San Francisco entrepreneur Aaron McDaniel pitched his real estate crowdfunding business Tycoon Real Estate on Shark Tank in 2015. It didn’t go well. “Scammy” and “spooky” were a couple of words thrown by the investors. One (Kevin O’Leary) questioned McDaniel’s integrity by asking if McDaniel has ever been to jail (the answer is no). After the show, McDaniel referred to the “investors” as “entertainers,” and said: “I was baited to create interesting TV.” Meanwhile the real estate crowdfunding market continues to grow.
Since Shark Tank, McDaniel has moved on to build Access Investors Network, an app that lets investors keep track of their crowdfunding investments. Typhoon Real Estate was acquired by a consortium of five crowdfunding platforms lead by Jorge Newbery of American Homeowner Preservation.
