Why Aaron Rinaca left LivingSocial for this JLL-backed real estate venture

When Aaron Rinaca joined LivingSocial in 2010, the deals website was still very much a startup.
“My desk was still in its Ikea box,” he said. “I had to assemble it myself.”
Though he came in to work in IT, he occasionally helped the company negotiate its new office spaces.
And, within a couple years, he became head of global real estate, overseeing the opening and acquisition of about 75 offices in 15 countries, he said.
That was a “crash course in commercial real estate,” said Rinaca. A rugged field to be in.
It might sometimes take months, or even more than a year, to finagle a workspace for new recruits during the company’s high-growth years, he said.
“I developed this real interest and also sympathy for folks that were in that same position.”
So when he heard “murmurs” about HiRise, a new leasing platform envisioned by Jones Lang LaSalle executives Andy O’Brien and David Adams, his ears perked up.
“The platform was solving the real-world pain that I was experiencing on a day-to-day basis at LivingSocial,” he said.
He soon joined in as product director.
The three men have tried as best they could to make a home for their startup inside JLL’s cubicle-encumbered space.
“We’ve taken down as many of those walls as possible,” said Rinaca.
Meanwhile, the startup has a seemingly infinite pool of human capital, with 20-30 employees working full time on the project.
HiRise, which soft launched in July, started off with 40 listings in the D.C. area and has now been solicited by 15 new locations. It’s kind of like Zillow for office space.