Ryan Williams (entrepreneur)
Ryan Williams is a technology entrepreneur best known as the CEO and co-founder of Cadre, a New York-based technology company. He was named to Fortune's "40 under 40" list for 2019,[1][3] Forbes' "30 under 30" list for 2018,[4] “Crain’s 40 under 40” list for 2017,[2],[5] is one of Commercial Observer’s “30 under 30”[6] and has been profiled in Forbes,[7] Ivy,[8] technology and real estate trade publications.[9] In February 2019 he was on the cover of Forbes' "FinTech 50" issue.[10][11]
Ryan A. Williams | |
---|---|
Born | 1988 32)[1][2] | (age
Alma mater | Harvard |
Occupation | CEO of Cadre |
In 2018 Williams announced a deal through which his company, Cadre, will receive at least $250 million (USD) in real estate investments from clients of Goldman Sachs, his former employer.[12][13]
Early life
Williams was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and founded a sports apparel company at 13.[14][15] Williams matriculated to Harvard University, where he founded the Veritas Financial Group, the school’s largest undergraduate financial literacy group.[14][16]
Career
Williams began his career in real estate technology during his undergraduate term at Harvard. He was inspired to create a system to track foreclosed homes after seeing the impact of foreclosures during a trip to Atlanta.[2] By using data about properties and neighborhoods, he was able to start a business purchasing deeply undervalued homes and restoring them to occupancy.[2] This business "flipping" homes with classmates and others as investors was his first entrepreneurial venture.[17]
After graduation from Harvard, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Blackstone before founding Cadre in 2014.[2] He worked at Blackstone in their real estate private equity division.[5]
At 26 years old, he left Blackstone to found Cadre, a financial technology platform that seeks to make the real estate market more like a stock market.[9] Williams currently serves as CEO of Cadre[18] and has led it through a $65 million Series C fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz.[19] He has been quoted as saying “Cadre’s mission is to create a more efficient economy, where we can connect the world’s buyers and sellers in opaque assets that have been inaccessible to many.”[20] He believes that increasing the ability of investors to participate in alternative asset classes (such as "energy, natural resources, oil, infrastructure or anything that’s historically been privately held or inaccessible"[21]) will expand the opportunity to build multi-generational wealth to many more members of the world[7] by "giving people direct, deal-by-deal access to commercial real estate, like you would buy and sell something on Amazon."[22] To him, that mission includes a secondary market and the ability of investors to select the deals they are most interested in, at lower cost.[15]
He is a regular speaker at conferences and in news programs regarding real estate technology.[14][23][24][25]
In 2020, he published a plan to help increase economic opportunity for diverse communities through "formal mentorship programs to provide hands-on guidance, and ... comprehensive skills-training programs that help people of all ages get a start in careers that will allow them to succeed in a fast-changing economy."[26] He was interviewed by CNBC's SquawkBox[27], Forbes[28], and others in response to his call for proactive steps to increase economic equality.
Personal life
Williams is a fan of LSU football.[9][29] He lives in Greenwich Village.[9] He has discussed his mission as an entrepreneur of color in a field that suffers "an outsized lack of diversity"[30] and says "I've never let anyone outwork me."[15] In a 2019 CNN interview, he stated his goal to be judged on his performance alone: "at the end of the day, it's about results and what you're able to deliver, not about the color of your skin."[30]
In 2020, he revealed that his great-great-grandmother, Addie Lynch, was born on a plantation in the late 1800s to a mother who had been a slave. He described it as part of his personal heritage that informed his decision to mark Juneteenth as a holiday within Cadre to help the company and country grow from past inequities, and build a more perfect society and union.[26]
References
- "Ryan Williams". Fortune.
- Geiger, Daniel (March 26, 2017). "40 Under 40 2017: Ryan Williams, 29". Crain's New York Business.
- "Young African-American CEO aims to revolutionize real estate investing | Business". phillytrib.com. June 11, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- Vardi, Nathan. "30 Under 30 Finance: The Top Young Traders, Dealmakers And Big Money Innovators". Forbes. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
- "Ryan A. Williams Honored by Goldman Sachs for Entrepreneurship". www.prnewswire.com.
- "CO's Top 30 Leasing and Sales Brokers Under Age 30". Commercial Observer. October 5, 2016.
- Sharf, Samantha. "How A 28-Year-Old Plans To Upend The $81 Trillion Global Real Estate Investment Market". Forbes.
- "#67: How to Disrupt a Massive Market: Innovations in Real Estate Featuring the Co-Founder & CEO of Cadre, Ryan Williams". IVYtv. August 25, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
- "Ryan Williams - Cadre Real Estate". The Real Deal New York.
- Vardi, Nathan. "Ryan Williams, 30, Started A Revolutionary $800M Fintech. But Can He Escape His Kushner-Trump Connection?". Forbes.
- Communications, Forbes Corporate. "Forbes Releases Fourth Annual Fintech 50 List: The Future of Your Money". Forbes.
- "Cadre inks $250M deal with Goldman Sachs". Inman. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
- "Goldman Commits $250 Million in Client Money to Real Estate Startup Cadre". Bloomberg.com. January 10, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
- "LendIt USA 2017 speaker Ryan Williams". www.lendit.com.
- "A Conversation with Cadre's Ryan Williams". TheFR.com.
- "About Veritas Financial Group".
- Morris, Meghan. "Cadre: It's who and what you know" (PDF). PERE News. PEI. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
- "Cadre CEO Ryan Williams: Hire people you have no business hiring". www.bizjournals.com.
- Majewski, Taylor. "Three-year-old Cadre raises $65 million from Andreessen Horowitz". Built In NYC. Built In NYC. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
- "Google and Facebook employees are flocking to a startup that's raised ~$70 million to shake up the real estate world". Business Insider.
- "How this 50-person startup is planning to completely transform the real estate industry". Built In NYC.
- "Cadre". Inc.com.
- "Cadre's Ryan Williams". May 9, 2016.
- "Cadre CEO Says Data Processes, Services Give Them an Edge". Bloomberg.com.
- Lawler, Ryan. "Find out how startups are transforming real estate investing at Disrupt NY". TechCrunch.
- https://fortune.com/2020/06/19/juneteenth-economic-justice-cadre-ceo/
- https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1275766812454592512
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2020/06/06/in-moving-talk-americas-top-black-business-figure-robert-smith-envisions-the-blessing-that-can-emerge-from-current-tragedies/#a5300ec6d799
- Locker, Melissa (January 16, 2019). "Lil Wayne helps Cadre CEO and cofounder Ryan Williams get ready for big presentations". Fast Company. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
- Business, Matt Egan, CNN. "Meet the 31-year-old African American CEO aiming to revolutionize real estate investing". CNN. Retrieved May 23, 2019.