Adam Pollack

A press release issued by Accept.inc in June 2021 states that the company was founded in 2016 by Y Combinator alumni Adam Pollack, Nick Friedman, and Ian Perrex and is headquartered in Denver, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry; Built In Colorado’s article of June 24, 2021, likewise states that the three founded it in 2016. Y Combinator’s company page lists Thom Adams, Nick Friedman, and Adam Pollack as the founders.⁠[1][2][3]

TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is an American technology news outlet founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare and headquartered in San Francisco; it mainly covers technology companies, startups, and venture capital, and hosts events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Its ownership passed successively through AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo, and in 2025 Regent announced its acquisition.Open the full entry’s June 2021 article writes that he and Nick Friedman met in college and set out with the goal of “turning every offer into a cash offer”; he said they “failed for two years,” becoming an “encyclopedia of 1,000 ways” the idea would not work. CBSCBSCBS is an American commercial broadcast television network. It was founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and grew from a radio network into a television network under William S. Paley. With ABC and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it has been owned in turn by Westinghouse, Viacom, ViacomCBS and Paramount Global, has been owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation since 2025, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry Colorado’s December 2020 report states that he founded the company with two other co-founders while they were in college.⁠[4][5]

Drive Capital’s biography states that he left college to co-found a fintech startup in Denver, Colorado, which he calls a “six-year, ‘overnight’ success story”; the company took him to Y Combinator and the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry and was eventually acquired by its biggest competitor. Accept.inc’s October 2020 press release states that the founders chose to build and grow the business in Denver not only to support their mission of creating a truly universal cash offer that could serve a wide range of buyers and price points, but also because of the city’s rapidly growing technology and venture ecosystem.⁠[6][7]

Y Combinator’s company and founder pages show that Accept.inc (formerly BoardRE) belongs to Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 (W19) batch; Accept.inc’s October 2020 press release states that both he and Nick Friedman took part in that cohort. TechCrunch’s 2021 article writes that the team came up with the “iLender” concept while going through Y Combinator in winter 2019: the company first buys the house with its own cash and, once the buyer’s loan is ready to close, sells it back to the buyer without additional cost or fees.⁠[3][8][7][4]

HousingWire’s article of June 4, 2019, writes that the Denver-based BoardRE announced its launch in Colorado that day, with him as co-founder and CEO and Nick Friedman as co-founder and COO. The company buys a home in an all-cash deal for a buyer it has approved for a mortgage and, when the loan is set to close, sells the home to the buyer at the same price and lends the buyer the money, in a process of two weeks or less; the buyer pays no additional cost, and the company earns its revenue from the origination fee. The article states that the company had already completed several transactions.⁠[9]

The same article writes that BoardRE had just closed its first funding round, raising $7 million in debt and equity from investors including Y Combinator, Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry’s 1517 Fund, Global Founders Capital, DN Capital, and SignalFire founding partner Ilya Kirnos, and would use the money to launch in the nation’s most competitive real estate markets. The article cites RedfinRedfinRedfin is a Seattle-based real estate brokerage and home-search platform that launched in 2004 as a map-based listings site and grew into an online brokerage that employs its own agents and attracts customers with low commissions; it listed on Nasdaq in 2017. On July 1, 2025, Rocket Companies completed its acquisition of Redfin, which became a wholly owned subsidiary and was delisted.Open the full entry data that cash buyers are 97% more likely than mortgage buyers to win in a multiple-offer situation and often receive a 5% discount off the asking price compared with mortgage buyers.⁠[9]

At the launch he said: “Our goal is to ensure our borrowers can compete effectively with all-cash buyers,” and: “Board is built to allow anyone, whether it’s a first-time homebuyer with 5% down or Silicon Valley engineer.” National Mortgage Professional’s article of June 6, 2019, also quotes him: “We are building a fairer, cash-only future of real estate.”⁠[9][10]

RealTrends’ article of June 21, 2019, writes that the Colorado mortgage company launched in spring 2019 after completing its first round of venture funding and had three closed deals, about 20 new buyers in Colorado, and a waitlist for other states; it sells its loans to mortgage investors such as Fannie MaeFannie MaeFannie Mae, formally the Federal National Mortgage Association, is a government-sponsored, stockholder-owned corporation chartered by the U.S. Congress and based in Washington, D.C. It does not lend directly to borrowers; it buys home mortgages from lenders and packages them into mortgage-backed securities it guarantees and sells to investors. Established in 1938 as a federal government entity, it became a privately owned shareholder company in 1968. It has been in conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) since September 2008 with financial support from the U.S. Treasury, and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. Since 2025 FHFA director Bill Pulte has also chaired its board. At September 30, 2026, its guaranty book of business was $4.1 trillion and its net worth $119.6 billion.Open the full entry, earning 1 to 2 percent of the loan amount, and its loan officers are salaried rather than paid on commission. The article writes that Nick Friedman acknowledged that the company takes on more risk than a traditional lender, since a pre-approved borrower may still fail to qualify for a mortgage. Accept.inc’s June 2021 press release states that the company began transacting under its current model in mid-2019.⁠[11][1]

On July 10, 2019, the Thiel Foundation announced its 2019 class of 22 Thiel Fellows, each of whom receives $100,000 over the two-year program along with mentorship from the foundation’s network of technology founders, investors, and scientists. He is item 1 on the list, with Oyster Bay, New York, as his hometown and Denver, Colorado, as his current location, in real estate and financial technology, with BoardRE as his project; the announcement describes BoardRE as a mortgage company that upgrades any offer to a cash offer, aiming to give buyers who qualify for a mortgage a better chance of winning their dream home.⁠[12]

Accept.inc’s October 2020 press release states in his biography that he was “recently named a Thiel Fellow.”⁠[7]

On October 7, 2020, the fintech lender announced in a press release that it had changed its name from BoardRE to Accept.inc, saying that the new name reflected its mission of improving buyers’ chances of having their offers accepted in a housing market that increasingly presents multiple-offer situations. As co-founder and CEO he said: “We’re solving a two-sided problem for consumers,” explaining that sellers want the speed and certainty of cash while buyers can usually afford a loan but often lack the cash to buy outright.⁠[7]

The release states that the company was expanding its headquarters in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood to nearly 6,000 square feet, had more than 34 full-time employees, a five-fold increase year over year, and planned to hire experienced loan officers, transaction managers, and software engineers; more than $100 million in homes had been bought and sold on its platform, the business was on pace for well over 1,000% year-over-year growth, and it operated only in Colorado. The release also states that in single-offer situations buyers using its cash offers received an average discount off list price three to four times that of buyers submitting mortgage offers.⁠[7]

The executive biographies in the release state that he shapes the company’s strategy and product development and is a licensed loan officer in Colorado and TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry.⁠[7]

CBS Colorado’s report of December 18, 2020, writes that Accept.inc was then in its first full year of business, was backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, operated in the Denver metro area, and planned to expand to other markets nationally; its business in 2020 was ten times that of 2019. Its deals ranged from condos of around $150,000 to homes of around $1.5 million, with a focus on the metro area’s average price range of $550,000 to $600,000; the company said its interest rates were similar to those of traditional lenders and that it kept costs down by spending less on marketing and not paying its loan officers commissions, while its approval process was more rigorous because it had to predict before buying that a buyer could handle the loan.⁠[5]

In the interview he said: “You can think of us a kind of a rich aunt or a rich uncle,” and: “We’re here to make sure that every buyer who can afford a loan has an equal chance at winning their dream home.”⁠[5]

TechCrunch’s article of June 24, 2021, writes that Accept.inc had secured $90 million, made up of $78 million in debt and $12 million in equity, with SignalFire leading the equity portion and existing seed investors Y Combinator and DN Capital participating. The company calls itself an “iLender,” a technology-enabled lender, and SignalFire’s Ilya Kirnos called it “the first and only iLender.” The company said that since its 2016 founding it had helped thousands of buyers, agents, and sellers close on “hundreds of millions of dollars” in homes, that it had grown 14x in 2020 and 10x in team size, transactions, and revenue from June 2020 to June 2021, and that buyers using it won six to seven times more often.⁠[4]

The article writes that the lesson he drew was that the company must “vertically integrate all of your core competencies,” and that he described its product as a full cash offer that “closes in three days”; the company planned to double its team to 90 and enter new markets outside Denver. Built In Colorado’s article of the same day writes instead that the company then had 90 employees, served only Colorado, was hiring for 13 positions, and let approved buyers close in as little as 72 hours.⁠[4][2]

The company’s press release quotes him: “The pandemic has fundamentally changed the meaning and importance of ‘home,’” and “Accept.inc has built a cash offer product for anyone who qualifies for a mortgage”; the release also states that demand for its service in the greater Denver market had grown 1,000 percent.⁠[1]

On June 16, 2022, HomeLight, a real estate technology platform based in Scottsdale, ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry, announced that it was acquiring Accept.inc in an all-stock deal for an undisclosed amount, expected to close in the coming weeks. Inman’s article writes that Accept.inc had recently shifted to a model of providing bridge financing that lets homebuyers make cash offers, so that a home changes hands only once, and had just launched a pilot with the wholesale lender Homepoint in six states: CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry, Colorado, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the north-central United States and the most northerly of the 48 contiguous states; its capital is St. Paul and its largest city is Minneapolis. It was admitted to the Union on May 11, 1858, as the 32nd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,706,494.Open the full entry, OregonOregonOregon (officially the State of Oregon) is a state on the Pacific coast of the western United States; its capital is Salem and its largest city is Portland. It was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859, as the 33rd state. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 4,237,256.Open the full entry, Texas, and Washington; HomeLight founder and CEO Drew Uher said the two companies had competed in Colorado and that Accept’s model and business there led to the acquisition talks.⁠[13][14][15]

In a statement he said: “We founded Accept.inc to put a cash offer on every home and level the homebuying playing field for all,” and: “We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made and are excited to join HomeLight to continue our mission.”⁠[13]

Inman and HousingWire write that most of the Accept.inc team would take new roles at HomeLight; The Real Deal writes that Drew Uher said there would be no near-term layoffs associated with the acquisition, and that Accept’s markets included Minnesota and the Portland and Seattle areas, where HomeLight planned to expand in the coming months. HomeLight said the two companies together represented more than $3 billion in referred transaction volume in the first quarter of 2022.⁠[13][15][16][14]

On the same day HomeLight announced $115 million in new funding, of which $60 million was equity (TechCrunch states that this was an extension of the $100 million Series D announced in September 2021, contributed entirely by existing investor Oren Zeev), at a $1.7 billion valuation; Inman, TechCrunch, and HousingWire give the debt portion as $55 million, while The Real Deal gives $50 million and states that the equity came from Zeev VenturesZeev VenturesZeev Ventures is a venture capital firm founded and managed single-handedly by Israeli-born investor Oren Zeev, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with no partners or employees; it invests mainly in software companies with Israeli connections, and its early investments include Navan, Houzz, Tipalti and Next Insurance.Open the full entry. Y Combinator’s company page lists Accept.inc’s status as acquired and its team size as 80.⁠[14][13][15][16][3]

As of November 2026, the team page of Drive Capital, a venture capital firm in Columbus, lists him as a partner. His biography states that he pitched Drive Capital during his company’s Series A, and that Drive Capital passed; he does not think being a founder necessarily makes someone a better venture capitalist, but in his case it inspires him to be the venture capitalist he did not always have; he says that this, combined with a firm belief that “the raw DNA of great founders and category-defining companies crosses state lines,” is why he joined Drive Capital. The page does not say when he joined.⁠[6][17]

Drive Capital’s biography states that he grew up on Long Island, New York, and had his first taste of entrepreneurship at the age of 9 with Wagon Express, which he and his twin brother, Benjamin, ran on the docks of Fire Island, New York, transporting renters’ belongings for “a weekend in summer paradise.” He credits Wagon Express with a basic understanding of first principles: problem-solving (renters overpacked, and cars were banned on the island), marketing (the two shouted “Wagon For Hire!” at the ferry dock), and profit and loss; their parents gave them the wagons, so he jokes that it was a 100% margin business.⁠[6]

The executive biographies in Accept.inc’s October 2020 press release state that at the age of 11 he started a successful cargo transportation business with his twin brother, Benjamin, on Fire Island, a business that was featured in The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is a U.S. news publication founded in 1889, with a focus on business, finance and economics. It is published by Dow Jones, part of News Corp.Open the full entry in 2012.⁠[7]

CBS Colorado’s 2020 report states that his family had a background in the mortgage business back home in New York and that he had not expected to enter the same industry.⁠[5]

Drive Capital’s biography states that despite his early entrepreneurial interest he chased the traditional hallmarks of success through high school, planning to get into a great school, go to McKinsey & CompanyMcKinsey & CompanyMcKinsey & Company is a management consulting firm headquartered in New York, United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey and, after Marvin Bower established its “professional service” principles, grew into one of the largest pure consulting firms in the world; as of October 2026 it has more than 100 offices in over 50 countries and about 40,000 employees. It has also repeatedly faced regulatory investigations and public criticism over episodes such as its work with Enron, a former leader’s insider trading case, and its consulting for opioid manufacturers.Open the full entry, and take on a huge mortgage for a house he did not need; only after a “quarter-life crisis” in his freshman year of college did he change tack, deciding to “live by design rather than default” and give himself a “non-zero chance at building something that matters,” and he then left college to start a company.⁠[6]

Accept.inc’s October 2020 press release states that before founding Accept.inc he was a student at Harvard College, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Theory and Spanish; Y Combinator’s founder page lists Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry and Williams CollegeWilliams CollegeWilliams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It grew out of a free school established under the will of the colonial officer Ephraim Williams Jr. that opened in 1791, was chartered as a college in 1793, and is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts.Open the full entry in his education.⁠[7][8]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]

Drive Capital: Official website: https://drivecapital.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apollack1/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]