Rodney Williams (entrepreneur)
Rodney Williams (born 1984) is an American technology entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of LISNR, a company providing a protocol that sends data over audio by means of ultrasound.
Early life and education
Williams was born in Baltimore in a family of blue-collar entrepreneurs. He was born partly deaf and remains in one ear. His parents sent him to private schools from a very young age and he graduated from Calvert Hall College High School in 2002. After graduating from West Virginia University, Williams moved to Washington, D.C. where he obtained his MBA from Howard University. He earned a total of four degrees (in economics, finance, supply chain and marketing), two of which are masters.
Career
Williams moved to Cincinnati after obtaining an internship at Procter & Gamble. As a brand manager for Pampers, he got three social-media-related patents; Williams was the first marketer at P&G to co-write digital patents. By the time he was 27, he had created 3 patents and earned numerous industry awards.
In March 2012, Williams joined the StartupBus, a competition in which participants launch a company in 72 hours aboard a bus. By the end of the trip, Williams, Josh Glick and Chris Ostoich rolled out a demo reel on an application specifically catered to music. The company, which they named LISNR, raised $850,000 in a seed round in August 2012.
By 2014, Williams secured a strategic partnership with Roc Nation, the record label founded by Jay-Z, which granted LISNR access to many artists and corporations along with office space in New York City to supplement their headquarters in Cincinnati. The company closed on a $3.5 million Series A round in June 2014. By that time, LISNR's technology had been embedded in six million downloaded mobile applications. By June 2015, Williams's company had offices in Cincinnati, New York City and San Francisco, with a total of 22 employees. It raised a $10 million series B round led by Intel Capital in November 2015.
Awards and recognition
Williams was named to Jet Magazine's 40 under 40 in 2013. He was also named one of 25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Under 40 Who Are Creating the Next Big Thing by Entrepreneur. Williams was named Black Enterprise 2016 Techpreneur of the Year and AdAge's 40 Under 40 marketer for 2013. He was invited to the White House Demo Day for startup founders in 2015.