We’re thrilled to welcome Subodh Karnad and Karlene Holloman, CFO and EVP of Property Management to the Common team. Both Subodh and Karlene join Common with decades of experience in the hospitality and travel industries, including Travelex and Joie de Vivre. Their expertise and passion for creating positive experiences for partners, renters, and team members will be essential to Common’s continued growth and success in the upcoming years.
We caught up with Subodh and Karlene to learn more about their roles at Common, what excites them about our approach to property management, and how their past experience translates to multifamily residential.
Subodh Karnad, CFO
Please introduce yourself!
I am Subodh Karnad, Chief Financial Officer at Common. Prior to Common, I held CFO roles at OYO and Travelex. Prior to that I held Finance Leadership roles at Nokia, PayPal and VISA.
What does your day-to-day look like as Common’s CFO?
It is exhilarating and no two days are alike! My daily focus remains on collaborating with the rest of the leadership team to pursue best avenues to grow and scale the company in a disciplined fashion. On any given day that means engaging with my finance team, partnering with teams to analyze or further our real estate deals, measuring and monitoring business progress, formulating our investments and also projecting how our business will look in the near and long term.
You have previous experience working in the travel industry as CFO at Travelex. How does this industry differ from residential and the work you do at Common, and where do they meet?
At a high-level my position as CFO doesn’t differ too much from company to company. On a daily basis, I engage with my finance team and focus on growing the business and being a great partner to our CEO, the Board and the leadership team. The differences between Common and past roles lies mostly in the business’s growth stages. Travelex was a more mature business that already existed at a significant scale. Common, on the other hand, is in a much earlier stage of its evolution and growth, so it operates at a different speed and presents different sets of challenges.
In terms of the business itself, the products Common offers to renters are very basic and necessary to their daily lives, while Travelex focuses on leisure and travel, which is more of a discretionary spending item. Common also has a longer relationship with a consumer; most members sign 6 – 12 and are long-term renters. This is different compared to how guests typically use a hotel where they stay for a few days and move on.
What excites you about working at Common?
A lot of things excite me but to pick a few:
- I am most excited by being at a company that is addressing critical pain points in residential real estate both for partners as well as renters.
- We have a high growth recurring revenue business with solid economics and we operate in a massive market that gives us potential to 10x very quickly
- We also have an amazing team — some of the best people I have worked with. Common remains a people focused and culture driven company.
Where do you see Common in five years?
In five years, I see Common as a global company at significant scale serving and solving the needs of both hundreds of real estate partners — managing multiple properties for each one of them — and serving and solving the needs of hundreds of thousands of renters, fundamentally changing the residential rental experience for them.
Karlene Holloman, EVP, Property Management
Please introduce yourself!
I’m Karlene Holloman! I’m originally from Sydney and have lived in the US for 23 years. I now call San Francisco my home. I’ve spent my entire career in the hospitality business, and am now the EVP of Property Management at Common.
What excites you about working at Common?
What attracted me to Common at first was the leadership; Brad Hargreaves, Jeremy Avin, and the entire leadership team are incredibly impressive. I also love our mission. To be able to create a positive change in the housing industry when housing is such a challenge for a lot of people is an amazing opportunity. I’m particularly attracted to how coliving can provide great housing that’s more affordable in high rent cities.
As the EVP of property management, how do you ensure Common’s offering stays unified during a time of hyper growth for the brand?
With my hospitality background, I’m very focused on creating a positive, hospitality-like experience for our residents. To me, that goes hand in hand with the employee experience. If I can make the employee experience the best that it can be, I know that will translate over to the residents. When you walk into a Common building, I want there to be features that are inherent to our brand — including our five senses: smell, taste, touch, hear, and see — that can be consistent across each home. No matter what home you’re in, you’ll always receive our high-touch service, and you’ll always be acknowledged and heard.
You have extensive experience in the hospitality industry. How does that translate to Common and residential?
I’ve spent my entire career dealing with employees, guests, owners/clients, and buildings. The skills that I’ve developed in regards to those facets of hospitality translate easily to residential. In hospitality, you focus on giving care and attention to each guest, and I approach residential and my work at Common with the same mindset.
If you’re interested in working with Common’s team, visit our partners page or join us — we’re hiring!