Triathlete · Man of faith · Broker-owner · Builder

Charles Botensten

Seventeen years in Manhattan real estate. My own firm since 2014. Miles before sunrise, pages before bed, faith through all of it — and now, software shipped in the open. This is the story.

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Story

The short version

Charles Botensten is a triathlete, a man of faith, and an avid reader — a Manhattan real-estate broker since 2009 who founded his own firm in 2014, and who now also designs, codes, and architects software with AI, documenting the whole journey in the open.

Brokering since: 2009
My firm since: 2014
Triathlon disciplines: 3
Essays published: 134

The arc

How I got here

2009 Licensed in New York. Started in Manhattan residential real estate — cold calls, open houses, and the long apprenticeship of learning a market block by block.
2014 Founded my own firm. Botensten Properties International — broker to broker-owner. Building a business taught me more about discipline than any book, and sent me back to the books anyway.
Daily The swim, the bike, the run — and the pages. Triathlon keeps the body honest; faith and a relentless reading habit keep the rest honest. Every training session is on Strava, in the open.
2024 Became a builder. Started designing, coding, and architecting software with AI — a vibe coder with a broker’s pragmatism. Didn’t stop.
Today The journey, documented. Essays, the podcast, YouTube, Instagram, Strava — the whole climb in public, with a community of builders at botensten.com.

Now

What I'm building

FOLLOW THE JOURNEY

Come along for the climb.

The training, the deals, the faith, the building — documented every day. Follow on any channel, or build alongside me in the community.

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Elsewhere

Around the web

Build alongside me

The community lives at botensten.com

A room of builders learning to own their software instead of renting it — weekly live builds, real projects, shipped in public.

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