Brandon Sedloff sits down with Dan Carr and Peter Weiss, co-founders of Alpaca Real Estate, for a live conversation recorded at their annual Aspen Real Estate Summit. The two met as analysts at JP Morgan in 2011 and spent a decade building expertise at major institutions before launching their own opportunistic real estate private equity fund in late 2022. What sets Alpaca apart is their commitment to building a technology-first culture from inception, treating their data infrastructure and tech stack as foundational to the investment process rather than an afterthought.
They discuss:
- Why timing mattered when they saw the Fed's rate increases creating a repricing moment in commercial real estate
- How they built a seven-stage deal pipeline with 1,000 transactions cataloged in a proprietary data lake before deploying agentic AI
- Their focus on tailwind asset classes like build-to-rent townhomes and infill industrial, where structural demand drives conviction
- The cultural challenge of technology adoption and why organic buy-in matters more than mandates
- Forward purchase structures that shift construction risk to homebuilders while controlling land upfront
This episode offers a practical look at what it takes to launch and scale an investment platform built on data discipline and institutional-grade operations in a shifting market.
Topics:
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:00) - Recording live at Alpaca's Aspen summit
(00:05:20) - Getting into real estate investing
(00:10:23) - Meeting at JP Morgan in 2011
(00:11:35) - Building the REPEN networking group
(00:12:34) - Post-JP Morgan career paths
(00:15:27) - The 2022 wake-up call from Dan
(00:17:49) - Capitalizing a first-time fund
(00:18:35) - Building technology into the DNA
(00:22:56) - Creating clean data infrastructure
(00:26:55) - Cultural adoption of technology
(00:31:42) - Alpaca's investment focus today
(00:33:45) - Residential and industrial strategies
(00:36:04) - Operating with partners versus direct
(00:38:38) - Closing thoughts for investors
Links:
Dan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-carr-98a0a91b/
Peter on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-weiss-86675635/
Alpaca Real Estate - https://alpacarealestate.com/
Brandon on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsedloff/
Juniper Square - https://www.junipersquare.com/
