Tina DelDonna and Amy Doshi brought the right skills—at the right time—to scale Sharestates.

The paths that led Tina DelDonna and Amy Doshi to their roles at Sharestates—DelDonna as CFO and Doshi as general counsel—were wildly different. But kismet brought them together at a time when their diverse skill sets were needed. Beyond that, the two women on Sharestates’ executive team have come to deeply appreciate each other.

“I don’t think I would be as successful in my role if not for Tina,” Doshi said.

“It’s nice to have such mutual admiration,” DelDonna agreed.

Their respect for each other reflects the strong team bonds they’ve been able to instill at Sharestates, a national private lender based in Great Neck, New York, that focuses on nonowner-occupied residential and commercial properties.

”Destined to Be in Real Estate”

DelDonna knew from taking high school electives in business and finance that she wanted to continue that path as a career. She grew up in a Navy family that settled in Virginia Beach, and she attended state school James Madison University, where she was attracted to the strong business curriculum.

“My favorite class was actually real estate finance,” she said. “I was destined to be in real estate.”

After college, DelDonna moved with her husband to Washington, D.C., and worked as a controller for a private equity company that provided loans. DelDonna’s career accelerated along with the company. Moving to the small business lending division, she built it to a $4 billion asset by 2008. She enjoyed growing a company and the teams she worked with, but “2008 came along and changed our world,” DelDonna said. The onset of the Great Recession meant lenders, like DelDonna’s company, were in for a bumpy ride. Through it all, she learned how to maximize value even in turbulent times.

When the company sold in 2010, DelDonna stayed on as CEO of the small business lending subsidiary. And when that portfolio sold in 2018, DelDonna again stayed on, this time as COO to oversee the merger.

After a year in that role, DelDonna hit pause in 2019. Her daughter was a senior in high school, and she wanted to take time for family and to reflect on her career before deciding what to do next.

“Then COVID came and gave me more time at home,” she said.

Throughout the pandemic, DelDonna continued to network with industry colleagues and former co-workers, which led to an introduction to the Sharestates leadership team in 2021.

“I liked the company and where they were planning to go with it,” DelDonna said.

Global Experience

Although she is from New York City and was raised in Queens, Doshi worked around the world before arriving at Sharestates.

She had always wanted to be a pediatrician, but she earned a scholarship that changed her career path. Doshi was part of the Smart Start Program from JPMorgan Chase & Co., which provides full scholarships for ambitious New York students. The catch was she had to stay in New York for college.

Because of the scholarship, she also decided to try business classes rather than pre-med. Doshi worked for JPMorgan’s London office during a stint studying abroad, and she loved her real estate law class, piquing her interest in both subjects. She graduated from college a year early and worked as a paralegal, which cemented her interest in the field.

Doshi had also worked as a DJ for a South Asian radio station in New York. Although it was a fun experience, she knew it wasn’t going to be her life. She went to law school and continued her education in real estate there.

“I knew that was something I wanted to be involved in,” she said.

She started her career at a law firm doing economic development work, but she was also involved in economic development at a more personal level. Her parents, who emigrated from India, owned small businesses. Around the time she became a lawyer, they began investing in real estate, first by selling their businesses but retaining the buildings.

Those circumstances led Doshi to first foray into private lending. She said in the Southeast Asian community, families that have liquidity will provide loans to new immigrants who want to start a business and don’t have credit yet. It involves all the same documents and practices that private lending firms use, she said.

When she got married, she moved to Bahrain with her husband and worked for a Middle Eastern investment bank that had offices in Singapore, London, and Atlanta. She helped restructure the U.S. branch through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and later moved to London, where she helped expand the company’s real estate and private equity portfolios.

Doshi had her first child shortly before moving to London, and the pandemic hit shortly after her move there. Between Brexit and the pandemic, markets were stagnant, and she said she found herself wanting to come home to New York.

“I was looking and Sharestates was looking,” she said. “In talking to the team here, it was a young team, a smart team, and on the cutting edge of fintech, to some extent.”

In addition, it wasn’t far from her home in Long Island. Doshi joined the team in 2021, shortly before DelDonna did.

Two Pieces of the Puzzle

Doshi explained that the secret sauce at Sharestates is that it’s not just an originator; it has a fintech platform that differentiates the company from others in the industry and will allow the company to scale—which is exactly what it wants to do. Plans include adding business lines and product types, geographic expansion, and “some type of growth opportunity” such as franchising, merging or an initial public offering at some point in the future, Doshi said.

“We got here at the right time,” she said. “The founders had a vision to take the company from a family-owned business and try to scale.”

In pursuit of those goals, both women tap their wide breadth of experiences and both wear many hats. In addition to legal and compliance matters, Doshi also oversees human resources for the time being. DelDonna oversees accounting and finance, working closely with the chief investment officer.

“Tina and I both bring skills for different facets of this business,” Doshi said. “She has a keen eye for numbers and really for growth, from her experience growing companies. She helps bring that mindset to the table for our team of founders that have grown this from scratch but don’t have corporate experience outside of this company.”

Noting that she worked for her family’s business, Doshi said she brings the other facet.

“Even in the Middle East,” she said, “it was a large multifamily office. Understanding how they make decisions and helping to guide families in the decisions you need to make legally to grow with checks and balances. I can bring that to the table. We’re two pieces of the puzzle in being able to grow the company.”

DelDonna said one of her mandates when she joined Sharestates was to implement structure to help the company scale. Part of that has been augmenting the team with industry veterans, some of whom she has worked with in the past.

“The team has been fantastic about allowing us to bring in the right resources,” she said. “We’ve come a long way in the past two years since we arrived.”

Fantastic Group of Women

Bringing in the right people for the right roles, especially for members of her immediate team, has been a “tremendous opportunity,” DelDonna said. She noted that hiring people with different experience and skills allows varied perspectives to be shared, and the growth trajectory at Sharestates allows ample opportunities for employees to grow in their roles.

One of DelDonna’s secrets for finding the right fit in a new employee is taking time to get to know them during the interview process and hiring for personality just as much as for skill.

DelDonna and Doshi said among the hires they’ve made, they’ve been able to assemble a “fantastic group of women” at all levels of the company “who are supportive of each other.”

DelDonna is mindful of the importance of mentorship for the women on her team and helping to show them a path they can aspire to.

“It’s our responsibility as leaders to look out for those who are younger,” she said. “Mentorship was really important for me in my career. I had a fantastic mentor, and I still think about, ‘what would she do?’”

Having women in decision-making roles makes Sharestates “different and very lucky,” Doshi said, because it creates a well-rounded mix of approaches. “That benefits us more than others who have less diversity on their team.”