Rejected by 100 Capital Firms: Trisha Paravas’ Rise in Real Estate
Published
Oct 6, 2026
Source
Harper's Bazaar
Trisha Paravas says she arrived in the United States alone as an adolescent with only $180 in her pocket and a determination to build a new life. According to Paravas, she had no influential connections, family fortune or financial safety net to rely upon as she pursued her ambitions in the United States
Education became an early priority. Paravas completed her studies in the United States, earning a full academic scholarship and completing an MBA before beginning a career in finance in New York.
Paravas recalls the environment as demanding and unforgiving. “It was an environment where there was no mercy and no room for mistakes,” she says.
Early in her career, Paravas says a senior investment banking executive strongly criticised her work after identifying errors in complex financial calculations. She recalls responding by staying late, teaching herself, recalculating the figures and repeating the work until she was satisfied with the result.
“The second time, he threw my work into the trash,” Paravas says. “I put my head down and I had tears in my eyes, but I wasn’t angry. I became even more determined to get the numbers right. There was no AI to help us then. I had to learn everything myself.”
Without a family safety net to fall back on, Paravas says the experience strengthened her determination and discipline.
Trisha Paravas, Founder & CEO Roche Investors, New York, USA.
“That difficult environment developed the mental fortitude I rely on today,” she says.
Another demanding manager would also become influential in shaping Paravas’ approach to business. Although she describes the manager’s style as uncompromising, Paravas credits the experience with helping shape the leadership and management principles she later brought to her own ventures.
Looking back, Paravas believes challenging professional environments can provide important lessons.
“If your career feels easy, you’re probably not growing,” she says. “The people who challenge you the most often become the reason you discover your potential.”
She summarises that philosophy simply: “Anything that is too easy for the mind is a waste of time.”
According to Paravas, that mindset continued to influence her approach to business.
Paravas says she achieved two business exits before turning her attention to a longstanding interest in real estate development. Her entrepreneurial career included founding Fashion Week Inc. in New York in 2013, following an earlier textile venture she had started as a teenager. Inspired in part by the Manhattan skyline, she eventually decided to enter an industry in which she had little direct experience.
She had no established background in real estate development, no longstanding network in the sector and no family legacy in construction or real estate development. Paravas says nearly 100 capital firms rejected her initial approaches.
“They all told me the same thing,” she recalls. “‘Your professional background is impressive — but you have no real estate experience.’”
Rather than accepting the rejection, Paravas says she decided to develop the experience herself. Using her own capital, Paravas funded a series of small-scale projects to establish a track record that she could present to potential capital partners. Her early self-funded projects were intended to provide the proof of concept she had been told was missing.
For the following four to five years, she immersed herself in the different components of real estate development. Paravas says her workdays regularly stretched to 15 or 16 hours, six days a week, as she gained experience across construction, finance, design, zoning, permitting, procurement, project execution and sales.
“It wasn’t enough to own a development company,” she says. “I wanted to understand every department before asking anyone else to trust my vision.”
Paravas also saw an opportunity to bring elements commonly associated with higher-end development to middle-market projects. “Developers often compromise on quality when building for the middle market,” she says. “I saw that as an opportunity, not a limitation.”
Roche Investors Real Estate Development subsequently developed its strategy around providing elevated design and luxury-inspired features for the middle-market segment of New York real estate.
Paravas describes her career as one shaped by persistence through setbacks, from beginning her life in the United States with limited financial resources to entering real estate without an established track record.
“Success is rarely born from comfort,” she says.
For Paravas, those experiences have influenced the way she approaches business challenges and risk.
More recently, one of her condominium developments reportedly sold 90 per cent of its available units within its first week on the market.
Paravas has also been exploring real estate development beyond the United States. She recently travelled to the United Arab Emirates to observe the region’s evolving property sector firsthand.
She says visiting developments, meeting industry participants and observing the transformation of cities provided a perspective that could not be gained solely through reports.
“What impressed me most was the ambition,” Paravas says. “Across the region, there is a palpable sense of possibility and a willingness to think boldly about the future.”
Paravas says she has long admired self-made entrepreneurs and people who have built businesses without inherited advantages.
“I have always admired people who create something from nothing,” she says. “Self-made entrepreneurs bring a different level of resilience because every opportunity has been earned, not inherited.” That determination becomes part of your DNA.
She also describes herself as continuing to be motivated by further opportunities and challenges. That approach, she says, helped her respond to the rejection she encountered when initially seeking capital for real estate projects.
Rather than viewing those rejections personally, Paravas says she focused on the underlying reason investors had given her: a lack of direct real estate experience. Her response was to use her own funds to develop six projects before returning to potential capital partners with a track record in the sector.
“I don’t wait for opportunity — I create it,” she says. “Life is not going to hand you anything; you must make things happen.”
Paravas describes working as a real estate developer in Manhattan as an environment requiring resilience. She compares the experience to being in a boxing ring, with challenges emerging simultaneously from different directions.
In Paravas’ view, the profession can also involve substantial financial exposure and considerable operational complexity. Development projects require coordination among architects, builders, lenders and other stakeholders, while navigating planning requirements, regulations and public-safety obligations.
She says those factors can create an intense working environment in which decisions can have significant financial consequences.
Paravas compares development to a “high-stakes chess game,” where individual decisions can involve millions of dollars.
“I get to challenge my brain cells daily,” she says, describing real estate development as an intellectually stimulating profession characterised by continual problem-solving.
“I send my warmest regards to all the women of the Middle East from America,” Paravas says. “I hope my journey serves as a reminder that no dream is too ambitious and no beginning is too humble. Courage, resilience and determination have the power to change the course of a life.”
She added that she hopes to see more women participating in property development and helping shape cities across the region.
“I look forward to the day when more women are shaping the skylines and inspiring the next generation across the Middle East,” Paravas says.
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