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When Kevin Song was 11 years old, his world turned upside down. For his entire life, his parents had operated a thriving grocery store. The store had been a steady presence in their Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood for two decades. But when a developer purchased the building and sprang an enormous rent increase on them, they were forced to close the business, and later lost their home.
How, Song often wondered, could a store that had supported the community for so many years be so easily driven out of business? “Small business owners are the backbone of the country, and they should be beneficiaries and not victims of their own success,” he says.
Song began to ponder a solution. His question changed from “How could this happen?” to “How can I help successful small business owners avoid the situation my parents faced?"
The answer was withco, a company he founded in 2019. The company’s mission is to help small business owners identify suitable properties for purchase. Withco then buys the properties and sets up a lease-to-own agreement. The arrangement enables small-business owners to build enough equity to fund a down payment and purchase the property within five years. There’s a $5 million limit on purchases. And withco works with brokers and agents on both the buying and the selling side of transactions, Song says.
There are nearly 35 million small businesses in the U.S., according to a July 2024 report from the U.S. Small Business Administration. They employ almost 46% of American workers and are responsible for 43.5% of the U.S. GDP. But their size often puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to real estate, Song says. Building owners often prefer national credit tenants because owners don’t know how to underwrite small business tenants, even if those tenants create value by bringing foot traffic and boosting the community.
Small business owners are the backbone of our country, and they should be beneficiaries and not victims of their own success.”
“When I first met Kevin, and heard the why, what and how for withco, I knew I had to invest,” Rich Boyle, the former chairman and CEO of LoopNet, wrote in 2022. Boyle is a general partner with Canaan, an early-stage venture capital firm. “As we got to understand Kevin’s layered vision and surgical execution for the company, we realized that we were not only witnessing the creation of a brand-new massive market category but also the minting of its category leader.”
Withco has attracted $30 million in venture capital, including from high-profile investors such as tennis player Venus Williams, NBA star Kevin Durant and former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.
The company is doing business in the 48 continuous states—“we love the Southeast and Midwest,” Song says— and more than 17,000 businesses have applied via the website, with.co.
“Our first customer from 2021 bought back their building earlier this year,” Song says. “This round trip validates that there’s a significantly better way to buy, lease and sell small commercial buildings.”
In July, withco was named a 2024 REACH Commercial company. The program allows startups to leverage a broad community of real estate industry executives, investors, developers, mentors and entrepreneurs, along with a global network of company founders. REACH was created by Second Century Ventures, a technology growth fund backed by the National Association of REALTORS®.
“The REACH program has been amazing,” Song says. “The staff, the community of founders, the ability to get the word out there to people who have real skin in the game—it’s invaluable."
