How Ryan Williams built a fintech company worth nearly $1 billion

In 2014, Ryan Williams embarked on an ambitious journey to revolutionize the real estate industry. He founded the fintech startup Cadre, a digitized real estate investment platform with a mission to make the industry inclusive and accessible to all, instead of the current status quo that tilts towards premium players.

Since its launch, the startup has won support from top investors such as Mark Cuban, George Soros, Peter Thiel and Jared Kushner. Williams launched Cadre after stints at Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and Blackstone ( BX ) and has built Cadre into a company worth nearly $1 billion.

A product of Harvard University, Williams launched his first real estate company while at the university. The startup uses machine learning and statistics and built a technology program that provides analytics for real estate investors.

William was born to a solicitor father and his mother, a social worker. His parents first divorced when he was only 6 years old. He lived in rental housing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which has long struggled with segregation, crime and persistent poverty.

His breakthrough came when his mother moved the family to New York before he entered high school. He got involved in school activities and his entrepreneurial ventures, then applied to Harvard after ignoring the advice of a guidance counselor who told him not to bother applying to the prestigious university, according to Forbes. He later joined a New York program that mentors gifted children from poor backgrounds.

While at Harvard, Williams met Josh Kushner, who later became Trump’s son-in-law. The two were to attend a summer internship together. When Kushner’s father tried to buy the Philadelphia 76ers, he brought in Williams to help with the bid.

It was also around that time that Williams ventured into real estate. Williams teamed up with a friend to buy a distressed property in Atlanta in 2019 that was on the market for $240,000, and sold at auction for as little as $60,000.

He joined Goldman as an analyst in the company’s technology investment banking group after graduating from Harvard. He later joined Blackstone, the world’s most prominent real estate investment firm, to work on hotel and apartment deals.

When the US Congress passed the Jobs Act in 2012, which allowed online portals to crowdfund real estate, Williams saw an opportunity in the convergence of real estate and FinTech. “I made a list of eight or nine people that I was interested in talking to, and the top of the list was the Kushners,” he told Forbes.

William’s ambition was to create a digital syndication system that could be used by a number of property operators. This led to the birth of Cadre. According to CNN, people looking to invest at least $50,000 can search through approved real estate projects listed on Cadre’s online marketplace.

The platform adds that Cadre typically pursues deals that require an equity investment of at least $50 million and “structures the transactions as limited partnerships.” Each year, the firm evaluates more than 500 real estate opportunities, but only approves about 2% of those investments.

Williams tells CNN that when he first introduced technology into the real estate industry, it was initially met with concern. “You’re going to get backlash and people won’t believe in this idea or concept,” Williams told CNN. “That’s how all great innovation begins.”