We were thrilled to welcome Jared Wicker to the Radix team last summer. Jared is an apartment industry veteran with invaluable experience in multifamily operations. He will play a critical role at our company as Radix expands its client base and meets the data needs of all of our customers. You may even recall reading his blog on the pitfalls of web scraping.
To help you get to know Jared better, we recently sat down with him to get more of his thoughts on the multifamily industry, what excites him about being part of the Radix team and his favorite book of all time.
Tell us about your career before you joined Radix last summer.
Jared: I’ve been in multifamily my entire career.
I started off on the operations side. In 2008, I went to work for Colonial Properties. I began as a financial assistant to a VP of operations and then actually went and leased apartment communities, working onsite.
I then went to Alliance Residential as an operations analyst, which is where I met Blerim [Zeqiri, CEO and co-founder of Radix].
Later, I went to Wood Partners, and I was with them for five years in various roles. I started as an analyst in the asset management group and eventually ended up as the manager of operations analytics, where I built their business intelligence platform.
Wood Partners was one of the first Radix customers, and I got to use the platform from the user side for a long time. I helped Radix innovate some of its reporting and how it fed customers’ data back out of the system. I was one of the ones who requested a data feed coming back out of the product so that I could use it to build my business intelligence system for Wood Partners.
I then moved to Waypoint Residential, helping them with reporting and operations and building out their technology suite. I stayed there until the middle of last year when I joined Radix.
What excites you about being part of the Radix team?
Jared: Because Wood Partners was one of Radix’s first customers, I have seen Radix grow from a young company to where it is today. I’m just excited about the growth opportunity that Radix presents.
I think we’re on a great trajectory to being one of the leading go-to sources for data in the multifamily industry, and I’m excited to be a part of that.
How do you see the multifamily industry performing and changing in the years ahead?
Jared: I’m bullish about the multifamily industry in general. The demographics are turning in our direction. Homeownership has declined over the past decade, and household formation has been on the rise as well, which adds to the number of renters that we’re seeing.
On the technology front, we are just at the beginning of really expanding the services that are available for the industry. It’s always lagged behind most other industries, as far as technology goes. But I think what several companies are doing, including Radix, is going to transform the way that multifamily looks at technology over the next decade.
What do you like to do to relax and unwind from your job?
Jared: I think I use my job to relax and unwind (laughs). I really love what I do. I also have three young children at home. They all have birthdays at the beginning of the year – the oldest will be seven in April and the others are five and three. So I stay busy when I’m not at work.
I’m also a fitness junkie. I’ve got a full gym in my basement, and I also have a Peloton bike that I enjoy riding as much as I can. Spending time with family and friends is also one of the things that I enjoy doing.
Just for fun, tell us your favorite book, your favorite movie and your favorite musician.
Jared: I probably read 20 or 30 books a year. If I had to pick a favorite book of all time, I would say the one that’s changed my mindset the most is “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” I studied finance in college and the way that Robert Kiyosaki looks at assets and liabilities differently from the classical definitions of assets and liabilities was a real shift in my mindset.
As for movies, I’m a fan of the comedy genre. I also like action movies. I don’t know if I could pick a favorite one, but anything that makes me laugh or that’s exciting is a good movie for me.
I have a very diverse taste in music – anything from country to hip-hop and anything in between. But I grew up on country music, so if I had to choose a favorite musician, I’d probably pick Garth Brooks.
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