Venice was one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the Los Angeles homelessness crisis, but that hasn’t seemed to dampen its appeal to the tech-rich crowd that kickstarted the region’s rapid gentrification a few years ago. Although records indicate the deals were in fact signed quietly last year, the wealthy entrepreneurs Zach Perret and Vechery d’Afton bought two side-by-side houses in Venice for a total outlay of nearly $10 million.
Perret may not be a household name, but Forbes says the North Carolina native, 35, is a certified billionaire – worth an estimated $1.5 billion. That’s thanks to Plaid, the fintech company he co-founded nearly a decade ago. The San Francisco-based company acts as an intermediary between banks and the many platforms vying to be the banks’ choice for consumers to access their money. In late 2020, Visa agreed to acquire Plaid in a landmark $5.3 billion dealalthough the acquisition was ultimately scrapped due to pressure from the US government.
As for Vechery, 32, she co-founded Modern Fertility, a reproductive healthcare startup. In 2021, four years after its founding, Vechery sold the business in a deal valued north of $225 million. A life “entrepreneur at heart“, Vechery is probably working on his next big idea.
The couple’s two landlocked properties are about as architecturally divergent as they come – one is a spacious “modern organic” structure built in 2014 and outfitted with a host of high-tech amenities, while the another is a 1913 Craftsman bungalow. Together, the two homes have seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a five-car garage – a very rare and coveted feature in crowded Venice.
The modern house was the first purchased by Vechery and Perret. Designed by the famous architect of Venice Robert Thibodeau, the house sits securely behind walls and gates, and sports vaulted ceilings, walls of glass, and marble bathrooms throughout. In addition to the main structure, there is also a studio with its own full bathroom and a private patio on the lush premises.
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