Inside Side
At Side, we’re rebels with a cause. We’ve flipped the traditional brokerage model on its head because we genuinely care about agents and believe they deserve better.
Our Story
Side co-founders Guy Gal and Ed Wu had started successful businesses before and were looking for their next venture when they discovered an opportunity in the real estate space.
We fell in love with it because of the agents themselves. It’s all about the people.
– Ed Wu, Side Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
They began to realize that hard-working, high-volume real estate agents were stuck playing a game where the cards were stacked against them. Traditional brokerages were not built to serve their needs.
We felt there was this segment of agents that was underserved and, more so, really exploited. No one was working to advance their interests or take care of them.
– Guy Gal, Side Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
To learn more, Guy and Ed asked Side co-founder and chief broker officer Hilary Saunders — who was a real estate broker at the time — if they could pick her brain. Their 15-minute coffee meeting turned into a three-hour conversation about what agent entrepreneurs really need: true ownership of their work, simple transaction management, and robust back-office support.
In 2017, they launched Side, a real estate brokerage platform upon which the very best agents can create and grow their own businesses. Agents own their own companies; we take on the liability and handle their back office and recruiting.
We aspire to elevate the entire real estate industry and really provide the consumer with an amazing experience.
– Hilary Saunders, Side Co-founder and Chief Broker Officer
Since then, we’ve helped launch 500+ real estate companies across the country.
Even more significantly, we’ve empowered top-producing agents, teams, and independent brokers to own their futures and grow at a rate they never thought possible.
There is no finish line for us.
As long as there is still a need to be met, a problem to be solved, we’ll continue to invest in our mission: Transforming highly skilled real estate professionals into unique companies with teams that collaborate with one another and their communities.
Our Team
Meet the pros working behind the scenes to prioritize our agent partners’ success.
Guy Gal
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
As co-founder and CEO of Side, Guy Gal (yes, that’s his real name) believes the future of real estate is local, boutique, and agent-owned. Prior to Side, he founded three other successful companies: Kingmaker, Biz, and Kognitive. A tech entrepreneur, innovator, and angel investor, Guy is an advisor to Vidyard, a YCombinator Top 100 company, and was also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Matrix Partners.
Ed Wu
Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer
Ed Wu, our Chief Innovation Officer, helps agents spend less time on tedious tasks and more time with their clients. He keeps us ahead of the curve by driving product development and bringing in the best vendors. Before Side, Ed co-founded Vidyard, an online video platform for businesses. He holds a B.S. in Information Systems Science from Salve Regina University and is a proud Y Combinator alum.
Hilary Saunders
Co-Founder & Chief Broker Officer
Real estate rebel Hilary is a co-founder of Side and serves as its Chief Broker Officer. In this role, she’s on a mission to challenge industry norms and elevate standards for the Side Community and beyond. She brings 20 years of industry experience to the table; before starting Side, she operated a boutique real estate brokerage and a law firm specializing in real estate transactions. She holds B.A. degrees in Communications, German, and Accounting from the University of San Diego, along with J.D. and LL.M. Taxation degrees from Golden Gate University.
Elizabeth Tse
Chief Operating Officer
Elizabeth Tse oversees all operations-focused activities at Side, launching our partners and caring for our employees. Previously, she was SVP of Operations at Upwork and COO for Samasource. Prior to that, Elizabeth was VP of Global Billing, Payments, and Collections at eBay and held senior positions at Zuora and Providian Financial (now JP Morgan Chase). Elizabeth holds an MBA from Cornell University and a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University.
Carmine “CJ” Napolitano
Chief Financial Officer
Carmine “CJ” Napolitano leads financial strategy and operations at Side. He has more than 25 years of experience as a CFO, COO, GM, and CEO, and has completed over $1B in corporate financial transactions. Prior to joining Side, CJ was part of industry-leading teams at Propel, Electric Cloud, Computer Access Technologies, LeCroy, Centric Software, Wavefront Technologies, and Merrill Lynch. He earned his MBA from New York University with Distinction and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ryan Smith
Chief Technology Officer
A Bay Area tech veteran, Ryan Smith brings more than 20 years of product and software engineering experience to his role leading the engineering team at Side. Prior to Side, he was VP of software engineering at LendingClub, where he helped grow their engineering team by 4x in his first two years. Ryan has also held previous engineering leadership roles at companies including Salesforce, PayPal, and Cisco. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.
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