Alex Hodara - Founder & CEO of Rocket Club
Alex with his nephews Jack & Liam
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year NJ Winner & National Finalist
To better understand why he created Rocket Club, below is a post our founder Alex Hodara wrote on his instagram after he was announced as a winner of the 2021 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award:
“When I was 14 years-old, I started to have persistent panic attacks that made me feel like I was unable to catch my breath, sometimes for days at a time. I kept this extremely secretive, even from my closest friends, because I was very embarrassed by it. I missed dozens of days of school that year to go to doctors who thought it might be asthma, allergies, or a lung condition. The issue with panic attacks is that when you dwell on it, the anxiety just gets more intense. I needed a distraction when the panic set in.
It wasn’t until I started my own business during that year that I was able to pull myself out of the spiral. Becoming an entrepreneur at 14 made me feel confident and special; it gave me an outlet to channel my creativity, while helping me to stop obsessing about trying to take my next deep breath.
Our team at Rocket Club gets the opportunity to help hundreds of children, who may be dealing with their own secret struggles and insecurities, to feel confident and special everyday. It means the world to us when a parent reaches out to tell us about how Rocket Club has helped their child through a difficult time, or has helped spark a confidence in them that they didn’t know existed. When we get those notes, it reminds us why we work so hard to create this experience and community.
I will work my entire life building Rocket Club to be the club that I wished I had when I was 14 years-old.”
About Alex and the Creation of Rocket Club
Alex Hodara is the Founder & CEO of Rocket Club. His journey into entrepreneurship began in 2004 when, as a 14-year-old, he turned earnings from snow shoveling and fantasy football winnings into his first business venture. He imported premium clay poker chips from Ningbo, China, and sold them through a self-built website.
In 2006, during his freshman year at Boston University, Alex delved into real estate by helping friends find off-campus apartments. Soon after he pioneered what CNBC hailed as "the first student-run real estate brokerage in America." Alex hired 15 of his friends, paid for their licenses and facilitated real estate rentals around Boston University, eventually learning the finances behind these cash flowing multi-family homes and transitioning to selling them to investors. His knack for turning challenges into opportunities resulted in the sale and management of 21 multi-family homes before graduation.
In 2013, Alex started his first real estate fund. He purchased, renovated, rented, and refinanced 46 multi-family homes, later selling the majority of the portfolio to the City of Boston to be turned into subsidized housing. The proceeds from this sale fueled Alex's passion project: Rocket Club!
The idea for Rocket Club came in 2018. Hodara sponsored a hackathon at Westfield High School, where Alex himself had begun his entrepreneurial journey. Inspired by the students' ingenuity in their robotics, math, business ideas, and apps at the event, he and his real estate colleague Paulo Nunes began envisioning an after-school haven- a club where kids' creativity can shine.
In 2019, Rocket Club was founded and built its first home in Hoboken. By the end of 2019, Rocket Club expanded to NYC with the addition of another real estate ally, Adam Macdonald, who launched rhe Rocket Club Math program. With four thriving locations, a growing community, and soaring aspirations, Rocket Club was poised for greatness—until the unexpected arrival of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Knowing the significance the program had for hundreds of their member’s lives, Hodara pivoted Rocket Club to a virtual offering, foregoing all revenue by making membership free for all members for six months to ensure families could afford to keep their children involved. He kept all staff retained and welcomed new instructors and administrators to keep up with demand after Rocket Club was featured on Good Morning America which sparked nationwide interest, drawing hundreds of eager young minds into the Rocket Club family.
Today, Rocket Club has locations in Tribeca, the Upper East Side, two locations in the Upper West Side, Hoboken, and a Virtual Program with members attending classes from all over the globe.
More about Alex:
A Q&A with Alex: People are the Answer Podcast
An article about the real estate portfolio Alex built and sold back to the City of Boston (to be turned into subsidized housing) that funded the creation of Rocket Club $47 Million East Boston Sale to the City of Boston
A short article about Alex’s first business as a teenager: Tribeca Citizen Article
An interview on CNBC from college when Alex started “America’s first student run real estate brokerage” CNBC Interview
Alex’s favorite page: Testimonials https://rocketclub.com/testimonials
