Joseph L Schocken

Joseph L. Schocken is a Seattle-based investment banker and investor best known as the founder and president of Broadmark Capital, LLC, later referred to in SEC filings as Tranceka Capital, LLC. Broadmark was founded in 1987 and built as a boutique merchant bank serving emerging-growth and middle-market companies through financing, private placements, M&A advisory, debt offerings, asset purchases, public offerings, and direct investment.

Schocken has more than 40 years of investment-banking experience. SEC filings for Broadmark Realty Capital state that he guided Tranceka/Broadmark’s corporate-finance practice through hundreds of transactions across lending, technology, life sciences, broadcasting, travel, and other sectors, and that he led merchant-banking and family-office activities involving a portfolio of private and public company holdings. Earlier biographical materials say that before forming Broadmark, he was a partner in private investment-banking firms, including a small New York Stock Exchange member firm where he managed corporate finance and real estate departments.

He co-founded Broadmark Realty Capital’s predecessor real estate lending businesses in 2010 with Jeffrey Pyatt. Broadmark Realty became publicly traded through a 2019 business combination with Trinity Merger Corp.; Schocken served as chairman after the listing and retired from the Broadmark Realty board effective November 14, 2021, becoming honorary Chairman Emeritus. Ready Capital completed its merger with Broadmark Realty Capital on May 31, 2023.

Schocken received a B.A. from the University of Washington and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has also been active in capital-markets policy: the U.S. Economic Development Administration describes him as a contributor to the JOBS Act through his 2008 white paper “Restarting IPOs: The Shortest Path to Recreating Economic Growth in the United States,” and SEC filings note testimony and advocacy before policymakers in both parties.

• Invests in and advises high-growth emerging companies, especially in technology and life sciences. The EDA describes Broadmark as providing “financing and advisory services to high growth, emerging companies primarily in technology and life sciences.”
• Broadmark’s model combines merchant banking, private placements, direct investment, M&A advisory, debt offerings, public offerings, and capital-formation strategy rather than acting solely as a traditional venture fund.
• Reported stage focus includes seed and early-stage investing, while Broadmark’s broader practice has also served growth and middle-market companies.
• Reported sectors include information technology, communications/networking, life sciences, healthcare, financial services, broadcasting, travel, and real estate finance.
• Schocken’s public-market thesis emphasizes the importance of IPO access for emerging growth companies. In a 2018 LinkedIn article, he wrote: “Put simply, the United States needs more public companies.”
• For real estate credit, Schocken and Broadmark emphasized disciplined lending, local expertise, and a strong balance sheet; in Broadmark’s 2021 leadership-transition announcement, Schocken referred to “disciplined lending, local expertise and maintaining a fortress balance sheet.”