Adena Hefets
Co-founder & Former CEO, Divvy Homes. On 3 shows, 3 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestoroperator@AdenaHefets ↗LinkedIn ↗adenahefets.com ↗
She is the co-founder and former CEO of Divvy Homes, a proptech company offering an alternative rent-to-own path to homeownership. Prior to Divvy, she helped build Square Capital and worked as an investor at DFJ and TPG.
3shows
3appearances
61statements
15resolved
6supported
4contradicted
40%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Adena Hefets said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Hefetz: Divvy Homes Aims to Acquire 100,000 Homes Within Five Years
“I mean, for our company, we have a singular focus, which is a 100,000 homes for Divi families. The largest read in the U.S. Is about 80,000 homes, so we want to Topple that. And our clear path is just create an easier way to move into homeownership for a large…”
Hefetz: Rising FICO requirements exclude 20% of U.S. consumers from mortgages
“We've gone from having a six 90 average FICO for mortgages up to about a seven 40 average FICO today. While this maybe doesn't seem like a tremendous jump, it actually cuts out about 20% of US consumers, so it had a pretty big impact.”
Hefetz: Divvy Homes achieves higher rent yields than public REITs
“We get more rent per home on sort of a constant purchase price basis versus any of the public REITs.”
Hefets: Mortgage underwriting criteria have not evolved since the 1940s
“The underwriting criteria and the way mortgages were structured were determined then and have yet to evolve since that point in time. So the underwriting criteria, the down payment requirements, most of how the industry functions is almost a hundred years old.”
Hefets: 3% mortgage rates are likely the lowest for a long time
“That is probably the lowest they're gonna be in a really, really long time.”
Hefets: The minimum all-in cost for a US home builder is $200,000
“The cheapest that a home builder can build a home is roughly 200,000 dollars.”
Hefets: Divvy Homes will deploy over $1 billion in capital in 2022
“This year alone will deploy over a billion dollars of capital.”
Hefets: US banks underwrite mortgages more conservatively than Fannie Mae requires
“When the global financial crisis happened, there were such, ah, very high fees and penalties that went for banks that didn't have really strict overlays that actually had a ton of defaults. And so now banks are super nervous To lend to people, and actually tak…”
Hefets: Housing is last asset class to compress due to illiquidity
“Because the housing market moves so slowly compared to the equities market. And so, it is not surprising that housing is going to be the last thing that's going to actually start to compress in terms of value.”
Hefets: Divvy Homes raised a $200M preempted round from Tiger
“I'd say, so we raised a two hundred million dollar round from Tiger. It was preempted back about six months ago or maybe even nine months ago at this point.”
Hefets: Divvy Homes generates hundreds of millions in revenue, burns under $5M/month
“But now, now you have to just, now I'd say, look, Divi, we make, I don't know, we haven't probably put out there, but hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. I burn less than I don't know, five to ten million a month, so less than five million a month. We …”
Hefetz: Diminishing Paid Returns Require Startups to Build Proprietary Distribution
“So I'd say paid is hard because I think that there's definitely diminishing returns. And the way you adjust that is by finding a proprietary distribution channel that really lets you scale up with lower costs.”
Hefetz: Silicon Valley Is Shifting Away From Growth at All Costs
“I think we are starting to feel the switch towards instead of just growing really quickly at all costs, grow more thoughtfully. You still have to grow, but grow more thoughtfully, which I think more and more folks kind of getting their head around.”
Hefetz: Investors Help With Networking, Not Solving Operational Problems
“Well, they definitely help with their network introductions and generally just being a cheerleader of what you do on a day to day basis. What maybe people are surprised, or at least my perception of what maybe they're not as helpful with is no one's going to k…”
Hefetz: Consumers prioritize utility and access over owning fixed assets
“There's a new guard for how consumers are thinking about large dollar fixed asset investments, which is they are solving for use, experience, and ultimately access.”
Hefetz: Homeownership is a forced savings asset you can live inside
“From the customer's perspective, it's also really, really helpful for them. It's a forced savings mechanism in an appreciating asset. And by the way, you can live inside this asset. No one lives inside the S&P 500.”
Hefetz: Mortgage underwriting rules remain fundamentally unchanged since the 1940s
“I found that those underwriting requirements are fundamentally the same requirements that we have today.”
Hefetz: Housing market forces binary choice between renting and mortgage
“We believe that the industry today is very binary. You either rent a home or you dive into the deep end and get a mortgage. There is no in between.”
Hefetz: Treating renters like owners lowers vacancy, turnover, and maintenance costs
“When your renters think and act like homeowners, it means you have lower vacancy, lower turnover, and as a result, lower maintenance cost per home.”
Hefets: Divvy Homes customers average $100,000 in household income
“Our customers on average make household income right around a 100,000 dollars.”
Hefets: 51% of Divvy Homes customers are non-salaried or gig workers
“51% Of our customers are non-salaried, meaning that they're not W-II. They'll be a 10 99 hourly so gig economy.”
Hefets: Divvy Homes transactions are 80% female-led and over 50% minority
“Over 50% of our customers are underrepresented minorities, And with our transactions, ah, they're 80% female-led.”
Hefets: US real estate transaction volume has dropped 20% year-over-year
“Transaction volume is a down right now about 20% year on year.”
The other half of the tape: Adena Hefets's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 1
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Adena's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ALL-INLEDGER | Co-founder & Former CEO, Divvy Homes | 1 | 19 | 29% 2/7 | full record on All-In → |
 a16zLEDGER | Co-founder & Former CEO, Divvy Homes | 1 +1 | 29 | 50% 3/6 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-founder & Former CEO, Divvy Homes | 1 | 13 | 50% 1/2 | full record on 20VC → |