Onward, a Fundrise Production

On the latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Ali Wolf, Chief Economist at Zonda and one of the smartest people we know for analyzing and understanding housing and the economy. As we’re still in the early weeks of 2024, Ben and Ali’s conversation focuses on lessons learned from the past year, when a confluence of factors resulted in an economic period that still demands att...

In this final Onward episode of 2023 co-hosts Cardiff Garcia and Fundrise CEO Ben Miller kick things off by discussing Ben’s major market call: The conclusion that the real estate market has hit bottom. After 18 months of escalating interest rates punishing the real estate industry, small businesses, and regional banks, we’ve entered a new period where we expect the move to falling rates to propel...

In the modern tech landscape, there are few topics more critical — or, unfortunately, more frequently overlooked and misunderstood by laypeople — than data security. Luckily Vanta has developed a revolutionary solution for how other companies can address the problem of data security compliance, with enormous subsequent benefits for how those businesses can operate safely — and access new market sh...

People outside of the real estate investment industry may be unaware, but the market is currently navigating a period of turbulence comparable to what it experienced during the 2008 financial crisis, with cap rates and pricing down as much as 50%. In this episode of Onward, co-hosts Ben and Cardiff look at some behind-the-scenes market data that Ben has been analyzing, thanks to his on-the-ground...

Rick Caruso’s real estate projects have defined how a generation of LA residents live in and experience the city. When you truly collaborate with communities, Rick explains, you get more than reliable financial success — you get momentum behind your project, you get political capital, and you get the satisfaction that comes from knowing people appreciate and enjoy the spaces you’ve contributed to...

As our host, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller, observes in this latest episode of Onward, the amount of hype surrounding AI has become extraordinary… to the point that it’s become difficult for many people to distinguish the reality of its potential from vaporware. Luckily, coinciding with the Fundrise Innovation Fund’s investment in Theory Ventures, we have the opportunity to chat with Tomasz Tunguz, Theo...

As artificial intelligence has dominated headlines over the past year, it’s become increasingly critical for everybody to understand AI, due to its likelihood to impact each and every one of us. In this latest episode of Onward, join Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia for a conversation that aims to reveal some of the big picture ideas driving AI’s current growth, along with the po...

In our latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by David Carmen, founder of the Carmen Group and one of the top lobbyists in the nation. He has worked on some of the most important issues of the past nearly half century — from 9/11 to Softbank’s $22B acquisition of Sprint. With increasing polarization and political dysfunction, many may feel that our democracy is at risk. Most p...

In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia give us a tour of the economic landscape that was once the status quo: a world where local lending institutions called S&Ls — or thrifts — were the primary way individuals saved for and financed home ownership. However, due to a confluence of events, including rocketing inflation similar to the past 18 months’...

In the latest episode of Onward, Ben and Cardiff work through one of the most confounding questions currently poised for the economy: What do we make of two seemingly contradictory data sets, where one is telling us that the economy is generally healthy, while the other says we remain precisely on track for a full-blown recession, according to all historical precedent? This source of cognitive dis...

Noreen Harrington’s background in finance has involved working on everything from running Treasuries for Goldman Sachs to helping manage the creation of the Euro. In this latest episode of Onward, she joins Fundrise CEO Ben Miller to help us better understand why the upcoming debt ceiling crisis in the United States is a serious threat to economic stability. Today, there are a number of macro cros...

If you’ve listened to Onward regularly, you know that Fundrise’s CEO Ben Miller has been a perennial contrarian when it comes to assessing the outlook for the economy, especially as markets have overheated and behaved irrationally. So, this latest episode of Onward might surprise you, as Ben gives the floor to co-host Cardiff Garcia, who treats us to a fundamentally different perspective — a full-...

In this bonus episode, our host Ben Miller interviews a special guest, the science writer Amanda Gefter, to discuss some of the most intriguing and consistently mind-blowing ideas from her book about cutting-edge physics and cosmology, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn. Departing from Onward’s usual topics — the economy, what’s happening in the markets, and Fundrise — Ben asks Amanda to explore a few...

In the weeks since Silvergate, Signature, and Silicon Valley Banks’ respective failures, observers around the world have found ways to classify each collapse as the result of specific, isolated circumstances. But our hosts at Onward see something much different: a systemic, likely global crisis in the financial markets, playing out very close to what we projected in our November 2022 episode, “ Th...

In the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last week, Onward host and Fundrise CEO Ben Miller sits down for an interview with the economist and trader Rob Johnson, one of the most experienced investors in the world at the fault line of government and finance. Having served as a Managing Director of the Quantum Fund, Chief Economist of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and currently as presiden...

When it comes to ambitious investing, many people make the mistake of chasing glory and fame — at the expense of sound judgment and real financial results. But not Ira Lubert, chairman and co-founder of Independence Capital Partners and Lubert Adler Partners, and the guest on our latest episode of Onward. Ira has instead spent decades content to stay out of the limelight, while architecting a fami...

Mind games and “dirty term sheets.” These are the kinds of potential pitfalls that await tech entrepreneurs and employees in the financial landscape of 2023, especially those particularly in need of fresh infusions of venture capital. In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller walks co-host Cardiff Garcia through another set of fascinating — if often unforgiving — complexities arisi...

Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Schecky Schechner, Managing Director and Co-Head of US Real Estate Banking at Barclays Capital, for a wide-ranging and technically insightful conversation in this latest episode of Onward. As Ben points out, Schecky is credited as one of the co-inventors of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) in the wake of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s, a securi...

In the latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller gives us the opportunity to listen in on a conversation with one of the most experienced and influential figures in real estate today: Steve Ross, the largest real estate developer in the world. In addition to being the co-founder and chairman of RSE Ventures and owning the Miami Dolphins, Steve is the chairman and founder of Related Compani...

In anticipation of the upcoming publication of Fundrise’s 2022 year-end letter to investors, CEO Ben Miller is once again joined by Kendall Davis, Head of Investor Relations and Investor Operations, for an in-depth analysis and conversation about the Fundrise portfolio’s 2022 performance.  This episode is indispensable to any listener interested in better contextualization of and perspective on ou...

Join your Onward co-hosts, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and Cardiff Garcia, to wrap up 2022 in the same way we started it : with a session of scenario planning.  Ben and Cardiff each share their predictions for what the next year might bring, including possibilities that are both very likely and, admittedly, a little more far afield. We learn the premise and implications of the “80/20 rule” for inflati...

Join Ben Miller, CEO of Fundrise, for a conversation with a very special guest on this episode of Onward: Larry Silverstein is the founder and chairman of Silverstein Properties, the owner-developer of the World Trade Center, along with a remarkable portfolio of other major properties that have defined New York City life and the Manhattan skyline for decades.  The interview gives us a tour of both...

This week, we have a special treat from Onward: our first bonus episode, dedicated entirely to discussing and answering important questions about Fundrise, sourced directly from Fundrise investors. Kendall Davis, head of investor relations and investor operations, joins Ben Miller, Fundrise CEO, to share some of the topics on our investor community’s minds. As always, discussing Fundrise is just a...

For months, the hosts of Onward — Ben Miller, Fundrise CEO , and Cardiff Garcia — have discussed the many ways that the current, high inflation environment will impact the broader economy and behavior of investors. In this latest episode, Ben brings a brand new idea to the table: a specific theory outlining how our financial system is on the verge of real crisis and potential collapse . Join us to...

In this month’s episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Ben Carlson, Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, for a wide-ranging discussion that offers fresh, critical thoughts on the state of the market, plus new perspective on our current moment in financial history. Ben C’s additional experience as an author of multiple books and co-host of his o...