Ryan Williams (entrepreneur) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ryan A. Williams
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| Born | 1988 (age 37) |
| Alma mater | Harvard |
| Occupation | CEO and founder of Cadre |
Ryan Williams is a successful business leader and founder of Cadre, a technology company based in New York. Cadre was bought by Yieldstreet in 2024. This was one of the biggest deals in the world of fintech (financial technology) in many years.
Ryan Williams has been recognized on several important lists. He was named to Fortune's "40 under 40" list in 2019 and Forbes' "30 under 30" list in 2018. He also appeared on the cover of Forbes Magazine in 2019. In 2022, Business Insider named him one of the "Top 100 Global Leaders Changing Business."
Through Cadre, Williams has helped invest over $1.2 billion in real estate across the country. Famous investors like Jared Kushner, Mark Cuban, and Andreessen Horowitz have supported his company. As one of the few African American leaders in real estate technology, he often speaks out for positive change. He believes that teaching more people about financial literacy can help close the racial wealth gap in America.
In late 2024, he received a Beacon Award from the Ellis Island Honors Society. This award recognized his impact as an entrepreneur, his leadership in new ideas, and his work for diversity. In 2025, Ryan Williams shared that he is starting a new company. It will combine financial services with technology. Also in 2025, he teamed up with Jay-Z to help build a new casino in Times Square, New York. This partnership aims to help people from all backgrounds own a part of the project.
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Early Life and Education
Ryan Williams was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When he was just 13 years old, he started his own sports clothing company. He later went to Harvard University. There, he created the Veritas Financial Group. This was the biggest student group at Harvard focused on teaching about money.
Ryan Williams' Career Journey
Starting in Real Estate
Ryan Williams began his career in real estate technology while still at Harvard. He was inspired to create a system to track homes that were being taken back by banks. He saw how these foreclosures affected people during a trip to Atlanta. By using data about properties and neighborhoods, he started a business. He would buy homes that were very cheap and then fix them up. This business of "flipping" homes with friends and investors was his first big step as an entrepreneur.
In 2020, he talked about how important Citizens Trust Bank was to his early success. This bank in Atlanta was founded by five Black businessmen and is still Black-owned today. As a young Black man, Ryan was turned down for loans by 10 other banks. But the chairman of Citizens Trust Bank personally called him to say he believed in Williams. After graduating from Harvard, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Blackstone. He worked in Blackstone's real estate investment team.
Founding Cadre
At 26 years old, Ryan Williams left Blackstone to start Cadre in 2014. Cadre is a financial technology platform. It aims to make buying and selling real estate as easy as buying and selling stocks. Williams was the CEO of Cadre and led the company until it was bought by Yieldstreet.
He successfully raised money for Cadre from many investors. These included Jared Kushner, Mark Cuban, Soros Fund Management (founded by George Soros), and Vinod Khosla. Cadre also had a large $65 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Williams has said that Cadre's goal is to create a more efficient economy. He wants to connect buyers and sellers for assets that are usually hard to access. These include things like commercial real estate, energy, or natural resources. He believes this will help more people build wealth over generations. He wants to give people direct access to commercial real estate deals. He compares it to how you would buy and sell something on Amazon. This mission also includes a way for investors to easily sell their investments later.
In 2018, Cadre made a deal to receive at least $250 million in real estate investments from clients of Goldman Sachs. In 2020, Williams wrote an article for CNBC. He shared his experience of being supported by a Black-owned bank early in his career. He also talked about his commitment to increasing diversity among banks and real estate companies in the future.
In 2021, Cadre launched the Cadre Direct Access Fund. This was one of the largest real estate funds created during the pandemic. It was a $400 million fund that invested in commercial real estate. It also supported minority operators and partners to help create more economic fairness. Williams later announced that his old university, Harvard University, invested in both Cadre and this $400 million fund. He then launched the Cadre Direct Access Fund II, another real estate fund.
In late 2021, Williams announced that Cadre sold three buildings for about $312 million. This returned $95 million to investors. Williams described one of these sales as the largest digital real estate deal ever. This means the property was bought, sold, and managed using a digital platform. In early 2023, Cadre was named to the Forbes Fintech 50 list for the seventh year in a row.
Later in 2023, Cadre merged with Yieldstreet. Yieldstreet is a global investment platform focused on credit investments. The combined companies had assets totaling $9.7 billion. At the time of the merger, Cadre and Yieldstreet had returned over $3.1 billion to clients. Ryan Williams continued to be the CEO of Cadre, which operates on its own. He also leads global client relations and business partnerships for the combined company. This deal made Cadre one of the most important exits in fintech. Fortune magazine believes the merged company might go public in the coming years.
New Ventures and Partnerships
Future Business Plans
In early 2025, Ryan Williams was interviewed on the "Masters of Scale" podcast. He shared that he would be starting another new business venture.
Partnership with Jay-Z and Caesars Palace
In 2025, Ryan Williams joined a group with Jay-Z and Al Sharpton. They are working to promote inclusive ownership of a possible Caesars Palace casino in Times Square. The goal is to allow people from underrepresented communities to own a part of the casino. This includes letting people invest as little as $500. The project aims to offer "real investor education and meaningful investment chances for everyday New Yorkers." As of mid-2025, Caesars was one of several companies trying to get a gaming license in New York.
Other Activities
Ryan Williams often speaks at conferences and on news programs about real estate technology. In 2020, he shared a plan to help increase economic opportunities for diverse communities. This included formal mentorship programs and skills-training programs. He was interviewed by CNBC's SquawkBox and Forbes about his ideas for economic equality. He also pointed out that only a small number of banks in the United States are Black-owned or Black-led. He promised to work with diverse partners and lenders. He also committed to keeping at least 10% of Cadre's cash in minority-owned banks. In 2020, he and Robert Smith discussed their commitment to building businesses that expand economic opportunity for more people.
Personal Life
Ryan Williams is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is a big fan of LSU football. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has two children. He has talked about his mission as an entrepreneur of color in a field that lacks diversity. He says, "I've never let anyone outwork me." In a 2019 CNN interview, he stated his goal to be judged only on his performance. He said, "at the end of the day, it's about results and what you're able to deliver, not about the color of your skin."
In 2020, he shared that his great-great-grandmother, Addie Lynch, was born on a plantation in the late 1800s. Her mother had been enslaved. He described this as part of his family history. It helped him decide to make Juneteenth a holiday at Cadre. He believes this helps the company and the country learn from past unfairness and build a better society.
