How Robert Reffkin went from being a C-average student to the founder of Compass 'I believe that to be truly successful, you can’t have a Plan B.' In April, real estate tech company Compass forged ahead with its initial public offering and is now valued at several billions of dollars. This week, I caught up with Reffkin on a whole other topic: his path to entrepreneurship as a child raised by a disowned single mother whose father had died homeless. Reffkin is so passionate about inspiring others from nontraditional backgrounds to pursue their dreams that he wrote a book about it.