The Ownwell Origin Story
Colton worked in asset management, where he saw firsthand how the most sophisticated investors manage their real estate and the inequities in real estate ownership. After several years in investment management, Colton attended business school to start Ownwell and find co-founders. Fortunately for him, Joseph, a computer science Ph.D. candidate, stumbled into the same law school pitch competition Ownwell had entered. A nervous Colton stood up and gave an early-day spiel on how broken the property tax system is across the country. According to Joseph, it was “in Colton’s incredibly aloof and informal fashion.” Despite this, Joseph was captivated, and after the pitch, they hit it off. Ownwell’s mission and value proposition perfectly resonated with Joseph, whose father and grandfather were real estate investors and whose great-grandfather was an actual property tax collector in Lebanon, his home country. For Joseph, joining Ownwell was a serendipitous opportunity to unite his heritage and technical expertise. In the subsequent months, we fleshed out the business plan, launched a sleek Wix website, and won multiple pitch competitions. We used the winnings to acquire our first customers in the spring of 2020. That summer, our third co-founder, Frank, spent his time focused on sales and marketing. Meanwhile, Joseph worked on building data pipelines and generating PDF evidence packets, and Colton handled filing appeals and attending appeal hearings for hundreds of customers by year’s end. Our commitment to our mission has only escalated since then, improving month after month, and continues to do so today.
The Executive Team
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Colton Pace
Joseph Noor
Chang Fu
Caroline Riley
David Holyoak
Priyanka Gupta
Perks of Working at Ownwell
Entrepreneurial Culture
Own your career; we are here to support you on your journey.
Flexible PTO
We believe in giving you the flexibility to own your time off. In addition to flexible time off, you get 11 company holidays. We offer the last week of the year to recharge and reset.
Comprehensive Health Benefits
We care for you and your family’s health, as reflected in our benefits coverage.
Licensing and Renewal
As applicable complimentary real estate and tax consulting licensing and renewal.
Learning Stipend
Learning support through a $1,000 stipend per year to enable investing in your individual learning needs.
Support Parental Journey
We offer up to 16 weeks of fully paid parental and bonding leave to support your journey as a new parent.
Our Austin based headquarters is located on the west end of downtown Austin.
Life at Ownwell
Ownwellians cultivate an environment of highly effective, extraordinary people pursuing ambitious common goals. We foster collaboration, embrace diversity, support sharing, and discourage politics. We hire and develop team members to ensure we have superstars in every position. We win together and continuously strive to help others succeed.
Our Benefits
Ownwell supports employee coverage costs up to 100%.
Medical
Dental
Vision
Wellness
Other Insurance
Savings Accounts
By the Numbers
$88 Trillion
Worth of Real Estate in the US
$16.2 Trillion
of Real Estate Debt in the US
$766 Billion
Paid Each Year in Property Taxes
$257 Billion
Paid in Real Estate Insurance Each Year
The Ownwell Solution
Ownwell's mission is to make the costs of real estate more clear and equitable. Our proprietary software automatically identifies property owners that are overpaying on real estate expenses and makes it easy to find and achieve more savings. We were founded on the premise that real estate, especially real estate taxes, are complex and difficult to manage. Property taxes are the second largest expense associated with real estate ownership. This year alone, over $1 trillion will be paid in property taxes, yet 95% of property owners in the United States pay their property tax bill, no questions asked. Our product started by managing the end-to-end process of reducing these tax bills through appeals and protests. We use the best data available combined with automation and an intuitive user experience to deliver value to each customer, all at scale.
In 2023 we brought several new products and services to market. Whether it's helping real estate owners find and acquire exemptions, providing insights into their properties tax trends or preparing for the future with our tax bill projections, we're bringing more value to Ownwell customers every day.