SoLo Funds. Co-Founder, President and Chairman of the Board. Building the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class.
RodneyB.Williams
Co-Founder & President, SoLo Funds
Co-Founder & Chairman, LISNR
Co-Founder, Culture House and The Wealth Break
Six companies. One idea. The signal arrives before the data does.
What I am building
SoLo Funds is the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class
The largest community finance platform in the United States, built to empower financial gain for every class rather than serve one of them. It runs on three pillars that feed each other. Lending generates return. Return funds capital. Capital produces the behavioral data that becomes intelligence, and the intelligence prices the next loan. Superior returns, precision capital, predictive intelligence, for everyone.
Pillar 01
Yield
Everyday lenders fund loans directly to other members and earn a return set by the community rather than handed down by an institution. Retail capital doing the work a bank balance sheet used to do.
SoLo Lend · Impact+Pillar 02
Capital
Members ask for what they need, on terms they set, and repay into a record that travels with them. No hidden pricing, no penalty architecture, no credit score gate at the door.
SoLo BorrowPillar 03
Intelligence
A live read on household cash flow assembled from real repayment behavior, published ahead of the official prints that everyone else waits on. Sold to the institutions that need to see the consumer turning.
SoLo IQ · NowCAST · The Cash Poor ReportThe through line
I have spent fifteen years reading things other people cannot hear
Every system calls something noise. That is usually where the value is sitting.
I was born partially deaf. In Baltimore, the youngest of six, four brothers and a sister, to an immigrant family without much. The first company I built moved data on frequencies nobody can hear.
I have never worked out whether that is irony or inevitability.
In 2012 I boarded a bus. The SXSW StartupBus gives you seventy-two hours between cities to build a company from nothing, and what I came off with was a way to transmit data through sound, in a band between 18.7 and 19.2 kilohertz that is inaudible to ninety-eight percent of people. LISNR moved secure information between devices using nothing but a speaker and a microphone. Visa and Intel backed it. Jaguar Land Rover, Ticketmaster and Lenovo deployed it. The premise was simple. The most useful information is often already in the room, sitting just under the threshold of detection.
I am still working on that premise.
There is a working economy the credit system cannot see. People pay rent, cover a car repair, float a friend, and settle up on Friday. None of it reaches a bureau file. None of it touches the models that decide who gets capital and at what price. It is real economic behavior that the system has agreed to treat as noise.
SoLo Funds is the market that prices that behavior, and NowCAST is the instrument that reads it. When apparel spending gives way to gas, we see it in repayment patterns weeks before it shows up in a government release. That is the same business I have always been in. Find the frequency nobody is listening to, build the receiver, and let everyone else catch up.
Culture and innovation
Culture is not the decoration on the product
Innovation thrives where culture leads. That is not a slogan. It is an operating assumption I have tested with real money four times.
The Cannes Gold Lion I won in 2015 was for mobile software innovation. A data transmission company, judged at an advertising festival. That is not a category error. It is the whole thesis. Technology reaches people through culture or it does not reach them at all.
In 2015 Marlon Nichols and I started Culture House because the rooms where deals get done did not look like the country the products were being built for. It has run every year since, at SXSW, Cannes, Martha's Vineyard, LA Tech Week, AfroTech and Art Basel, and its cultureSPARK program puts seed-stage funds in front of founders the pipeline keeps missing.
The same instinct produced Mai Johnson & Company, a men's prestige beauty brand I built with Alvin Hathaway, my friend since we ran track together in Baltimore, and launched nationwide with Toni Ko. We exited it. It was never a detour. Consumer taste and consumer credit are the same subject approached from two directions, and knowing how a person wants to be seen tells you a great deal about how they spend.
Ventures
Companies
Building now
SoLo Funds
Co-Founder, President & Chairman · 2018The financial intelligence ecosystem for every class, and the largest community finance platform in the United States. Co-founded with Travis Holoway. Backed by MassMutual, Serena Ventures, Reign Ventures, Richelieu Dennis of New Voices and Jason Gardner, founder of Marqeta. Yield, capital and intelligence in one system.
solofunds.com →LISNR
Co-Founder & Chairman · 2012Ultrasonic data transmission for payments, mobility and connected devices. Chairman since founding. Chief Executive from 2012 to 2018, then Chief Commercial Officer through 2020, driving the company into payments. Conceived in seventy-two hours on the SXSW StartupBus and built with Chris Ostoich, whom he met at Procter and Gamble, and Josh Glick. Backed by Visa and Intel, deployed with Roc Nation, Jaguar Land Rover, Ticketmaster, Lenovo, AT&T, Live Nation, Budweiser and the Dallas Cowboys.
lisnr.com →Culture House
Co-Founder · 2015An immersive full-day experience at the intersection of technology, media and entertainment, co-founded with Marlon Nichols. It runs the circuit: SXSW, Cannes, Martha's Vineyard, LA Tech Week, AfroTech and Art Basel. Its cultureSPARK program pairs seed-stage funds with founders who do not get seen.
culturehouseofficial.com →The Wealth Break
Co-Founder · 2025A personal finance podcast and publication launched with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE, made for people the wealth management industry has never written for.
thewealthbreak.com →Realized and prior
Mai Johnson & Company
Co-Founder · 2021 · ExitedA men's prestige beauty brand built with Alvin Hathaway, a friend since high school track in Baltimore, and launched nationwide under Toni Ko's Bespoke Beauty Brands. Skincare and grooming for the man the category had ignored.
220 Productions
Co-Founder · UndergraduateMarketing and event management, founded at West Virginia University and run for four years. The first company, and the reason the rest of them felt possible.
Private real estate
InvestorAn active personal portfolio held and built alongside the operating companies.
The path here
A complete record
Present
2026
EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Named a regional finalist alongside Travis Holoway.
2026
SoLo NowCAST. The consumer vitality index debuts on Bloomberg Markets, reading household cash flow ahead of official economic data.
2025
The Wealth Break. Co-founded a personal finance podcast and publication with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE.
2025
SoLo IQ. Launched an AI financial coach built on more than a billion dollars in platform transactions.
2023
Founding in Color. Appeared in the Peacock series on Black founders.
2023
CNBC Disruptor 50. SoLo Funds named to the list, which CNBC noted made him the first founder to place two companies on the list.
2023
Serena Ventures. Backed SoLo Funds as the platform passed one million registered users.
2022
West Virginia University. Elected to the Alumni Association Board of Directors for a six-year term.
2021
Hennessy and Nas. Cast in the national Wild Rabbit campaign, a letter from Nas to his daughter about Black excellence and Black Wall Street.
2021
Mai Johnson & Company. Co-founded a men's prestige beauty brand with Alvin Hathaway, launched nationwide under Toni Ko's Bespoke Beauty Brands. Since exited.
2021
Certified B Corporation. SoLo Funds becomes the only Black-led certified B Corp in United States fintech, re-certified in 2026.
2020
Young Presidents' Organization. Joined the global network of chief executives.
2020
Milken Institute Global Conference. Spoke as Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of LISNR, closing out eight years operating the company.
2019
Visa invests. Visa took a strategic stake in LISNR and opened a commercial relationship, after a $15.6 million round that took the company past $30 million raised. LISNR ranked number 41 on that year's CNBC Disruptor 50, its fourth appearance.
2019
Congressional testimony. Testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services on the future of real-time payments.
2019
Henry Crown Fellow. Selected to the Aspen Global Leadership Network at The Aspen Institute.
2018
SoLo Funds founded. Built with Travis Holoway around a single question: what would lending look like if the community set the price.
2018
Endeavor Entrepreneur. Selected into the global high-impact founder network.
2017
Forbes contributor. Wrote a column for Forbes on entrepreneurship, wingmen, burnout and how corporations should work with startups.
2017
The STEM10. Profiled in the NewForm documentary series on dismantling the barriers to STEM education.
2017
Roll of Distinguished Alumni. Inducted by the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and by Procter & Gamble.
2016
Black Enterprise cover. The cover of the May Technology and Innovation Issue, under the line "This is the next big name in tech", with a multi-page feature inside. The same year the magazine named him Tech Entrepreneur of the Year and Breakout Star of the Year.
2015
Series B. LISNR raised $10 million led by Intel Capital, drawn from Intel's $125 million diversity fund for female and minority founders.
2015
Cannes Gold Lion. Awarded in Mobile Software Innovation for work at LISNR. An advertising festival honoring a data transmission company.
2015
Culture House. Co-founded with Marlon Nichols to put founders, investors, creators and executives in the same room at the moments that matter.
2014
Series A. $3.5 million, oversubscribed, from Progress Ventures, Jump Capital, CincyTech, Serra Ventures and Mercury Fund.
2013
Roc Nation. CincyTech invested $250,000 and a partnership with Roc Nation put the technology behind J. Cole album listening parties and the Budweiser Made In America festival.
2013
Ad Age 40 Under 40. Named to the list while still building LISNR out of Cincinnati.
2012–2020
LISNR. Founded the company and served as Chief Executive to 2018, then as Chief Commercial Officer to 2020 while the company moved into payments. Raised more than $40 million from Visa and Intel, shipped with Roc Nation, Jaguar Land Rover, Ticketmaster and Lenovo, collected over forty industry awards, and reached roughly thirty million devices. Chairman since founding.
2012
StartupBus. Conceived LISNR in seventy-two hours aboard the SXSW StartupBus, then raised $850,000 in seed capital and built it out of Cincinnati.
2011
First marketer at P&G with a patent. US 8,032,426, assigned to Procter and Gamble. A system letting friends and family pool money into an account a parent draws down for diapers. Community finance, eight years before SoLo Funds.
Earlier
Procter & Gamble. Brand management, most recently Pampers North America. The first marketer in the company's history to be issued a patent, and a catalyst in its earliest e-commerce and social work.
Earlier
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Energy. Financial and business development analyst. Where the career started.
2009
Howard University. MBA in finance and supply chain management.
2006
West Virginia University. BBA in finance, BA in economics, and MS in integrated marketing communications. Four degrees by the age of 24, while running varsity track.
Start
220 Productions. First company. A marketing and event management firm founded as an undergraduate and run for four years.
Before that
Baltimore. Born partially deaf, the youngest of six children, four brothers and a sister, to an immigrant family of limited means.
Recognition
Awards, fellowships and boards
Awards and honors
- CNBC Disruptor 502015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023
- Named by CNBC the first founder to place two companies on the Disruptor 50
- Cannes Gold Lion, Mobile Software Innovation2015
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year, regional finalist2026
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Connected World Communications2017
- Ernst & Young EDGE Award2013
- Ad Age 40 Under 402013
- ADCOLOR Innovator Award2018
- Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Award, Technology2018
- Ebony Power 1002018
- The Root 1002016
- NAACP Inspiring Innovation2017
- Black Enterprise cover story, the Technology & Innovation IssueMay 2016
- Black Enterprise Tech Entrepreneur of the Year2016
- Black Enterprise Breakout Star of the Year2016
- Entrepreneur, 25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Under 402016
- CES Honoree, Mobile Software2017
- BAI Global Innovation Awards finalist
- Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards
- Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab New York2022
- UrbanGeekz 502025
- Keynote speaker, Money20/20 and Shoptalk
- Forbes contributor, Entrepreneurs
- First marketer at Procter & Gamble to be issued a patent
- Named inventor on five granted US patents2011–2022
- Additional applications pending at SoLo Funds
- Upstart 100
- WVU Roll of Distinguished Alumni2017
- Procter & Gamble Alumni Network 40 Under Forty2017
Fellowships and networks
- Henry Crown Fellow, The Aspen Institute2019
- Endeavor Entrepreneur2018
- Young Presidents' Organization2020
- R/GA Accelerator powered by Techstars
Boards and trusteeships
- Chairman of the Board, SoLo Fundssince founding
- Chairman, LISNRsince founding
- Board of Directors, WVU Alumni Association2022–2028
- Board of Advisors, Howard University School of Business
- Board of Trustees, University of Cincinnatiformer
- Board, Wyzerrformer
Patents
Named inventor
I was the first marketer at Procter and Gamble to be issued a patent. In a company that runs on chemists and engineers, and that files constantly, the invention came out of brand management.
It was 2010 and I was on Pampers. The patent covers a system that lets friends and family contribute money into a shared account a parent draws down over time against a recurring expense. Diapers, in the filing. Community capital for a household cash-flow problem. It issued three times, as an original and two continuations.
I filed that eight years before SoLo Funds existed. The idea did not arrive in 2018. It was already on paper, assigned to Procter and Gamble, waiting for me to understand what it was.
The rest came at LISNR, and they describe the other half of the thesis: moving credentials, payments and access through sound that nobody can hear. Further applications are pending at SoLo Funds.
Granted patents
- US 8,032,426Automated system for managing baby care products
- US 8,112,322Automated system for managing baby care products
- US 8,190,495Automated system for managing baby care products
- US 11,126,394Systems and methods for content delivery and management
- US 11,452,153Pairing and gateway connection using sonic tones
Speaking
I speak to investor audiences, financial institutions, universities and founder communities. The talks are built around evidence rather than encouragement. No arc from adversity to inspiration, just what the data says about how capital actually moves in this country and what that means for whoever is in the room.
Represented for speaking by Gravity Speakers. I keynote. Money20/20, Shoptalk, Cannes, Lend360, AfroTech and Black Tech Week, plus stages in Berlin and Lagos, and corporate keynotes inside Procter and Gamble, Intuit and Mondelez. I also appear at the Aspen Ideas Festival, SXSW and across the CNBC events roster, and regularly on financial television, including from the exchange floors themselves.
Keynotes
- Money20/20
- Shoptalk
- Cannes
- Lend360
- AfroTech
- Black Tech Week
- Berlin
- Lagos
Corporate keynotes
- Procter & Gamble
- Intuit
- Mondelez
Also on stage at
- Aspen Ideas Festival
- SXSW
- Milken Institute Global Conference
- CIAA Tech Summit
- CNBC Events
Broadcast
- Bloomberg
- CNBC
- Nasdaq
- NYSE
- Peacock
- Wired
- Cheddar
- Yahoo Finance
- FinTech.TV
- Fox 5
- PIX11
- News 12
- Revolt
Topics
- Community finance
- Alternative data
- Economic nowcasting
- The cost of being underbanked
- Building category-defining companies
- Raising as an outsider
- Consumer credit reform
- AI in financial services
- Culture as go-to-market
- Brand building from CPG to fintech
Brands and campaigns
- Hennessy
- Nas
- Lexus
- BMW
- Perry Ellis
- Inc.
- STEM10
Written and reported
The archive
156 pieces. Work I wrote, conversations I sat for, and reporting on what we built.
Black Enterprise cover, May 2016
The Technology and Innovation Issue, under the line "This is the next big name in tech", with a multi-page feature inside. The same year the magazine named him Tech Entrepreneur of the Year and Breakout Star of the Year.
Showing all 156
- FortuneCash-poor Americans are paying $25 billion a year in hidden fees
- Fast CompanyWhy do VCs fund founders like Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes but not Black entrepreneurs
- Total RetailConsumers are trading clothing purchases for trips to the gas station
- The HillFinancial institutions that leverage underserved communities should provide value to them
- Fast CompanyThree lessons from cofounding a Black-owned certified B Corp tech startup
- Built InThree things to do before launching an impact-driven startup
- Built InWant to start a company with a friend? Read this first
- Built InBlack tech unicorns are rare. Here is how to change that
- Built InOn Juneteenth, remember that freedom means financial freedom too
- B The ChangeThe importance of being a Black-owned B Corp startup
- Sacramento BeeFlunking adulthood: why are Americans so financially illiterate
- CalMattersAs California cracks down on junk fees it is overlooking a major culprit
- Fintech NexusThe uphill battle fintechs face in reducing the racial wealth gap
- ForbesWhy every founder needs a wingman
- ForbesEven cities can serve as a wingman
- ForbesSo, you want to be an entrepreneur?
- ForbesHow should corporations work with startups?
- ForbesBurnt out? Five tips to keep you fresh
- The Cash Poor ReportAnnual research on the cost of being cash poor in America, published by SoLo Funds since 2023
- Bloomberg MarketsSoLo NowCAST debuts on Bloomberg
- BloombergConsumers are cash poor but credit rich
- BloombergLow income consumers still feeling burned
- Bloomberg Markets AmericasOn the FOMC, fiscal policy and paycheck surveys
- FinTech.TVBreaking down inflation trends
- Fox 5 DCGood Day DC with The Wealth Break hosts
- PIX11Budgeting, saving and student loans: a game plan for new grads
- PIX11Frugal February: smart ways to reset your spending
- PIX11Your holiday budget playbook
- PIX11What to know before lending to friends and family
- News 12 Long IslandHow to invest for retirement
- News 12 Long IslandHidden dangers of taking out a personal loan
- News 12 Long IslandHow to spot credit card hidden fees
- News 12 Long IslandTips on how to manage student loan debt
- Roland Martin UnfilteredTech Talk
- SPPI-TVRodney Williams goes SoLo
- CNBCSmart Tone technology, and the number 12 spot on the Disruptor 50
- CNBCRodney Williams, LISNR CEO, on the 2018 Disruptor 50
- HennessyCast in the national Wild Rabbit campaign written and narrated by Nas
- HennessyWE ARE Disruptors, the Black History Month content series
- The STEM10Featured episode of the NewForm documentary series on breaking barriers to STEM
- IMDbThe STEM10, series and episode credits
- NasdaqDisruptor 50 live from the Nasdaq MarketSite
- CNBCLISNR, disrupting data at the speed of sound
- CNBCFrom a six-figure salary to startup debt, and why optimism matters
- CNBCFrom a six-figure Procter and Gamble job to chief executive of LISNR
- WiredPerry Ellis campaign film, produced with Wired
- BloombergOn the Cash Poor Report
- Cheddar NewsBe Well, better money management moves
- The Aspen InstituteMeet the Disruptors, paving a path to a new economy
- SHIFT MobilityImpulse Talk on audio technology and mobility
- Inc.Why it's time to take millennial leaders seriously, panel at the Inc. Women's Summit
- Quintessentially SpeakingCreating SoLo Funds, Black wealth, and building what has never been done
- Fintech One-on-OneOn creating a community finance platform
- Fintech ImpactEpisode 373
- Finovate PodcastEpisode 204
- Banking TransformedThe future of community finance, with Jim Marous
- Fintech ConfidentialBorrowers become lenders
- AwarepreneursEffective financial inclusion, episode 333
- Black Tech UnpluggedEpisode 78
- A Dose of Black Joy & CaffeineEpisode 223
- Black to BusinessBeyond venture capital: alternative funding paths
- Moving The NeedleChanging access to capital with SoLo Funds
- 11:FS Fintech InsiderFighting civil inequality with fintech, episode 824
- FinTech Focus TVHow fintech changes lives
- VentureFizzSerial entrepreneur, and the story behind Founding in Color
- Black Tech Green MoneyEpisode 114, finding success when facing existential threats, with AfroTech's Will Lucas
- The Wealth BreakSeason one, the full series with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE
- Manifest HouseStop blaming the system, how to outperform everyone in the game, with 19 Keys and Keenan Beasley
- GHOGH with Jamarlin MartinOn raising venture capital, HBCU endowments, and firing people you like
- CNBCThe first founder to place two companies on the Disruptor 50
- CNBCSoLo Funds named to the Disruptor 50
- CNBCFrom a six-figure P&G job to chief executive of LISNR
- Fast CompanyThe new cash-poor is six figures and up
- Fast CompanyDuring the shutdown, more people turned to strangers for loans
- Inc.The new cash-poor is six figures and up
- Investment NewsPaycheck-to-paycheck crisis reaches six-figure earners
- ObserverSerena Williams' venture firm builds its own grand slam portfolio
- TechCrunchSerena Ventures backs SoLo Funds as it tops one million users
- TechCrunchSXSW rebounds as a top ideas festival for founders and VCs
- American BankerSoLo Funds breaks the million-customer mark
- American BankerSoLo Funds gets a Congressman's backing
- American BankerLA fintechs adapt to the wildfires' toll
- NBC NewsAt Aspen Ideas, Williams challenges financial literacy orthodoxy
- ForbesHow junk fees hammer those who can least afford it
- AxiosWhy junk fees run deeper than Taylor Swift tickets
- QuartzCash-poor Americans paid tens of billions in junk fees
- USA TodayMore Americans are cash poor and paying a high price for it
- NewsweekOn Black Friday, payday lenders are now armed with AI
- PitchBookStartup Radar: VCs on Black-founded startups you need to know
- PeopleHabitat for Humanity and United Way partner with SoLo Causes
- Milken InstituteFinTech in Focus on the Cash Poor Report
- Banking DiveSoLo Funds launches SoLo IQ, built on $1B in transactions
- Banking DiveSoLo Funds to bring peer-to-peer lending to Nigeria
- The Financial BrandRedefining affordable capital
- Black EnterpriseCash poor Americans spent $38B in fees beyond APR
- Black EnterpriseCulture House brings more than culture to SXSW
- RevoltSoLo Funds founders launch The Wealth Break
- PYMNTSSoLo Funds re-certifies as a B Corp
- WorthHow SoLo Funds is bringing equity to financial services
- Business WireBespoke Beauty Brands launches Mai Johnson & Company
- Cosmetics BusinessNYX founder Toni Ko expands into male grooming with Mai Johnson & Company
- Beauty PackagingNew men's skin care brand launches, Mai Johnson & Company
- WVU TodayBusiness school inducts Williams into the Roll of Distinguished Alumni
- WVU TodayAlumni Association Board of Directors welcomes Williams
- UrbanGeekzThe UrbanGeekz 50
- U.S. House of RepresentativesTestimony before the Committee on Financial Services on real-time payments
- CNBCLISNR debuts on the Disruptor 50 at number 12
- CNBCLISNR aims to disrupt Bluetooth
- CNBCLISNR returns to the Disruptor 50 at number 45
- CNBCLISNR on the 2018 Disruptor 50
- CNBCDisruptor 50 Roadshow, Los Angeles
- Yahoo FinanceCash-poor Americans paid tens of billions in junk fees to borrow
- Yahoo FinanceSoLo Funds founders launch The Wealth Break
- Yahoo FinanceHow SoLo Funds is bringing equity to financial services
- Bows x ArrowsInside the Wired and Perry Ellis campaign film
- Business InsiderThe 14-slide pitch deck used to raise $10 million
- Authority MagazineMeet the disruptors, five things you need to shake up your industry
- TechCrunchLISNR's data-over-audio aims to replace QR codes and NFC
- Gravity SpeakersSpeaker profile, fees and availability
- TechCrunchLISNR raises a $10 million Series B led by Intel Capital
- PR NewswireLISNR closes $3.5 million in oversubscribed Series A funding
- Startup GrindCincinnati fireside on building LISNR
- Council of Urban ProfessionalsCatalyst profile
- Let's EngageSpeaker profile
- Aspen Ideas FestivalSpeaker profile
- CNBC EventsSpeaker profile
- NasdaqCNBC Disruptor 50 company interview, live from the MarketSite
- CNBCOn reinventing the payment scenario with sound
- MoguldomVisa invests in LISNR to compete in mobile payments
- GlobeNewswireCincyTech invests $250,000 in LISNR
- PhoneArenaTicketmaster will admit you to events using audio from your phone
- CB InsightsLISNR company profile
- LISNRFounder newsroom profile
- NatfluenceInterview on building the leading ultrasonic platform
- Fast CompanyAuthor archive
- CNBCVisa makes a strategic investment in LISNR, the start-up that wants to rival Apple Pay
- PYMNTSVisa invests in LISNR to boost mobile payments growth
- R/GA VenturesVisa's strategic investment in LISNR
- Milken InstituteGlobal Conference 2020 speaker
- Black EnterpriseCover story: Listen Up, this is the next big name in tech. Technology & Innovation Issue
- Black EnterpriseThis Black tech founder is disrupting financial technology with not one but two companies
- Black EnterpriseBE Modern Man, the ad men
- Baltimore SunA Baltimore tech entrepreneur built the nation's largest Black-owned fintech
- All American SpeakersSpeaker profile and booking
- Denver Startup WeekListen Up, a conversation with Rodney Williams
- The Wall Street JournalAudio-beacon startup Lisnr nails $3.5M Series A
- Cincinnati EnquirerRodney Williams: the Pampers problem
- Ad AgeMeet Ad Age's 40 Under 40
- BizjournalsUpstart100 profile
- Yahoo FinanceLISNR founder honored by Ad Age
- AfroTechHow LISNR grew through the METRO Target Retail Accelerator
- MoguldomOn the future of crypto, from the Black Tech Week Miami stage
- Shoppe BlackThe Black-owned business disrupting mobile technology
- Black Enterprise14 entrepreneurial thought leaders to follow
- Black EnterpriseReign Ventures, an early investor in both LISNR and SoLo Funds
- Black EnterpriseFull coverage archive
For organizers and press
Approved biography
Copy either version directly. Both are current and cleared for publication.
Short · 90 words
Rodney B. Williams is the Co-Founder and President of SoLo Funds, the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class and the largest community finance platform in the United States. He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of LISNR, the ultrasonic data platform backed by Visa and Intel, and a co-founder of Culture House. CNBC named him the first founder to place two companies on its Disruptor 50 list. He is a Cannes Gold Lion winner, and a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. He is a Baltimore native.
Long · 315 words
Rodney B. Williams is the Co-Founder and President of SoLo Funds, the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class and the largest community finance platform in the United States. He co-founded the company in 2018 with Travis Holoway and has built it across three products: community lending, member capital, and NowCAST, an index that reads American household cash flow ahead of official economic data.
He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of LISNR, an ultrasonic data platform he led as Chief Executive from 2012 to 2018. Backed by Visa and Intel, LISNR raised more than $40 million, collected over forty industry awards, and brought secure device-to-device communication to partners including Jaguar Land Rover, Ticketmaster, Lenovo and Roc Nation.
Williams co-founded Culture House with Marlon Nichols in 2015, an event platform at the intersection of technology, media and entertainment that runs at SXSW, Cannes, AfroTech and Art Basel. He co-founded Mai Johnson & Company, a men's prestige beauty brand launched with Toni Ko and since exited, and The Wealth Break, a personal finance podcast and publication launched with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE. He is an active private real estate investor.
Earlier in his career he held brand management roles at Procter & Gamble, where he became the first marketer in the company's history to be issued a patent, and began at Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Energy as a financial and business development analyst.
CNBC named him the first founder to place two companies on its Disruptor 50 list. He appeared in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2023. He won a Cannes Gold Lion in 2015, was named to Ad Age's 40 Under 40 and the Ebony Power 100, and is a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute and an Endeavor Entrepreneur. He has raised more than $100 million in venture capital across his companies. He holds four degrees from West Virginia University and Howard University, earned by the age of 24. Born partially deaf in Baltimore, the youngest of six children, he is the son of immigrants.
Questions
The short answers
Who is Rodney B. Williams?
Rodney B. Williams is an American entrepreneur, the Co-Founder and President of SoLo Funds, and the Co-Founder and Chairman of LISNR. Born partially deaf in Baltimore to an immigrant family, he built his first company around transmitting data on frequencies the human ear cannot detect, and has raised more than $100 million in venture capital across his companies. He has founded six companies across financial technology, consumer brands and cultural infrastructure, and was named by CNBC the first founder to place two companies on its Disruptor 50 list.
What is SoLo Funds?
SoLo Funds is the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class and the largest community finance platform in the United States. Co-founded in 2018 by Rodney B. Williams and Travis Holoway, it runs on three pillars: lending yield, member capital, and predictive intelligence through SoLo IQ and SoLo NowCAST.
What companies has Rodney B. Williams founded?
SoLo Funds in 2018, LISNR in 2012, Culture House in 2015, The Wealth Break in 2025, Mai Johnson & Company in 2021 which has since been exited, and 220 Productions, a marketing and event management firm he founded as an undergraduate.
What is LISNR?
LISNR is an ultrasonic data platform that transmits secure data between devices using inaudible sound. Williams founded it in 2012 and served as Chief Executive until 2018, raising more than $40 million from investors including Visa and Intel, and shipping with Roc Nation, Jaguar Land Rover, Ticketmaster and Lenovo. He has been Chairman since founding.
What is SoLo NowCAST?
SoLo NowCAST is a consumer vitality index built from real repayment behavior on the SoLo Funds platform. It reads American household cash flow ahead of official economic data and debuted on Bloomberg Markets in April 2026.
What is Culture House?
Culture House is an immersive event platform at the intersection of technology, media and entertainment, co-founded by Rodney B. Williams and Marlon Nichols in 2015. It runs at SXSW, Cannes, Martha's Vineyard, LA Tech Week, AfroTech and Art Basel, and its cultureSPARK program connects seed-stage funds with underrepresented founders.
Where did Rodney B. Williams go to school?
He earned three degrees from West Virginia University, a BBA in finance, a BA in economics and an MS in integrated marketing communications, along with an MBA in finance and supply chain management from Howard University. He completed all four by the age of 24.
What awards has Rodney B. Williams won?
A Cannes Gold Lion in Mobile Software Innovation, the ADCOLOR Innovator Award, the Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Award in Technology, Ad Age 40 Under 40, the Ernst & Young EDGE Award, Black Enterprise Tech Entrepreneur of the Year, The Root 100 and the Ebony Power 100. He has appeared on the CNBC Disruptor 50 list five times, in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2023, and is a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute.
How do I book Rodney B. Williams to speak?
Email hello@rodneybwilliams.com with Speaking in the subject line. He speaks on community finance, alternative data, economic nowcasting, consumer credit reform and culture as go-to-market. He has keynoted Money20/20, Shoptalk, Cannes, Lend360, AfroTech and Black Tech Week, delivered keynotes in Berlin and Lagos, and given corporate keynotes at Procter & Gamble, Intuit and Mondelez. He has also appeared at the Aspen Ideas Festival, SXSW and the Milken Institute Global Conference, and appears regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC, Nasdaq and NYSE broadcasts. Representation is through Gravity Speakers.
Which Rodney Williams is this?
This is Rodney B. Williams, the technology entrepreneur: co-founder and President of SoLo Funds, founder and chairman of LISNR, born in Baltimore, named inventor on five US patents. Several other public figures share the name and search engines routinely conflate them. He is not Sir Rodney Williams, the Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda. He is not the Rodney Williams who served as an executive at Moët Hennessy USA, though he did appear in a Hennessy campaign as a featured entrepreneur in 2021. He is not any of the several professional American football players of that name, nor any unrelated businessperson of that name in other cities. He is not the Rodney B. Williams credited with agricultural machinery patents in the 1970s and 1980s, despite both appearing on the same Justia inventor page. The canonical record for this Rodney B. Williams is rodneybwilliams.com.
Does Rodney B. Williams hold patents?
Yes. He is named inventor on five granted US patents. He was the first marketer at Procter & Gamble to be issued a patent, US 8,032,426 in 2011, one of three in that family, covering a system that lets friends and family contribute to a shared account a parent draws down for recurring purchases. He filed it eight years before co-founding SoLo Funds. The remaining filings come from LISNR and cover transmitting credentials, payments and access over inaudible sound. Further applications are pending at SoLo Funds. Further applications are pending at SoLo Funds.
Contact
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