Las Vegas native and businessman Blake Owens has deep roots in the area

Las Vegas native Blake Owens found his way back to his roots after a winding career that included college at the University of California, Los Angeles, bodybuilding competitions, Muay Thai training and a stint at Goldman Sachs.

Owens, 29, is the founder of Agrippa, an AI-powered, broker-free commercial real estate capital matchmaking platform (which he describes as Match.com for commercial real estate), and Augustus, an investment firm focused exclusively on Agrippa’s best deals. He spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal about his unique background and love for his home city.

Your family has deep ties to Southern Nevada, can you tell me a bit about this?

My family’s roots date back over 115 years. My great-grandfather, Robert William Owens, was born in Searchlight. In 1917, his family moved to Las Vegas, settling on a 40-acre ranch near present-day Owens Avenue. Robert later served as Clark County undersheriff — I still vividly recall his stories about Bugsy Siegel and responding to the Carole Lombard plane crash.

My grandfather, James, was a rancher, and my father, Robert, started his career at the Golden Nugget and has spent the past 30 years at Treasure Island. My mother’s side arrived in the 1970s; her father started an air-conditioning company, and her mother worked as an accountant. My parents met through combat sports, my father a second-degree black belt and my mother a former boxer trained by Roger Mayweather, and I’ve carried on our family’s legacy of discipline.

You’ve taken a bit of an unusual path to your current work, walk us through some of the interesting things you’ve done in your life so far?

After cold-calling 50 firms, I secured my first internship in wealth management (Wedbush Securities), leading to roles in investment banking (Siemer & Associates) and investment management (Goldman Sachs). Along the way, I also won two bodybuilding competitions and have trained Muay Thai for over eight years, a testament to the discipline I inherited from my parents.

I returned to Las Vegas to join a CRE developer, and by 24, I was promoted to chief investment officer. By 26, our team closed over $600 million in transactions with partners including Carlyle, Lennar, Silverstein, and Cantor Fitzgerald. In 2022, I left to build Agrippa, attracting investments from prominent individuals, including multiple Las Vegas locals, and the AngelList Quant Fund.

This year, I launched Augustus to complement Agrippa. The names are inspired by ancient Romans whose legacies still echo through time.

I don’t know what my legacy will be, but I do know this: Someone once took a chance on me, and I will do everything in my power to prove they made the right choice.

What deals are you working on currently, and what is top of mind for your business right now?

Given Agrippa’s deal volume, I generally avoid personal involvement, but certain deals are too compelling to ignore, such as the Eastside Cannery ground lease. [The land under Eastside Cannery sold to Boyd Gaming in February.] Agrippa’s collaboration with the seller inspired our thesis on applying game theory to CRE. I’m also currently involved in a nearly $90M multifamily development in Salt Lake City.

Deals aside, the state of the world itself weighs heaviest on my mind. We’re at a critical juncture where the next few years will define mankind’s trajectory. Global leaders must carefully and methodically prioritize humanity’s collective good, while others should prepare for rapid change.

What are your thoughts on the current business climate in the U.S. post Trump election and tariffs?

We’re living through historic volatility, which stems from deeper structural imbalances rather than a single administration or policy. In my view, turning points came in 1971, when we left the gold standard, and in 2008 with Quantitative Easing. Since then, our economy has run on borrowed time.

This is a painful, yet necessary correction — like ripping off a long-overdue bandage. That said, I believe AI will help us handle the turbulence to usher in a modern renaissance era, in which cross-disciplinary, hyper-efficient generalists will thrive.

Where is the world of real estate going regarding new technology, and where would you like to see it go?

Real estate is slow-moving and resistant to technological innovation—a challenge I welcome. My vision is to push the boundaries of what’s possible through AI and game theory by developing Agrippa’s decision engine, Marcus, into an omniscient dealmaker.

From economics to politics and negotiations, game theory is universally applicable. Combined with machine learning, it empowers us to analyze behaviors and predict future outcomes, which is exactly where I see the industry heading.

What advice would you give a younger version of yourself?

I’d remind him that greatness demands madness — not recklessness, but unshakable obsession. Aristotle once suggested, “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” To be extraordinary, you must endure pain, sacrifice comfort, forego sleep …you must give everything.

I often run on just a few hours of sleep, sometimes none. When driven by purpose, sleep becomes secondary to progress. Humanity’s greatest minds — Da Vinci, Edison, and Tesla, for example — shared the same view. They were insomniacs, cross-disciplinary renaissance men who rejected convention, pushed boundaries, and relentlessly pursued the impossible.

I don’t expect to match their influence. I’m just a 29-year-old product of ranchers and fighters from Las Vegas. But I do intend to push myself beyond every known limit. If I can’t change the world, I hope I can at least inspire the next person who will.

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.