The Thesis Driven Innovation 100, 2026

Real estate innovation is all about the people behind it. The macro trends, asset classes, and new technologies matter, but they don't move without the individuals willing to bet their careers on them.

Today's letter kicks off the second annual Thesis Driven Innovation 100—our list of the people doing the most to drive forward the future of the built world.

We made a point to select individuals from a wide variety of roles and perspectives. Our final list has a curated mix of technology entrepreneurs, real estate executives, creatives, investors, writers, policy and public sector advocates. Some names are widely familiar; others are not.

More than half of the names here are new since our 2024 list. This churn reflects an industry in flux: tighter competition in many sectors and the new technologies and ideas moving the business forward. Today's letter covers #51 through #100. We'll publish #16 through #50 next Tuesday, and then the Top 15 later in the week.

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#91-100

Top row, L to R: al Khafaji, Garg, Demuyakor, Myers, Richters. Bottom row, L to R: Samoylovich, Hayden, Jerath, Aarons, Singh

100. Salar al Khafaji, CEO, Monumental

More than half of European countries face acute shortages of skilled masons, and the pipeline of people willing to learn the trade isn't growing. Al Khafaji founded Monumental to fill that gap with autonomous bricklaying robots — priced by the brick, rather than sold as expensive equipment. The robots have completed full blocks of housing in the Netherlands.

99. Vishal Garg, CEO, Better Home & Finance

Garg may still be best known for the notorious mass firing of 900 employees over Zoom the week before Christmas 2021, but what came afterwards is a very different story. Better is now the first fintech to fund over $110 billion in mortgage volume, and its Tinman AI platform is gaining traction as infrastructure for the broader lending industry. A ChatGPT integration that runs credit decisions in under a minute drew demo requests from more than 50 banks and brokers in its first two weeks. Funded loan volume grew 56% year over year in Q4 2025.

98. Adam Demuyakor, Founder & Managing Partner, Wilshire Lane Capital