Team

The Nine Four Team is committed to being active, long term investors and supported by in-market partners across the industries we invest in.

Investment Team
jeff

Jeffrey
Elowe

Founder
& General Partner
📍 Chicago

kurt

Kurt
Ramirez

General Partner
📍 Chicago

paul

Paul
La Londe

Partner
📍 San Francisco

Sophia Kier

SOPHIA GHADAMIAN KIER

Principal
📍 New York City

stephen-mccaffery-headshot-grayscale

Stephen
McCaffery

Senior Associate
📍 Chicago

Intern Alumni

Rachel Aboodi

MBA Associate

Columbia Business School

David Ackerman

MBA Associate

Columbia business school

Lauren Celano

MBA Associate

Cornell university

Brit Elowe

Undergraduate Analyst

Indiana University

Sophia Gilani

Undergraduate Analyst

university of chicago

Caroline Giroux

MBA Associate

Columbia business school

Charlie hallene

undergraduate analyst

university of arizona

Nishita Lakhani

MBA Associate

chicago booth

Nicolle Lee

MBA Associate

the wharton school

Manuela Manrique

MBA Associate

columbia business school

Sam Mulholland

MBA Associate

the wharton school

David Russell

MBA Associate

The Wharton School

Andrew Schwalm

MBA Associate

cornell university

Valarie Sherr

Undergraduate Analyst

university of michigan

Megan Shkolyar

MBA Associate

CORNELL University

Juan Pablo Villafuerte

MBA Associate

Chicago Booth

Jeffrey Elowe

Founder & General Partner

Laramar Group

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Mr. Elowe founded The Laramar Group in 2001 after co-founding Elkor Realty Corp. and Elkor Properties in 1989. As President and CEO of The Laramar Group, Mr. Elowe oversees an institutional real estate portfolio valued in excess of $2 Billion; is a principal in the Laramar Multi-Family Value Fund (a discretionary commingled real estate investment vehicle specializing in multi-family investments throughout the U.S.); a principal in the L-A/Laramar Urban Neighborhood Fund (a specialty Fund which invests in urban neighborhood MF and mixed-use properties in 8 major U.S. markets);  a partner in the Lakeside Workforce Housing Fund (an affordable housing fund which invests in affordable MF housing throughout the U.S.); a partner in the Laramar/LMI joint venture (a JV with a major insurance company which invests in larger MF and mixed-use assets throughout the U.S.);a partner in Nine Four Ventures (a Real-Estate Technology Fund); and is a partner in Covington Realty Partners (a developer of MF and mixed-use properties in the Midwest and East Coast of the U.S.)

Laramar is a nationally recognized investment and property manager that has been ranked in the top 50 largest firms in the U.S. by the National Multi-Housing Council. Mr. Elowe is chairman of the investment committee and is responsible for the company’s overall strategic planning, investments, asset management and investor relations. Mr. Elowe has built a successful 30-year real estate investment track record having sponsored and participated in transactions totaling in excess of $5 Billion.

Mr. Elowe is the recipient of the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Mountain Desert region).  In addition, Mr. Elowe is on the board of directors of the National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC), is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He is the former chairman of the board for the North Lawndale College Prep Charter Schools and a former board member of Chicago Jewish High School. Mr. Elowe has a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois and an M.D. degree from Northwestern University.

Kurt Ramirez

General Partner

Chicago

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Kurt Ramirez is a Founding Partner at Nine Four Ventures. Based in Chicago, his responsibilities include leading originating, evaluating, and executing investment opportunities and supporting existing portfolio companies.
 
Kurt has been active in the PropTech space since 2015, and previously worked with a Chicago-based real estate tech accelerator and fund, where he was a member of the investment team and ran firm diligence and operations. He’s worked with countless PropTech companies and has experience investing across startups targeting all facets of residential and commercial asset classes.
 
Prior to founding Nine Four, Kurt was a consultant at Bain & Company, an investor at Cue Ball Capital, a venture capital firm focused on consumer and information media investments, and Greenfield Partners, a real estate private equity firm.
 
He received an MBA from Harvard Business School and BS/BA degrees from Vanderbilt University.

Paul La Londe

Partner

San Francisco

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Paul is a Partner at Nine Four Ventures. Based in San Francisco, his responsibilities include originating, evaluating, and executing investment opportunities and supporting portfolio companies, particularly Built Technologies, Inspectify, OpenSpace, Rilla, and Steadily.

Paul joined Nine Four Ventures out of business school and during that time he worked at Transmedia Capital, an SF-based seed fund, where he worked closely with RangeMe (acquired by ECRM), Spacious (acquired by WeWork), and TalkIQ (acquired by DialPad), among others. Prior to business school he worked at Goldman Sachs and SV Angel where he worked closely with Carta, Fictiv (acquired by Misumi Group), and Instawork.

Paul received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Finance from Santa Clara University. He serves on the Board of Trustees at the Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco.

Sophia Ghadamian

Principal

New York City

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Sophia is a Principal at Nine Four Ventures and is based in New York City, where she was born and raised. She focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and executing investments, and provides ongoing support to portfolio companies such as Assured, Bowery, Branch, Built, Handdii, Inspectify, Latii, LDGR, Nickel, OpenSpace, Pronto and Steadily.
 
Prior to Nine Four, Sophia worked as a Project Manager at The Marketing Directors Inc., a consulting firm that advises real estate developers across the full lifecycle of a project, from design and development through property management, sales, and marketing. In that role, she helped lead the development and sales strategy for more than 20 rental and condominium projects across New York and New Jersey. Her clients included Midwood Investment and Development, Ceruzzi Properties, Trinity Place Holdings, The Fisher Organization, and KRE Group, among others. She transitioned into PropTech in 2018 as an MBA Associate at MetaProp, an early-stage PropTech venture capital, accelerator, and advisory firm, before joining Nine Four in 2019.
 
Sophia holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She serves on the Young Leadership Board of the American Technion Society. Coming from a family of real estate professionals, she is passionate about combining her interests and network in real estate and entrepreneurship through venture investing.

Stephen McCaffery

Senior Associate

Chicago

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Stephen is a Senior Associate at Nine Four Ventures based in Chicago, where he focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and executing investments, while providing ongoing support to portfolio companies.

Prior to Nine Four, Stephen spent a handful of years in real estate investments and development, beginning his career at OTO Development, a national developer and owner-operator of upscale hotels across the Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott brand systems, leading acquisition and development efforts across Southern California, the Mountain West, and Texas. He then joined Virtus Real Estate Capital in Austin, TX, where he focused on co-GP, preferred, and subordinate equity investments in workforce multifamily, single-family rental, and manufactured housing assets nationwide.

Stephen holds a BS in Engineering and Geology from Washington & Lee University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, joining Nine Four as an MBA Associate before transitioning to his current role.