AB/Urban Development and Alliance Investments Management
Location:
Glen Echo, MD
Connect with Dustin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-boyar-22a681
When did you join WIBN?
2022
How did you get involved with wrestling?
I started wrestling back in eighth grade.
What do you do professionally? Tell a little about your professional journey. Feel free to promote yourself or your company/business. Include website, etc.
I like to put deals together where the buyer and seller feel good about the deal.
I started off as a CPA for one of the large firms but quickly realized it wasn't for me. I got into real estate construction, then development. It was a long slog but with lessons I learned through wrestling and family, I persevered, growing my business to developing condo buildings in DC and Baltimore, renovating a Hyatt Hotel and many single-family homes. Just before the recession, I was burnt out and left to start a tech company, using a licensed from the US Navy. SmartSeneseCom is still in business. I stepped away six years ago to get back into development.
I have recently partnered with a private equity firm to acquire commercial real estate and operating businesses in a few industries.
What made you choose that path and why do you enjoy it?
I realized early on that I didn't enjoy the rigid structure of working for an accounting firm and found it unsatisfying. I liked doing creative things but didn't think I could make a living as a political cartoonist, so I found that I liked real estate. Creating a new canvas from whatever was there before.
To this day, it stills gives me much joy in "creating" real estate that will hopefully be around for many generations.
How did wrestling prepare you for your professional career? What were the intangible benefits you learned through the sport (discipline, goal-setting, commitment, resilience, etc)?
When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I had no idea how to build. And it wasn't easy piecing together enough money to take a date out for a nice dinner. However, I knew what I wanted (sort of) and kept at it until I got there. There's a lot I'm leaving out but without the capacity to sacrifice, to know that my efforts were to reach a series of goals, I might not have gotten there. And a lot of this I owe to wrestling.