Todd Ryden
BA 1993, History
Co-Founder and managing Director, The Applied Group, Indianapolis, IN
As an entrepreneur for the past fifteen years, Mr. Ryden and the companies he has founded have participated in various business transactions exceeding $140M, including sales to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Ryden focuses his attention on business planning, operations implementation, creative business strategies and transaction structure.
FNEX. Mr. Ryden founded FNEX, which launched publically on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo in April of 2014. FNEX is the first comprehensive marketplace for alternative investments. Investment banks and funds list their private securities on the FNEX marketplace, for buy-side access from institutional investors, family offices, funds, advisors, PE groups, and high net worth investors. Applied Capital, FNEX’s wholly owned FINRA registered investment bank, was formed to clear all the security transactions facilitated by the FNEX platform. Applied Capital was the first registered entity to operate such a marketplace. In 2016 Applied Capital placed over $1.1B in securities.
The Applied Group, Inc. Mr. Ryden and Jeff Adams founded The Applied Group in 2009. This private equity group focuses on investment in and acquisitions of software, technology and technology services companies. Investments and acquisitions are assessed on a deal-by-deal basis by the Managing Directors. TAG is not limited by ridged investment criteria, which typically apply to private equity funds.
ViaStar Energy, Inc. ViaStar was a pioneering participant in the field of fixed network wireless automated meter reading technology and services for utilities. Mr. Ryden’s Company designed and developed a wireless technology with Motorola and served as the product’s Master Distributor for North America. The potential market for this product was the residential utility meter population globally. In 2007 Motorola acquired the technology from ViaStar. Further, in 2008 ViaStar’s services division that operated nationally providing billing, customer service and utility management services, was acquired by Irvine, CA based NWP Services Corporation. The Indianapolis Star highlighted ViaStar as a growing entrepreneurial Indianapolis-based company.
Caldera Development, Inc. Mr. Ryden is a founding member of this real estate development company, which focuses on commercial real estate development. Caldera was the Indiana development affiliate with National Retail Properties, an NYSE listed REIT. Caldera has also partnered with Williams Realty and Pine Tree Development on commercial projects in Indiana. Caldera had participated in the Development of over 400,000 square foot of commercial retail development in Indiana.
AquaStar, LLC. Through this entity, Mr. Ryden was a Principal in an operating entity which owned a natural water spring and bottled water business. Mr. Ryden negotiated with Nestle, the founders of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, and venture capital groups for potential acquisition. A New York based venture capital group ultimately purchased the spring and bottled water brand.
StarCom Broadband, Inc. As a founder of this company, Mr. Ryden participated in the formation and operation of a regional broadband company. Throughout the Midwest, StarCom provided cable television, digital television, and high-speed broadband connectivity to residential users, before the major cable providers offered such services. StarCom partnered with MCI-WORLCOM, SBC Global, CISCO Systems, Blonder Tongue Laboratories and other technology companies to develop state-of-the-art broadband systems. Mr. Ryden testified at the FCC in regard to telecom deregulation and met with President Clinton in this regard. StarCom was acquired by Comcast in 2001.
Mitchell Hurst Jacobs & Dick: As an associate attorney at Mitchell Hurst, Mr. Ryden had the opportunity to work on the Indiana State advanced tobacco litigation, successfully conclude several trials, and to practice at the Indiana Supreme Court on issues surrounding lawyers’ ethics in the case Cincinnati Insurance vs. Wills. Mr. Ryden, and his co-counsel, challenged the practice in Indiana of an in-house insurance defense counsel’s representation of its insured’s and the conflicts of interest associated with such representation. The notoriety associated with this case resulted in Mr. Ryden’s Co-Counsel (William Hurst, and Jeffery Cook) receiving Indiana Trial Lawyers Association’s Trial Lawyers of the Year Award. Mr. Ryden co-authored several articles on this subject, and served as a guest speaker to several law firms in other jurisdictions on the topic.