La Jolla, CALIFORNIA, Sept. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Burns Funding (https://burnsfunding.com/) Founder and CEO Peter J. Burns III is expanding his focus on passive-income businesses through two opportunities he believes can capitalize on long-term trends - residential group homes and professionally managed online stores.
Peter J. Burns III
The initiatives represent the latest evolution of Burns Funding’s embrace of passive income-producing assets as a way to help entrepreneurs and individuals secure their financial freedom.
Burns Funding is not a lender. But the company works with qualified business owners to connect them with third-party funding sources and provides guidance on how capital can be structured and deployed.
"Getting access to capital is only the beginning," Burns said. "The more important question is what you do with that capital and whether you can use it to acquire an asset capable of producing cash flow."
One opportunity takes Burns back to a sector he first pursued several years ago, before COVID – residential group homes.
Burns Funding is participating in a real estate project that calls for developing residential units that could ultimately be operated as group homes. Plans have been modified to increase the number of bedrooms in the proposed units, which can improve the economics of the project.
Burns believes demographic trends, including the country's growing population of older adults, will continue creating demand for residential alternatives that fall between independent living and more institutional settings.
Report Points to a Dramatic Need for More Housing
Specifically, he noted NIC MAP’s 2026 Senior Housing Market Outlook, which projects that the population age 80 and older will grow by roughly one-third by 2030 and nearly double by 2040. At the current pace of development, the report estimates the nation could face a cumulative shortage of approximately 576,000 senior housing units by 2030 and more than 1 million by 2035.
The shortage is already becoming visible. In the second quarter of 2026, senior housing occupancy across the nation’s 99 primary and secondary markets reached 90.1%, its highest level since 2007. At the same time, fewer than 24,000 units were under construction, the lowest level since 2012.
The imbalance is expected to intensify. NIC MAP estimates annual demand will soon require more than 100,000 new units a year, while the industry is currently delivering only about 10,000. With construction starts remaining historically low and projects typically requiring about two years to complete, substantial new supply is unlikely to arrive before 2030, increasing pressure on available senior housing.
Burns Funding’s project remains in development, with additional governmental approvals in the works for its contemplated group-home use. Burns said the underlying real estate development is expected to move forward regardless of whether the group-home component receives final approval.
The second opportunity involves professionally managed e-commerce stores, a space Burns Funding has been active in for almost five years.
Burns Funding has previously incorporated passive-income businesses into its broader funding strategy. Under the latest model, however, qualified participants would use financing obtained from third-party lenders to acquire an online business operated by an independent e-commerce management company. The objective is to generate revenue from the business while the participant retains ownership of the underlying asset.
Burns said his experience with previous e-commerce operators also influenced the new approach.
"You have to be willing to recognize when something isn't working, make changes and find a better solution," Burns said. "That's entrepreneurship. You try something, learn from it and improve the model."
Burns has spent more than five decades as an entrepreneur and has launched, operated or participated in more than 150 businesses across numerous industries. His commentary on entrepreneurship and alternative financing appears in Forbes and Entrepreneur.
He founded Burns Funding after repeatedly seeing access to capital become an obstacle for entrepreneurs. The company today focuses on connecting business owners with funding resources while helping them think strategically about the deployment and repayment of that capital.
Burns sees the group-home and e-commerce initiatives as examples of another principle that has guided his career: seemingly unrelated businesses can sometimes complement one another.
"The job of an entrepreneur is to connect the dots," Burns said. "You have to recognize opportunities, pivot when circumstances change and figure out how different assets and businesses can work together."
About Peter J. Burns III
Peter J. Burns III is a serial entrepreneur based in La Jolla, California. Raised in New Canaan, Connecticut, he studied at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School, the University of Virginia and Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program. While his two younger brothers pursued more traditional business careers, Burns chose to build companies.
Burns has started or helped start more than 200 businesses. In the early 2000s, he moved to Arizona and taught entrepreneurship as a pro bono adjunct faculty member at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University. In 2006, he moved to Grand Canyon University, where he worked with Brent Richardson to establish its College of Entrepreneurship. The Arizona chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America named Burns its Businessperson of the Year in 2007.
Burns later founded Club Entrepreneur, an “open-source entrepreneurship” community whose Phoenix chapter attracted 10,000 members. After moving to California in 2016, he launched Burns Funding to help entrepreneurs obtain capital and put it to work in their businesses.
Burns writes about entrepreneurship, business financing and investing as a member of the Forbes Business Council. Those articles can be viewed here: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/people/peterburns/
He also writes about building and financing businesses for Entrepreneur. Those articles can be viewed here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/peter-j-burns-iii
“Every business I start reflects my desire to help existing and aspiring entrepreneurs reach their full potential,” Burns said. “Too often, they give up because of a lack of capital. I set out to solve that problem and won’t rest until every entrepreneur who needs funding can secure it.”
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