Show Notes
"Everything we do as entrepreneurs is risk. But you can take educated guesses and educate yourself on how to do it." - Ryan Frey
Ryan started his career in the Peace Corps, building rural water systems in Bolivia, barely speaking the language and with no money to do it.
In two and a half years, he finished one project.
What he actually learned wasn't construction, it was how to find funding, design something from nothing, and grind projects out no matter how long they take.
He brought that grinder mentality into 25 years of real estate development in Missoula, Montana: infill housing, multifamily, industrial, large-scale residential, whatever deals came his way in a market of 120,000 people.
He recently entitled a 300-unit build-to-rent project and sold it rather than building it out himself, a decision he credits less to strategy and more to staying unattached to any single project and taking the right offer when it came.
Now he's focused on solving Montana's housing affordability gap with factory-built homes, 20-30% cheaper than stick-built construction, targeting the growing space between renters and first-time buyers priced out by the state's post-COVID, post-"Yellowstone effect" boom.
He's walked away from deals that looked perfect on paper over a single detail, like insufficient parking, that would have broken the project regardless of the numbers.
"Most of us, it's easy to create the vision and then just not take action. My advice: get in there and grind it out. You'll get it done."
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