Ben Kinney

Ben Kinney is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, author, real estate agent, brokerage owner, and co-founder of PLACE, Inc. that started in Bellingham, Washington and now operates across the USA, Canada, and the U.K .[1][2][3] [4][5][6][7][8]

Ben Kinney
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur
Professional speaker
Author
Executive
Real estate agent

He is listed in The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends' top 1,000 agents for 2011-2022.[9][10][11][12] He was the top ranked agent in Washington state in transactional volume for the years 2012-2021.[10][11]

Kinney is the founder of Ben Kinney Companies commonly referred to as "BKCO" which owns and operates the sales divisions, brokerages, training companies, and the technology firms including NVNTD, Blueroof360, Activerain, Automabots, Brivity, and Blossor.[5][6][13][14]

In 2013, NVNTD purchased Big Fresh Media and Tech Help. In 2015 BKCO purchased KWKLY and Activerain from the Zillow Group. In 2017 BKCO acquired the Salt Lake City technology company Blueroof360 and in August, 2017 they also acquired the San Diego based AI company, Automabots.[5]

In 2019, Kinney along with Chris Suarez co-founded the real estate technology platform, Place. In 2021 Goldman Sachs along with 3L invested 100 million dollars into Place at over a Billion dollar valuation.[15][16]

Early life

Kinney was born in Everett, WA on July 24, 1978. He was the second born child to Dorothy Louise Stine and Michael Byron Kinney. He was raised in a small cabin without indoor plumbing or power in Oso, Washington between Bellingham, Washington and Seattle, Washington with his father, Mike Kinney who was a fly fishing guide and wildlife photographer.[3] Kinney graduated from Granite Falls High School in 1997 before obtaining a two year associates degree from Everett Community College. While completing his four year degree at Western Washington University he worked as a cable television installer.[3] He later transitioned into the door to door sales of cable television, telephone and internet services before starting his career in real estate in 2004.[3] In addition to his work in real estate, Kinney is also an entrepreneur and has started several successful businesses. In 2007, he founded ActiveRain, a social networking site for real estate professionals. The site quickly grew in popularity and was acquired by Trulia in 2013.

Kinney has also founded several other companies, including Brivity, which provides software for real estate agents, and Blossor, a health and wellness company.

Today, Kinney is known as one of the top real estate agents in the country, having sold over 5,000 homes throughout his career. He is also recognized as a thought leader in the industry and is a sought-after speaker at conferences and events.

Despite his success, Kinney remains grounded and committed to helping others achieve their goals.[17]

Career

Kinney became a full-time real estate agent in 2004.[3] Kinney later developed the curriculum for an online real estate designation course named IMSD - Internet Marketing Specialist Designation.[18] He sold the curriculum to MarketLeader a publicly traded company acquired by Trulia, but continued to teach classes through the brands Ben Kinney Training, Re8Expo, and Raincamp.

Kinney created two real estate tech startups, Brivity and Blossor.[18][19] He was named the 2014 Innovator of the Year by Inman News.[20]

On June 19, 2015, Zillow Group Announced the Sale of ActiveRain and KWKLY to the Ben Kinney Companies.[21]

Publications

Kinney co-authored Soci@l, an ebook published by Rellek Publishing Partners, with Jay Papasan.[2][22] Soci@l won a bronze award at the 2011 National Association of Real Estate Editors competition.[22]

References
  1. Lawrence Cole (October 28, 2013). "Award-winning Realtor uses social media and technology to drive sales". Washington Times Communities. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  2. Lauren Beale (Jun 16, 2011). "More real estate agents turning to social media". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  3. "30 Under 30". Realtor Magazine. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  4. Marco Pineda. "How to Sell My Houses in Dalla". Dallas Houses for Cash. Retrieved Aug 27, 2020.
  5. Evan Marczynski (Dec 17, 2012). "With new parent firm, Big Fresh Media expands into digital realm". Bellingham Business Journal. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  6. "Business Pulse Magazine". Fall 2012. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  7. "Building for the Future". RISMedia. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  8. Chris Smith (Dec 9, 2011). "Ben Kinney Shares His Secret Sauce: The Business Model Of The Future Is Already Here". inman News. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  9. "REAL Trends 2012 Top Sales Professionals". REAL Trends The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  10. "REAL Trends 2013 Top Sales Professionals". REAL Trends. Archived from the original on 2011-08-01. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  11. "100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders: 2011" (PDF). inman News. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2013. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.
  12. Teke Wiggin (2014-06-19). "Brivity helps agents show clients what they've done to earn their commission". inMan News. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  13. Mary Ann Azevedo (2021-11-17). "Profitable proptech Place raises $100M at a $1B valuation as Goldman Sachs leads its first round of funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  14. Todd Bishop (2021-11-17). "Real estate startup Place comes out of nowhere with $100M round, led by Goldman at $1B valuation". Geekwire. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  15. Ben kinney net worth
  16. "In Blossor & Brivity, Ben Kinney Reinvents Home Selling in the Social Media Era". Seattle 24x7. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  17. Wiggin, Teke (2014-06-30). "'Zillow-killer' Blossor out to conquer natural language search". Inman News. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  18. "Announcing: 2014 Innovator Awards winners". Inman News. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  19. "Zillow Group Announces Sale of ActiveRain to the Ben Kinney Companies".
  20. "Inman News writers win 5 awards". inman News. Retrieved Oct 16, 2013.

Further reading
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