Friendship
Ryan Sweeney
Founder and CEO
Ryan began his career as an army aviator, leaving the military as a Captain. He honed his skills as a planner, project manager and leader, though he valued leadership dating back to his days as a captain and three sport athlete in high school as well as a collegiate baseball player. After the military, which sent Ryan to Iraq, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Japan and India (to support President Obama), he moved into retail management. Acknowledging he made a mistake in industry choice, Ryan quickly pivoted to manufacturing. He was a production control leader for GE Aviation before becoming a factory manager for Eagle Eye Networks. While at GE, he developed his skills in lean six sigma and process improvement.
During his post military career, Ryan found his passion for Real Estate. Ryan decided to joint venture into a duplex with a friend and the hook was set! Combining this with his passion for “sustainability,” Ryan realized his purpose after a career of military service…”Eco-Friendly” home and community development. As Ryan strived to gain a foothold in real estate, he partnered with a retired reverend in land acquisition and building affordable, sustainable housing. After a defaulted loan forced Ryan to flip land, he became involved in the land game.
However, this left him saddled with a product called structural insulated panels. Ryan had to adapt or lose money; so he began building sustainable homes to generate money while doing some long-term good for the world (and his daughter). This was just another problem that needed to be solved, something Ryan was good at from his time in the military. This passion led Ryan down the path of learning more about land development and ultimately connecting him with R Squared Texas, an Austin local 3D home printing company who shared his values and was owned by another army veteran. Ryan was quickly brought onto the team.
Ryan has attended the Master’s of Land and Property Development at Texas A&M in addition to having a master’s in educational administration, Bachelor’s in history, lean six sigma green belt, commercial rotary and instrument license and a private pilot’s fixed wing license. He has worked for the US Army, Love’s Travel Stops, GE Aviation, and Eagle Eye Networks before starting Friendship Real Estate Investments, showing his mix of large and small business experience. Beyond his business, Ryan leverages an IRA/LLC (Three Bells Investments) to invest alternatively in real estate and other ventures as well as partnering with R Squared Texas as the Director of Business Development.
Read more about Ryan on LinkedIn:
OUR VISION
OUR MISSION
OUR PURPOSE
To start small and work our way up. We are committed to developing sustainable housing one house at a time and working our way up to communities. It is more than sustainability, it is changing who we are as human-beings, how we see things, and how we operate daily.
We understand our views and values will not align with everyone’s, but it is our goal to start small and make the processes so easy that it impacts daily lives little and becomes second nature; we believe in muscle memory.
Some examples include:
Using a hybrid hot water heater, which generates cost savings and also allows you to run the dishwasher, bathe a child, while your spouse jumps in the shower all at once without running out of hot water!
Using landscaping to keep energy costs down, provide the recycling of nutrients that plants naturally do on their own, while attracting pollinators…Plus so much more.
After mastery at the individual level, we will multiply this to scale, ultimately developing sustainable communities. The end state includes agrihood based communities, environmentally and energy efficient homes, and so on. Finally, it is our goal to provide a closed circuit, multi-energy grid, that brings balance to the community and the environment, with as little disruption to both you and the environment, unifying the ecosystem into one.
Here is the best part…pay no taxes! The vision is this will be done via a cooperative (aka Co-op). You don’t own the home, but you own the “rights to the home.” You pay a ground-lease to the Co-op (business) who writes off the taxes as Ag Exempt. You instead, buy into the business and have a vote on how the “business” (aka Community) operates. If the community, for example, develops a successful farm to market restaurant (which happens to can and preserve- to sell or distribute amongst the community- food before it goes to waste); that income pays off all community needs, gets distributed amongst the owners in means of paying debt and generating income. As the Guinness characters would say, Brilliant!
***note, this is not for everyone and not all communities will be built as such. We feel that this approach will provide financial openness and engagement within the community and develop a community that is goal-driven, honest, selfless and willing to sacrifice for one another and the greater good of both the community and our environment.
In order to fully support the community, we are not going to be selling one million dollar homes, but rather we will have a balance of apartments, townhouses, starter homes and larger homes. In order to be a community, it needs to be diverse. We need people with varying backgrounds and thought processes to support daily life within the community with an aligned vision for the community. Mechanics will need to assist in fixing farm equipment, teachers will help educate our future generations at childcare/schooling centers, nurses and doctors can quickly respond to neighborhood health issues, etc.
THE HOW AND PATH FORWARD
How:
Fiscal and Environmental Accountability- We use lean manufacturing principles to reduce the amount of waste generated and pass on these cost savings to our customers. This approach allows us to be fiscally and environmentally responsible to our customers (the consumer and the environment). Further, by using some of the practices listed below, your investment will appreciate more and your daily cost will be reduced, as sustainable products last much longer and cost less over time.
Redefining Sustainability- We acknowledge “sustainability” is a term that has been diluted by green washing and false advertising. We are therefore taking a holistic approach, incorporating some of the following in our homes and communities to name just a few: Agrihood; recycled materials; chemical free materials; longer lasting, high quality materials; renewable energy; biophilia; homesteading practices such as water capture, and much more.
Minimizing Daily Impact- In the army we had a phrase for constant improvement, “Keep improving your foxhole.” The intent was that you would be better defended if you kept improving your defensive area. We take this approach to sustainability. “Sustainability” can be overwhelming, as it is a change in lifestyle. We acknowledge that it is not for everyone. What we strive for is minimizing the impact on your daily lives, so you can go about living it similarly to the way you do. Our goal is to assist you in making those small steps. You do not need to be perfect in your sustainable practices, we feel that each little thing you do will make the “foxhole” better than it was before.
Path forward:
– Learn from our individual homes before establishing communities…”improve those foxholes.”
– Generate income producing individual investments that promote the brand to go market with our vision, mission, and purpose…we show them how it works!
– Flip land- search for off market opportunities and raise income to flip subdivide and flip land to generate cash. This land would be in between individual builds/cash flowing ventures and large scale (20+ acre communities).
– Find equity and debt investors to assist in the scale of development (contact us if you interested).
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Farm / Farmers Market, Greenhouse, Canning / Community restaurant / Market, Bee keeping, acorn and other flour processing, Energy Incinerator, Underground (doomsday) storage and shelter, LEED, 220v, Off Grid community, Art/ architecture/ nature/ trails=mental health, On site counselor, Children’s education on financials/ farming/ sciences/ etc., Focus on the community- community center / support, Bulk food storage—weekly deliveries (Azure Standard)
SUSTAINABLE HOUSING
