Equity Commercial was founded in 1993 by Kent Pierce and Jim Bilicki—two of the best-known people in Ventura County commercial real estate. Kent and Jim began working together in 1988 at Grubb & Ellis in the Ventura County office. They worked together for several years until Jim left Grubb & Ellis in 1992 to manage a growing commercial properties portfolio. A year or two later they were having lunch one day (they had remained close even after Jim’s departure from Grubb & Ellis) and Kent began detailing some of the changes at Grubb & Ellis that he felt were not in his best interest or the best interest of the company. It was then and there that they came up with the idea of a full-service commercial real estate services firm: management, brokerage and consultation. Together they formed one of the strongest commercial real estate coalitions in Southern California.