Artem Tepler was born in Siberia and immigrated to the United States at the age of nine. He studied finance at Rutgers Business School and formed his own real estate investment firm. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and partnered with Paul Schon to form Schon Tepler Partners, focusing on distressed residential real estate during the Great Recession. He was involved in the development/redevelopment of more than $400m of real estate and was a licensed California General Contractor and Real Estate Broker.