Following the leaders takes Hornig to the top.

It seems that in business, as in life, the right upbringing is everything. For example, Daren W. Hornig, the president and chief executive officer of the Quest Group, credits the mentorship of such industry greats as Billy Cohen, Scott Rechler and Bruce Mosler for his success in running his own firm.

Hornig, who started his real estate career working under Cohen at Newmark & Company, says he learned everything he knows about marketing and leadership from his famous bosses.

"You may not realize what you are learning on the day-to-day basis, when you are right there in the trenches, but when you look back, you see how working with [people like that] improves your skills," Hornig says. "Throughout my career, I've really had the opportunity to work under the great leaders of the real estate industry and they really helped me to understand how to handle myself in [this business]."

But even though Hornig got a good start in the commercial sector, he felt that being a broker limited his ability to be creative. He tends to view himself as an entrepreneur, which is why when he saw an opportunity to start his own firm, he grabbed it.

"The problem I had with commercial real estate is that it did not enable me to use my creativity," Hornig explains. "Of course, once you are hired [for an assignment] you can be creative, but convincing someone to hire you was very difficult."

Instead, Hornig, who grew up during the computer revolution, saw his future in technology. He concedes he is no Bill Gates--"I never was a computer geek per se, but I saw the opportunity in technology and the way technology can be utilized very early on," he explains. "I remember describing the concept of on-demand movies to my girlfriend in 1985." So when Hornig realized how backward the real estate business was in terms of technology infrastructure, he saw a chance to make his mark.

"Back in 1996, I was representing a lot of tenants in the telecommunications and the Internet arena and I found that the vast majority of New York buildings did not have the right infrastructure for technology," he says. "So I started a company called On-Site Access--we used to wire buildings for broadband access. We became one of the country's leading companies [in that sector]--we wired the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Sears Tower."

The timing was not in Hornig's favor, however, as very soon after On-Site Access was founded, the Internet bubble burst and he was forced to sell off the company. He served as a consultant to other real estate firms for a while, but continued to search for his next big opportunity. That opportunity came in 2003, when he bought a residential company called Dwelling Quest in partnership with Cohen's Fashion Opticals owner, Robert Cohen.

Since taking over Dwelling Quest's leadership a year and a half ago, Hornig has doubled the firm's workforce, started several new divisions, including the commercial Quest Group and Mortgage Quest, and completely revamped the company's technology infrastructure.

"My vision is that the future of residential real estate is on the Internet," he says. "You still require the agents to come in and handle the transaction, but from a mass marketing point of view the Internet is the future. "

And now that the company also handles commercial transactions and financing, Hornig hopes clients will be able to fulfill all of their real estate needs with the Quest Group and its subsidiaries. He says that he would definitely consider acquiring new divisions, but is more cautious about taking the company outside the New York region. "We are very much looking at acquiring other related entities--my view is, if you have two smart people in the room, why not make it three?" Hornig says.

"But we like to work hard and play hard and have fun with our jobs. In building the company I very much tried to [create] a family atmosphere where people like to come to work. And there is more than enough opportunity in this market before we start going to other markets. Instead of me having to go to different offices around the country, it's very nice to just come to Manhattan and work on my business plan."

Daren W. Hornig, President, CEO, The Quest Group, LLC