Luke Morris has spent his career at the crossroads of technology and real estate, helping transform how deals are sourced, analyzed, and closed. Now, as CEO of Capitalize, he’s applying hard-won lessons from scaling Crexi into a unicorn to a new frontier: modernizing commercial real estate finance. In this Q&A, Morris discusses what inspired him to launch Capitalize, how AI agents are changing the game for brokers and lenders, and why humility, grit, and focus remain the cornerstones of any enduring company.
YOU’VE BUILT AND SCALED MULTIPLE COMPANIES IN PROPTECH AND FINTECH. WHAT DREW YOU TO THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY AND REAL ESTATE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Morris: I kind of fell into it early in my career. I always wanted to be in commercial real estate, and over time I saw that the industry — while older and slower-moving — is actually very receptive to tools that make people smarter and faster. Almost everyone I know is in CRE (seriously, 99% of my friends are in the space), and being the one who lives on the software side felt like a natural place to try to improve an industry full of inefficiencies.
CREXI GREW INTO A UNICORN WITH $100M+ IN REVENUE. LOOKING BACK, WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST LESSONS FROM THAT JOURNEY THAT YOU’RE APPLYING NOW AT CAPITALIZE?
I wouldn’t change a thing about that journey – the grit was an asset in the end. Biggest lessons: focus on solving one core problem exceptionally well, and build a culture that can endure the grind. The second time around you’re just better at hiring, fundraising, and avoiding avoidable mistakes. Those lessons are baked into how we run Capitalize.
YOU’VE ALSO BEEN ACTIVE AS A VENTURE PARTNER AND ANGEL INVESTOR. HOW DO THOSE ROLES SHAPE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AS A FOUNDER?
Being on the investor side gives you pattern recognition – why some companies scale and others don’t. It forces you to think about capital efficiency, governance, and clear storytelling. It also reinforces that great founders are humble and hungry: open to feedback, resilient, and relentless.
WHAT PROBLEM IN COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FINANCE MOTIVATED YOU TO LAUNCH CAPITALIZE?
Opaque markets and fragmented workflows. Brokers and lenders waste hours chasing leads, cleaning data, and trying to find the right counterparties. In a tighter-rate environment, that friction becomes an existential problem. Capitalize exists to surface opportunities faster, add confidence, and reduce time-risk for everyone involved.
WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A $3 TRILLION CRE REFINANCING WAVE. HOW IS CAPITALIZE POSITIONING ITSELF TO HELP BROKERS AND LENDERS NAVIGATE LIQUIDITY CHALLENGES?
By giving them speed and precision. We build very user-friendly tools, listen constantly to customers, and iterate quickly. Our platform surfaces the right opportunities, helps with outreach and skip tracing, and produces lender-match signals so brokers can act before deals become distressed. We are making efficiency the standard – with Capitalize, identifying matches between borrower needs and lender behavior becomes 7x more accurate, and we’ve reduced the process of tracing borrower contact info from 1–2 hours to a matter of seconds.
AI HAS BECOME A BUZZWORD ACROSS INDUSTRIES. HOW EXACTLY ARE YOU LEVERAGING AI AGENTS TO TRANSFORM DEAL SOURCING IN CRE?
We use custom AI agents as autonomous data wranglers and connectors – not to make credit decisions, but to do the tedious, large-scale work humans can’t. The agents pull public records, filings, unstructured sources, engagement and profile data, then cleanse and synthesize it into actionable signals: owner contact info, lender activity, match scores, and risk flags. That scale and speed simply weren’t possible a few years ago. We’re supporting professionals, not replacing them, with a new infrastructure layer that is now possible because of AI.
IF WE FAST-FORWARD 5–10 YEARS, WHAT ROLE DO YOU ENVISION CAPITALIZE PLAYING IN THE BROADER FINANCIAL ECOSYSTEM?
If we earn trust, in our data, our product, and our partnerships, I see Capitalize as connective infrastructure for CRE finance: deeper workflow tools, more transparent deal flow, and a platform that lets brokers, lenders, and owners operate with much more confidence. Exactly how far we go up the value chain will depend on market needs, but the opportunity is huge, and we’re ready to adapt accordingly.
AS A FOUNDER, INVESTOR, AND BOARD MEMBER, HOW DO YOU BALANCE VISION WITH EXECUTION ACROSS DIFFERENT ROLES?
As a founder I’m hands-on, I’m on the ground doing the work and seeing the platform in it’s entirety. I still do dozens of demos a week to stay close to customers. As an investor or board member I zoom out and help with strategy and governance. Leading by example and staying obsessively user-focused keeps that balance real.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ENTREPRENEURS TODAY?
Be prepared to sacrifice. Building something meaningful is the most rewarding thing you can do, but it’s also brutal at times. Be humble, stay hungry, solve real pain (not imagined ones), be disciplined with capital, and surround yourself with people who push you to be better.
