.png)
Rethinking Real Estate Capital With Ecommerce Models
Podcast Summary
In this episode of STR Global Unlocked, Rebecca Kacaba, Co-Founder and CEO of DealMaker, joins Simon Lehmann for a candid conversation on why traditional capital raising no longer works for most founders and what a modern alternative looks like.
Rebecca is a former capital markets attorney who left Big Law to build one of North America’s leading online capital raising platforms. DealMaker has helped companies raise more than $2 billion online and has become a key infrastructure layer for founders operating outside the traditional venture capital funnel.
This is not a fintech pitch.
It is a practical breakdown of how capital markets are changing and what that means for founders in short-term rentals, hospitality, and real estate.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Why capital raising remains slow, opaque, and founder-unfriendly, and how moving it online shifts leverage back to operators.
- How DealMaker approaches fundraising like an e-commerce checkout, turning supporters into investors and long-term community members.
- The most common mistakes founders make when raising early capital, from unrealistic valuations to choosing capital that limits flexibility.
- Why community-driven capital can complement venture capital, especially as companies stay private longer and need alternative growth paths.
- How AI is reshaping capital markets by reducing friction in compliance, verification, and investor onboarding.
- Rebecca’s lessons from scaling DealMaker, including how to build a high-performance culture while staying close to customers as the company grows.
We Say What Others Won’t
Listen, watch or subscribe
.png)
Guest Appearing in this Episode
Rebecca Kacaba
Rebecca Kacaba is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DealMaker, a fintech platform that modernizes how companies raise capital by combining technology, transparency, and community engagement. Under her leadership, DealMaker has powered billions in digital capital raises and expanded rapidly across North America, helping hundreds of companies access funding more efficiently than traditional methods.
Before founding DealMaker in 2018, Rebecca was a securities lawyer with over a decade of experience on Bay Street in Canada, where she built and led startup and emerging growth practices, advised public and private companies on capital markets, M&A, and regulatory matters, and served as co-chair of the Toronto Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies Group.
.png)
.png)
%20(4).png)
.png)
%20(5).png)