LEX is a team of achievers, and we support their continued efforts to transform the marketplace with low insurance costs

LEX has accomplished what many have tried to do. And we love it when people achieve the seemingly impossible. That's why we were eager to sit down with Drew Sterrett, CEO of LEX, to learn more about what makes LEX stand out among other companies and why it’s a powerful investment opportunity for individuals worldwide.

Many large buildings within the US, for example, the Empire State Building, are multi-billion dollar assets; therefore, nobody can purchase them without being massive corporations with billions to spare. 

LEX changes that by allowing any US investor over the age of 18 to buy units in individual buildings available in their marketplace. 

Consider buying shares as buying bricks of a building.

Non-accredited first-time investors can purchase a ‘brick’ next to three ‘bricks’ owned by massive corporations. 

Most other real estate investment opportunities are not welcoming to potential first-time investors or those unfamiliar with the real estate market, and shares are usually only available in groups of buildings, not individually.

With this analogy, it’s easy to see how LEX levels the playing field for real estate investing.

Drew explained, 

“Anyone can be partners with these massive institutions in assets that they would never be able to buy or purchase in their lifetime. This provides access to an asset class that was only reserved for the wealthiest groups of individuals.”

LEX turns individual buildings across the country into public stocks, and down the line, investors see return when building owners pay quarterly dividends.

That is just one reason LEX is changing the game. 

By enabling anyone over the age of 18 to invest in real estate, Drew, along with co-founders Dean Sterrett and Jesse Daughtery, are democratizing the $20 trillion US commercial real estate market.

That is powerful. 

But, it also comes with risk. That’s where our partnership comes in. 

Drew stated;

“You guys help us greatly along the way by providing even more confidence to both ourselves, the people we work with, and our investors to ensure smooth operations.”

LEX is a team of achievers. And here at Assurely, we continuously look to partner with achievers to support their (and the industry’s) success.

Below is the recent conversation between Drew Sterrett, CEO of LEX, and David Carpentier, CEO of Assurely, where they discuss how LEX is transforming commercial real estate investing for the better, how it feels to start a company with your brother and best friend, and how against all odds, 90% of the time Drew guesses the end to mystery novels.

Can you start by telling us a little bit about the core mission of Lex Markets Corps, and how it's tied to making commercial real estate investing in the world easier?

The core mission of LEX is to empower wealth creation. And to provide access for the first time to own commercial real estate. This access is for anyone, both accredited and non-accredited investors, all the way up to your private wealth managers, and major institutions all being side by side having access to a public and liquid market where anyone can buy, sell and trade institutional, commercial real estate at any point in time from any brokerage account in the US. We created a brand new securities market for commercial real estate, accessible to everyone.

Fractional ownership is a term that is being used a lot lately, especially in entrepreneurial communities. How do you and LEX translate that concept to people who might not immediately know what it means to them or how it could impact them?

Absolutely. I’ll give you a good example of fractional ownership; I'm sitting in the Empire State Building, the Empire State Building is a very, very large building, one of the largest buildings in New York, and it's a multi-billion dollar asset. So no one could really purchase it at any point in time unless you have billions and billions of dollars, which makes you a large financial institution, or group. And so, for the first time, individual investors, and everyone else in the entire capital market, now have the ability to be side by side with those massive institutions that own those billion-dollar assets. Anyone can be partners with these massive institutions in assets that they would never be able to buy or purchase in their lifetime or generations from now. This provides access to an asset class that was only reserved for the wealthiest groups of individuals.

So using the Empire State Building as an example; I could own one of the bricks of the Empire State building and powerful New York financiers own the three bricks next to me?

Correct. And you can know that they own the three big bricks next to you, and you're getting paid a distribution based on the amount of income that the asset is generating, and so you get the percentage of ownership that you'd have in the building. That's the percent of the distributions you would receive, and also the economic upside if the building ever sold.

I heard you started the company with your brother Dean Sterrett and friend Jesse Daugherty, do you remember the moment when you all decided to create LEX? What path did the business take that you could never have imagined when you first thought up your original vision?

The path is a hard question to answer. I would say, one of the things that have changed since those days is, especially those early days, is that people said it was impossible, it had been tried before. Surprisingly enough, now that we've done it several times and continue to succeed no one says it's impossible anymore. I think that's very interesting, right? 

It's interesting, I feel blessed and lucky to have had the opportunities to work with the amazing people we have. And to meet and learn from our investors and other partners. It's been a more amazing opportunity than I could have ever imagined from my growth and learning perspective.

Ok, self-serving question. What role does risk management play into your platform?

Risk management is a major part of our business, and I would say it touches every single part of our business. In addition, as you can imagine, we are a highly regulated entity and a highly regulated space working closely with FINRA and the SEC to qualify every single offering. And we also go through the IPO process, which is third-party due diligence, making sure that all the information is accurate, using third-party audited GAAP financials. So basically bringing your largest institutions to the table to help make sure that everything that we do is to the highest quality and standard. There is not a time that we don't have risk management in mind. It also comes down to sort of our thesis, right? You always have to be able to withstand the drawdown. And in this situation, the drawdown is you have to do it right the first time, it's not just a break it and then fix it situation. You have to put the time and the effort in, you need to have it covered at all points in time. 

You guys help us greatly along the way by providing even more confidence to both ourselves, the people we work with, and our investors to ensure smooth operations. There's only one SEC and one FINRA, you can't go to the other parent, because there is no other parent. So we believe in walking the line. You don't look for the gray area. You don't try to do something where you're not 100% sure you are doing the right thing at any given point in time, which has not always been the mantra of Silicon Valley, for example. But we take a very different approach given the business we're in and also dealing with other people's money.

I heard you love to read. Here at Assurely, we talk a lot about our guilty pleasures when it comes to music. What book or genre would you deem your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure when it comes to genre, especially with books is, I love a good murder mystery. Because you're trying to figure out the problem before the book even gives you the clues.

Or I would say a mystery or a good action thriller. I know it's cheap novels, but they make the New York Times bestsellers because people love them and they love them for a reason. They're really engaging. So that's my guilty pleasure…. It sort of varies between action and mystery thriller.

GOT IT? AND HOW OFTEN DO YOU FIGURE IT OUT BEFORE THE END OF THE BOOK?

Nine times out of ten.