Entrepreneurs of America: Jaebadiah Gardner
Entrepreneurs of America
Entrepreneurs of America highlights the grit and determination of the owners building and shaping the businesses of tomorrow.
Jaebadiah Gardner
CEO and Founder of GardnerGlobal
Jaebadiah Gardner undertook an audacious monument project, his freshman year at the University of Washington. Together with a friend, Gardner worked tirelessly to have a monument built and dedicated to the students of color on a predominantly white campus. Entitled “Blocked Out,” the granite block with bare footprints reads “BLOCKED OUT” - dedicated to those who are excluded from the house they were exploited to create.
“I was able to fight to create space, and that’s when I realized I wanted to do this on a bigger scale,” reflected Gardner. During his time at UW, Gardner was also awarded the Edward E. Carlson Award which allowed him to pay for and ultimately complete his final semesters. A few months after graduation, he was sitting at work when he was suddenly struck with the need to know who “Eddie” was. Upon Googling his name, Gardner learned that Carlson was the visionary behind the Space Needle. At that moment, everything seemed to fall into place.
“It was such an out of body experience. I’m a visionary. This is what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to continue visualizing what could be, what could happen in our communities. You know what I mean? From a place making perspective and real estate perspective. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was the recipient of an award based off of the guy who brought the Space Needle to Seattle. It just blew my mind.”
That was the catalytic moment when Gardner realized what he was meant to do. “I started zoning in on my construction engineering [skills] and I’m taking it seriously. This isn’t just another job for me. I’m thinking about how to become an entrepreneur and leverage this education. I gotta go to law school. I gotta learn business. I gotta learn real estate. From there things just took off and everything started to click, but it all started at that very powerful moment,” said Gardner.
GardnerGlobal, Gardner’s real estate development firm based in Seattle will be 15 in March of 2024. Looking back, he’s learned a lot. “When I first started out, I kept thinking if I just had the cash, I could execute, but now I realize even if I had the cash it wouldn’t have solved all of my problems. You need to get beat up in this game. You need experience too, so it’s like this weird balance between needing capital and getting the experience you need to manage the capital. You need to get stepped on. You need to be told no. If you don't know how to get through those early challenges, then what makes you think you’ll know how to use the capital [when you finally get it]? Someone's going to invest in you and then you will have a hurdle. How are you going to spend that $50,000 check? Are you gonna be able to know how to stretch it out and make it last three years instead of three months?,” says Gardner.
“I’m in this for 2-3 generations past me. I need to be tested for longevity and gain a level of resilience that is unbeatable, so I can confidently tell an investor that their investment is safe because we've been through some very difficult times,” Gardner shared.
Mentors, Positive Mental Attitude, an unwavering belief in himself and his family have helped Gardner get through the tough times. “It's kind of cliche, but my family is a big source of inspiration. I didn't grow up with a lot of resources at my disposal- really we had negative resources. When you’re raised by your grandparents and you see how hard they work– my grandfather dropped out of school but he was still able to provide for his family. That did and does something for me. I just want to make sure that I work as hard as I can to build a business that supports the folks who supported me first and then be able to support the broader black and brown community.”
Currently, building his team’s capacity and growing his business keeps him up at night, “We have to find that sweet spot where we can grow and have the capacity to grow. I don’t want to grow the business until I get the business, but I need enough capital to build the business. And I know what to do with [capital] now. I have real projects that need equity, so I’m all about meeting like-minded investors and partners who see the value in what we’re building.”
Gardner has big dreams for his impact as he looks to the future, “Besides our internal project, revenue and business goals, in five years, I want to see more black and brown and women developers in this city who have chosen to take this industry seriously and have chosen to build wealth through real estate. I don’t want to be the only Black and Latino owned company. I don’t want to continue saying I’m the only one in Seattle. I want to be able to point to other people and their businesses because that means we’re actually building wealth as a community and people are getting the resources they need to support and hire more people of color.”
BIO
Jaebadiah S. Gardner
Jaebadiah S. Gardner is an African-American, Mexican-American businessman, multi-family real estate developer, fund manager, author and is the Founder & CEO of GardnerGlobal, Inc., a privately held holding company headquartered in Seattle, WA. Jaebadiah earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and later earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Western Michigan Law School. Prior to development, Jaebadiah worked for Turner Construction building commercial high-rises in downtown Seattle. Since 2009 he has built up a client base of private and non-profit clients providing feasibility, pre-development and development services. Jaebadiah was most recently selected as a 2022-2023 LISC/Amazon fellow. He currently has a pipeline of over 600+ units and over $250MM in total project costs on urban infill sites in Seattle. Jaebadiah is the President of the University of Washington Alumni Association's Multicultural Alumni Partnership Board, Board of trustee for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and he is a board member for the University of Washington Runstad School of Real Estate.
