joshuadorkinIn our latest Meet the Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Joshua Dorkin of BiggerPockets. I’ve known Joshua for many years, since he was one of the early real estate bloggers (in fact, Geek Estate continues to get regular traffic from this post he wrote back in 2006) and we’ve met a couple times at conferences over the years. He is truly one of the class acts of the industry.

Here’s a bit more about him, from his own mouth…

What do you do?

I’m the Founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com, the leading Real Estate Investing Social Network, Information Hub and Marketplace for real estate investors. We have over 125,000 members and 500,000+ monthly unique visitors, along with the top rated real estate podcast on iTunes.

I started the site over 8 years ago with the goal of establishing a credible destination for investors to learn, as at the time I was in need of a supportive community that wasn’t all about the upsell. Since none existed, I thought I’d make my own.

In the end, we’re helping to educate people in all aspects of real estate investing and are providing the essential tools, data, and resources needed to enhance our users’ real estate knowledge, networking, dealmaking, financing, marketing, and much more.

Why do you do what you do?

When I started BiggerPockets, my goal was mostly selfish — I had a few investment properties and needed some assistance with questions that couldn’t be answered by books in the library or bookstores. I quickly found the help I needed from within the community I had just built.

As our community grew and I saw the impact it was having on others, I knew I had found a passion. Over the years, we’ve helped probably millions of investors with their questions, have been responsible for users making deals, have helped others find financing, and have made more business relationships happen then I can count.

I love helping people become successful and I get an incredible amount of satisfaction knowing that we’re having such a large impact on our user’s lives.

What are you most excited about right now?

Our BiggerPockets Podcast has been incredibly exciting for me; it is fun to do, and like the website, the show is making a huge difference in people’s lives. I certainly didn’t expect it to be as popular as it has become in such a short period of time, and I’m humbled by the huge following; I’m very proud that we’ve emerged as the top real estate show on all of iTunes.

Furthermore, I’m looking forward to the coming few years as we begin to work on the next stages of our company. We’ve done a great job with community and content . . . now, we move to take on new challenges.

What’s next for you?

We just launched our Mobile app for iOS, and will continue to build out our mobile presence. Beyond that, we’re looking to build other tools to help investors manage their everyday businesses, to help them do deals, and to find find the capital they need to expand. I believe that BiggerPockets can continue to provide value to our users in a multitude of areas, and I will be working hard to make sure we do so.

Stay tuned for some cool product announcements over the next months.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

Before I got into real estate, I fell into working in Special Ed, and put in 4+ years as a teacher, mentor, and coach to struggling kids. It opened my eyes and helped me realize how much gratification I get from helping others out.

I’ve become really passionate about helping people, and right now that means helping people in the real estate investing sphere. That said, over the years I’ve seen so many people get taken advantage of in this business — particularly by “gurus” and others who purport to be acting in the best interest of newer, less experienced individuals. I’m passionate about helping to educate people how to protect themselves from having the wool pulled over their eyes.

Thanks to Joshua for sharing his motivations and current projects. If you’re interested in connecting with Joshua further, you can find him on Oh Hey World and LinkedIn .

We’ll be featuring other real estate tech entrepreneurs in the coming weeks. If you are an entrepreneur in the real estate vertical (past or present), and want to be profiled, please sign up for an OHW account and add “real estate tech entrepreneurs” as an interest on your profile — then shoot me an email (drew at ohheyworld).