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Raskin and Ian Jacobs cofounded Uris Acquisitions to bet on San Francisco real estate. | Source: Courtesy of Max Raskin<\/p>\n
Colleagues and acquaintances say he\u2019s a charismatic, libertarian-leaning Renaissance man and super networker, with a longtime fascination for cryptocurrency and a more recent ardor for Mayor Daniel Lurie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMax is about the most colorful person I know,\u201d said New York University Professor David Yermack, who has taught a course on digital currencies (opens in new tab)<\/a> alongside Raskin over the past decade. Raskin has used his connections in the crypto world to bring in guest lecturers like the Winklevoss twins.<\/p>\n While both he and Jacobs live outside of California, the Uris team is bullish on San Francisco generally and Union Square specifically, according to Darren Kuiper, a senior VP at real estate brokerage Colliers who has worked with Uris on its building deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey are really huge believers in Mayor Lurie and what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Kuiper said. \u201cThey\u2019re also believers in the long-term San Francisco story, which is music to my ears.\u201d<\/p>\n Making friends in City Hall <\/p>\n Since Uris launched last year, Raskin and Jacobs have become the most prolific real estate investors on Powell Street, purchasing three properties: the green, art deco-building at 200 Powell, which attracted red-hot Chinese toy company Pop Mart<\/a> as a tenant; 35 Powell St., which overlooks the cable car turnaround and has Burger King as a tenant; and 111 Ellis St., a vacant corner building that previously housed Blondie\u2019s Pizza on its ground floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Uris isn\u2019t the only outside investor aggressively courting Union Square \u2014\u00a0a Texas group has also bought a handful of properties (opens in new tab)<\/a> recently \u2014 it has staked its claim on the Powell Street corridor.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a strategy aligned with the priorities of Lurie and the Downtown Development Corporation he spun up to turn private dollars into public improvements<\/a>. A bond measure passed by voters last November is directing more than $20 million toward improving infrastructure on Powell by adding art nouveau-style lighting, widening sidewalks, and replacing parklets with space for outdoor dining, trees, and seating.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n True to character, Raskin has cozied up to Lurie in his own way. He interviewed Lurie (opens in new tab)<\/a>for his blog before the election, asking about the candidate\u2019s denim preferences and love of \u201cThe Rock,\u201d the Nicolas Cage movie about breaking into Alcatraz. A few months after Lurie\u2019s inauguration, Raskin followed with a glowing Wall Street Journal op-ed (opens in new tab)<\/a> about how the mayor had turned San Francisco around in short order with the help of his close ties to the city\u2019s coterie of billionaires.<\/p>\n \u201cMy business partner and I saw an opportunity,\u201d Raskin wrote. \u201cWe began buying real estate in San Francisco because we believed its problems were man-made and therefore reversible by the right man.\u201d<\/p>\n In May, Uris bought its first Powell Street building. The following month, Raskin arranged a meeting at City Hall with one of the administration\u2019s top deputies, Ned Segal, and investors in Uris, including representatives from MIT\u2019s investment management firm and the family office of Sutter Hill Ventures executive G. Leonard Baker, according to city records. Lurie himself stopped by.\u00a0<\/p>\n In setting up the briefing, Raskin wrote that he and the team looked forward to telling Lurie \u201chow excited we are about what he\u2019s doing :)\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In mid-November, Segal again met with the Uris team, as well as the director of investments at Boston University, to discuss Union Square\u2019s recovery. \u201cUris Acquisitions has made early bets on downtown \u2014 it\u2019s an encouraging sign of the direction our city is heading,\u201d Segal said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early next year, Raskin will further entrench himself in the city by joining the board of Golden Gate University, according to its president, Brent Walker, who describes him as \u201cfull of energy, ideas, and a little quirky.\u201d The duo met through mutual mentor John Sexton, the former president of NYU, and Raskin will advise the university on its own potential expansion in Union Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n A super-connector who loves crypto<\/p>\n Raskin\u2019s networking ability is part of why Jacobs tapped him as a founder of Uris: \u201cIn addition to being a terrific partner and friend, Max brings with him an incredible ability to build trust and consensus across investors, civic leaders, and communities,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cIt\u2019s a rare skill.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite Jacobs\u2019 family history, both he and Raskin were newcomers to real estate investment. Both went to college in New York City: Raskin at NYU and Jacobs at Columbia. While Jacobs\u2019 early career included a stint as Warren Buffett\u2019s financial assistant (opens in new tab)<\/a>, Raskin began working as a Bloomberg News reporter, covering financial markets and the early days of bitcoin.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMax was an early believer in crypto,\u201d said University of Chicago professor M. Todd Henderson, who coauthored a paper with Raskin in which they coined the \u201cBahamas Test,\u201d a hypothetical for determining whether a digital asset should be considered a security. (If the asset would survive its founders decamping to a tropical island, it isn\u2019t a security.)<\/p>\n Yermack described Raskin\u2019s perspectives as aligned more closely with those who think \u201ccrypto will overtake and make the financial system obsolete,\u201d than those who think it will just make the current system better. \u201cMax has got a lot of libertarian beliefs that dovetail with the people who created crypto way back when,\u201d the NYU professor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raskin met many early players in the world of digital assets through his Bloomberg reporting in the 2010s, though he didn\u2019t feel pulled to join the industry himself. Instead, he did stints at Morgan Stanley and as a speechwriter for then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. He briefly served as a judicial clerk in New York before spending five years at investment firm QVIDTVM.\u00a0<\/p>\n While professionally focused on the financial markets, he clung to his journalism roots by launching his interview blog in 2021. With the conceit that it\u2019s inherently interesting to know the rituals and habits (opens in new tab)<\/a> of successful people, Raskin has asked subjects whether they floss, binge-watch television, or believe in God.\u00a0<\/p>\n While quizzing Judy Blume on her views on the afterlife (she\u2019s a nonbeliever) and Ken Burns on the best restaurant in New York (Bar Pitti), Raskin often reveals tidbits from his own life, like how he hates John Coltrane, loves Uniball pens, and, like a true San Franciscan (opens in new tab)<\/a>, enjoys a glass or two of Fernet. His Jewish faith comes up frequently (both he and Jacobs are observant), and he peppers his questions with references to Friedrich Hayek, Sigmund Freud, and Jerry Garcia.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s one of these boy-genius types,\u201d Henderson said, admiring Raskin\u2019s ability to go deep on economic policy as easily as literature or music. \u201cHe could go toe-to-toe with anyone,\u201d said Yermack.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765117390_958_-S3840x2560-FPNG.png\"\/)
A trolley passes 111 Ellis St., one of the buildings that Uris acquired. | Source: Frank Zhou\/The Standard<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/-S3840x2486-FPNG.png\"\/)
For years, Raskin has interviewed a broad range of people for his Substack blog. | Source: Screenshot<\/p>\n