Innovator John Green describes himself as the “summation of two parts of a person”—a nonconformist and a successful fintech entrepreneur. The co-founder and CEO of Dallas-based Nada spent his early 20s as the lead singer of a punk rock band, signing a record deal, touring internationally, and producing two albums. “There’s so much raw authenticity in that,” he says, “I never really knew how to spin that forward. Now, I’ve found an outlet for it.” As the leader of Nada’s investment, banking, and finance platform, Green has channeled his creativity and ingenuity into making the $27 trillion home equity market and real estate investing more accessible.
After his music career, Green spent roughly a decade working in financial services in the mortgage sector, holding roles in sales, risk mitigation, strategy, and innovation at JP Morgan, Pacific Union Financial, and more. Along the way, he realized real estate investing is not made to be easily understood. “It is very much alienating to people, and that bothered me,” he says. “That was not community-like; that was very elitist.
Green launched Nada in 2019 as a real estate services and mortgage company. Two years later, Nada released its Cityfunds offering—an Exchange-Traded Fund of single-family rental acquisitions and fractional homeowner equity within a given city that trades on an alternative system. “You have a representation of the housing stock,” Green says.
Nada procures the fractional homeowner equity via Homeshares, which formally launched last year and allows retail investors to sell fractional home equity to Nada for cash. “The drive is how do we make something that is so meaningful in everyone’s everyday lives more accessible and simpler, without disregarding the regulation,” Green says. Thus far, the company has launched Cityfunds in Dallas, Austin, Miami, and Tampa. Green hopes to roll out funds for Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, and Las Vegas in 2023.
Last year, Nada closed an $8.1 million seed funding round; in 2023, Green is aiming to raise even more, though he is quiet about how much. The new funds will help the company launch a debit card via a Visa partnership in Q2, on which customers can store cash earned from selling home equity or gained in Cityfunds investments. John also hopes to fully integrate all of Nada’s services into their mobile app using the new funding. “The opportunity is massive, and we want to be that beacon for real estate as accessible money for consumer good,” Green says.
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