Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Ryan Serhant is an ambitious entrepreneur who never hesitates to think outside the box. That’s how he has managed to reach the level he has, being one of the top-producing real estate brokers in New York without any legacy behind him. The former ‘Million Dollar Listing’ star is even helming Netflix’s ‘Owning Manhattan’ to further expand the reach of his business, which has already done wonders in the market despite being just a few years old. However, this quick rise did leave the question of whether things were slipping away from him in season 2.
Ryan Serhant Has Never Been Afraid of Expansion; He Has Been Afraid of Losing Control
When Ryan established SERHANT as a real estate brokerage all by himself in 2020, he was determined to conquer the real estate world in New York and expand across the nation. However, he had no idea his approach to doing things would be so successful that he would be able to scale to hundreds of employees within a couple of years, and then nearly 1000 by 2025. In fact, he was also able to launch offices in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Yet, since Ryan has always preferred to handle everything alone so as to ensure things are done the right way in his eyes, he has never brought in an executive team. The Founder-CEO did learn how to delegate a lot of work, but he was still always on the move, and it even cost him a lot of precious moments with his growing daughter. As explored in season 2, he did want to be present for her, welcome more kids into the family with his loving wife, and continue expanding the business too, but he knew it would be difficult.
Ryan’s wife also served as a voice of reason for him, pointing out that while she will continue to support him no matter what, he needs a break to actually enjoy his achievements. She even pinpointed that she fell in love with him because of his ambition, boyish charm, and childlike enthusiasm, but she hadn’t seen much of the latter two in him recently because he was so focused on hitting numbers. Faced with even more professional challenges, Ryan broke down at one point in front of his former assistant turned agent Jordan Hurt, and that changed everything. He realized that while he had never previously accepted any investment because he didn’t want to lose control of his company, he might have to give up something to ensure longevity.
SERHANT is Now in Business With Two Venture Capital Firms
When Ryan was approached by someone at Capital Creek to discuss the possibility of investment because they had been following his and the company’s trajectory and were impressed, he was still unsure about what he wanted to do. However, as time passed and Left Lane also came into the picture, he realized it was time for him to make a much-needed change for the betterment of both himself, his personal life, his professional brand, and the brokerage. Therefore, in December 2024, it was announced that his firm had raised $45 million in its first equity funding round from the capital firms Camber Creek and Left Lane Capital.
Most of these funds, though, would go towards developing an in-house app titled S.MPLE, which Ryan has long described as “Instacart for salespeople.” He also asserted in a public statement, “I’m proud to work with two leading venture capital firms, Camber Creek and Left Lane, to build upon the great work our teams have done over the past four years and enable us to further advance and fuel a new future for the real estate industry.” This deal was one he was happy with because it closed more as a partnership rather than anything else.
Since then, S.MPLE has become more than an idea. In an interview with Forbes, Ryan said this app is “an agent orchestration platform that uses artificial intelligence to complete administrative tasks for salespeople. A salesperson who spends 80% of their day doing admin tasks and 20% of their day selling? S.MPLE flips it, so you spend 80% of your day being able to do what only you can do.” In other words, S.MPLE is the gateway for SERHANT to get into the world of AI, and then the world is their oyestor. After all, in the end, Ryan wants his business to build something that is bigger than him in every way.
Read More: Owning Manhattan Net Worths, Ranked: Who is the Richest Agent?
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