right lending source for their deals. Deals that should be funded die due to avoidable causes. Borrowers and brokers lack the proper tools to effectively structure, present, and place deals. Lenders are inundated with deals that are unorganized and often don't match their program criteria.
As a team of seasoned CRE brokers, we felt these pains firsthand and couldn't find the right solution. It became clear to us there was an opportunity to improve CRE transactions for everyone. We decided to scratch our own itch and build software for the borrowers we represent and ourselves.
Since then, WelcomeLend has become a highly sophisticated and automated cloud-based platform that powers every facet of our operation. It tracks tens of thousands of active CRE deals, manages every deal we touch from initial contact through funding, and uses a proven matching algorithm to compare each deal point against our lender database to find the ideal lending source and structure.
Since launching, we've closed over $1B in transactions. Despite extremely challenging markets in 2022, we closed over $440MM. We continue to ruthlessly attack inefficiencies and build the best platform for closing commercial real estate deals.
We believe WelcomeLend will fundamentally change CRE financing....and we're just getting started.
David Schwartz & David Gamache
Our Team
We are a U.S. based team with talented tech employees from around the globe.
David Schwartz
Founder
David is a capital markets and technology executive with 15 years experience leading startups from inception through acquisition. He leads the sales and capital markets teams at WelcomeLend while consistently closing 9 figures in commercial real estate transactions.
Dave Gamache
Founder
Dave is a designer and engineer with over a decade working with startups like Twitter, Netflix, Medium and Dropbox. He runs Product and Design at WelcomeLend, as well as being part owner of Bootstrap, one of the most popular open source projects in the world.
Yevgeny Simzikov
React/Product Engineer
Yevgeny is WelcomeLend’s front end architect for design systems and React. He’s an original member of the team and has scaled an early alpha release to a stable product used daily. He’s also a core team member of the Bootstrap Theme’s team, focusing on code quality and growth.
Sean Borger
Senior VP Capital Markets
Sean is a capital markets specialist with over 10+ years of experience in development, acquisitions, brokerage and financing. He's managed over $220M in development projects providing for a genuine understanding of his client’s capital needs and priorities.
John Young
VP Capital Markets
John has 10+ years of experience across the industry including private equity, architecture & development, and most recently capital markets at Walker & Dunlop with over $600m in financings. He holds both a BBA in Real Estate and Master of Architecture.
Rick White
Associate VP Capital Markets
Rick started his career in investment banking working on mergers and acquisitions, private placements, and syndicated financings before focusing on CRE experience at CBRE. He holds both a BA from USC and a Master in Management and Finance from Duke.
Mark Gallinaro
Senior VP Structured Finance
Mark is an institutionally-trained executive with 13+ years of experience. He worked at one of the largest real estate investment managers, and has been involved over $1B of transactions. Mark received his MBA from UCLA Anderson and BBA from the University of San Diego.
Garrett Newman
Associate VP Capital Markets
Garrett has several years of in depth CRE financial modeling, underwriting, and direct deal execution experience. He has worked at top banks across Texas as a commercial real estate lender placing over $100mm in loans. Garrett holds an MBA from Texas A&M.
Sergey Maksimuk
Lead Engineer
Sergey is a senior full stack engineer with a long history of working on world-class platforms. He prides himself on building stable products with clean code and elegant user experiences. His specialities are Node and React, but has experience with many tech stacks.
Zak Blechman
Senior VP Capital Markets
Zak was previously VP of sales at a private debt fund, where he spearheaded a team that originated $400M in bridge & construction financing, nearly tripling the fund's volume. He personally invests in SFH & Land development and holds a BS in Economics & Supply chain from USC South Carolina.
Chris Jaffe
Senior VP Capital Markets
Chris has 8+ years of CRE experience, most recently with JLL's Capital Markets team, where he facilitated over $1 billion in closes. Prior to JLL, he was a strategic consultant to institutional clients at Cushman & Wakefield. Chris holds a Master's in Real Estate Finance from Georgetown and a Bachelor's in Economics from Vanderbilt.
Jake Ratzker
VP Capital Markets
Jake is a CRE capital markets advisor with 6+ years of experience. Jake previously worked for Meridian and has a strong track record of success closing complex deals. Jake has a degree in accounting from Yeshiva University.
Chris Ford
VP Capital Markets
Chris has 6+ years of CRE experience in acquisitions, asset management, and investment sales. He previously worked for a hospitality-focused private equity firm in Atlanta and was involved in $200M+ in transactions. He holds a Master of Science in Commercial Real Estate degree from Georgia State University.
Ben Finger
SVP Capital Markets
Ben has over 19 years of experience across a multitude of capital market functions. He started his career as an investment banker at JP Morgan where he traded several billion dollars of assets, then went on to a senior position at Northmarq's debt and equity desk. Ben graduated from the University of Texas and received his CFA charter in 2012.
Jamie Talbot
CTO
Jamie is a software engineer and executive with nearly 20 years in the tech industry. A veteran leader at both startups and established companies including StumbleUpon, Medium, Mailchimp, and Axios, Jamie is focused on helping build WelcomeLend's market-leading technology platform.
Rhett Saltiel
VP Capital Markets
Rhett is a seasoned capital markets expert focused on debt and equity with > $1B in CRE transactions under his belt. He previously spent 5 years at Walker & Dunlop working with institutional and middle market clients. Rhett is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in accounting.
Sam Pilevar
VP Capital Markets
Sam has an extensive background as a principal and advisor over last 13 years, participating in well over $1B in transactions. He began his career in investment banking before shifting to lead acquisitions at a handful of middle-market private equity firms. Sam holds a masters degree in finance from Georgetown University.
Ryan Fahy
SVP Capital Markets
Ryan has 8+ years of industry experience, most recently serving as Director of Capital Markets at Greystone, where his team placed over $750mm annually. Prior to Greystone, Ryan spent 3+ years at Walker Dunlop where his team underwrote and placed over $5B in debt and equity. Ryan is a proud UCLA graduate.
Jake Footer
Associate VP, Capital Markets
Jake is an experienced CRE professional with expertise in financial analysis and underwriting. He previously worked at Walker & Dunlop where he focused on nuanced agency financing and provided lending solutions for over $300M in transactions. Jake is a graduate from The Ohio State University where he specialized in Finance and minored in Psychology.
Give us a try
WelcomeLend makes financing your deal easy.
Our capital markets team is 100% focused on finding you the perfect funding source and structure for your commercial real estate deal.