Reffkin is African American and Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, California.[3] His father was an African American man from Louisiana, who already had two children, and shortly after Reffkin was born abandoned him and his mother.[4] Emigrating from Israel at age 7, his mother Ruth Reffkin, after having her son, was disowned by her family after learning that their grandson was of African American descent.[5] Since his mother never married his biological father, his mother gave Reffkin his last name, from her first marriage to Gene Reffkin, also Reffkin's Godfather.[5] His father, a jazz musician,[6] passed away when he was 11 years old.[7]
In 2000, Reffkin graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in under two years.[7] After graduating from Columbia, he worked for McKinsey & Company from 2000 to 2002 before returning to school and graduated from Columbia Business School with a M.B.A. in 2003.[7][9] At the time of his hiring, he was the youngest analyst hired by McKinsey.[1][10]
In 2007, Reffkin began a nonprofit, New York Needs You (now America Needs You) to mentor low-income college students. He did a $1 million fundraising by running a marathon in each of the 50 states in the United States and launched NYNY in 2009.[6][14]
In 2012, he co-founded the online real estate technology company Compass, Inc. with Ori Allon.[2] The inspiration for his business came from his mother, who suffered hardships working as a real estate agent.[9][15] Reffkin was inspired to use technology to improve the ability of agents to build their brand, analyze data, and conduct market research to make their business more efficient and profitable.[16] In April 2021, Compass, Inc. went public and, according to Black Enterprise, Reffkin was projected to become America's youngest black billionaire.[17][18] His net worth stood at $500 million following the IPO of his company.[19]
Reffkin worked with Peter Koechley, Upworthy co-founder and former managing editor of The Onion, in writing the book No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can, published in 2021.[20]
