Cody is a proud Bronx native who was born into a Black and Puerto-Rican family household. He attributes his success to how he was raised growing up. With both of his parents working in law-related career fields (mom was a stenographer and dad was a police officer), he and his younger sister were taught early on to stay out of trouble and focus on their academics. He distinctly remembers his parents worried he’d end up in jail or be killed due to the nature of the Bronx.
While Cody’s mom focused on teaching him to be more disciplined in his studies, Cody’s dad challenged him to fight using his head and not his hands. Cody describes his mom as being the stricter one compared to his dad. Unlike his mom, Cody’s dad had more of a laid-back approach to raising him but always made sure to push Cody to accomplish his goals.
For high school, Cody attended Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a well-known private independent school in New York City. Until his younger sister had been accepted into a program that helped minorities enroll in prestigious prep schools, attending a high school like Fieldston didn’t seem like a possibility for Cody. Once his parents saw prep schools as an option, they were fully invested in helping Cody get accepted into one. Cody expressed gratitude towards his parents for sacrificing so much to allow him to attend such a school.
It was during high school that Cody learned how different he grew up compared to his classmates, despite living in the same city. Cody’s classmates were mostly white and came from wealthier backgrounds. It wasn’t uncommon for his classmates to have parents that were high-level corporate executives or even public figures. Since Cody came from a working-class background, his high school served as a culture shock.
However, Cody didn’t let the differences in backgrounds deter his aspirations. Instead, he became motivated to achieve that level of success for himself. Thankfully for Cody, his high school had a strong support system to help its students enter premier colleges.
Cody remembered going with his parents to meet with a college counselor at his high school to discuss what colleges he should pursue. His counselor discussed with him where he could go, and what careers he could potentially pursue.
Cornell University and Emory University were two of the colleges Cody applied to. Oddly enough, Cody didn’t know anything about Emory until he got accepted. Thanks to his family in Georgia, he learned about the great reputation that Emory had. To confirm whether it’d be the right college for him to attend, Cody accepted an invitation to stay at Emory University for a diversity-related weekend of events hosted by the school. He had a wonderful time over the weekend, which ultimately solidified his decision to enroll at the school.
When it came to deciding on what to major in, Cody thought back to his time volunteering at SUNY North Bronx Career Center as a tutor, where he helped adults that were studying to get their GEDs. During some downtime on one of the days he was at the center, Cody googled “best paying jobs”. Investment banking was a job field that immediately popped up.
The prestige and compensation of a career in banking appealed to Cody and aligned with his strength in math and interest in the corporate world. Thus, he opted to major in finance at Emory University with hopes of working in investment banking.
During his time at Emory, Cody immediately started working towards his career goals. As a freshman, he was already attending career fairs. Cody explained that since he came from a family without much money or resources, he knew he had to actively work towards breaking into banking. Going to the career fairs hosted at Emory also served as a way for him to break out of his shell. As a result, he secured an internship at a startup called Soletron LLC, and along with his part-time job on campus, was officially on his professional journey.
In his sophomore year, Cody applied for a program called INROADS, which creates pathways to professional careers for ethnically diverse high school and college students. As a program participant, he obtained a mentor and landed his first internship in the financial services industry as a Business Insurance Underwriting Intern at The Travelers Companies.
While his internship at Travelers was a great start for his young career, Cody still had his eyes set on banking. Cody’s mentor from INROADS worked in treasury services at Citibank and introduced this to him as an alternative to investment banking. Soon after, Cody shifted his focus and landed an internship at J.P. Morgan as a Global Treasury Management Summer Analyst for Summer 2015. Upon a successful summer internship, Cody secured the bag with a full-time offer to work as an Analyst in their Global Treasury Management Program. If it wasn’t for INROADS and his mentor, Cody believes he never would’ve landed at J.P. Morgan.
Upon graduating from Emory University with a bachelor’s in finance and economics in 2016, Cody embarked on his full-time career as an Analyst at J.P. Morgan.
As always, his mom wanted him to further his education. She pushed him to go to graduate school instead of entering the workforce. However, Cody wanted to dive deep into the real world and told her he’d go for a graduate degree sometime in the future.
Cody worked at J.P. Morgan from 2016 to 2019, finishing his time with the firm as an Associate in Liquidity Client Solutions. He expressed appreciation for what a great learning experience it was, saying that making good friends, developing essential soft and technical skills, and navigating the challenges and responsibilities were some of the reasons he remains thankful for his time with the firm. In addition, he made good money for someone at his age. However, Cody noted that working at a bank didn’t fully capture his interests, as his passions were more aligned towards making a social impact. Cody also felt replaceable working at a large bank.
“If I die, they’ll replace me pretty quickly…. I’m a cog in the machine.”
Cody wants to create a legacy and leave his mark on the world. Working in treasury services wasn’t allowing him to fully utilize his potential to operate at his highest level. In addition, Cody was becoming complacent because of his job. For Cody, complacency and stagnation are two of the biggest threats in life.
As Cody continued his comfortable time in corporate America, something happened that would end up changing his life….
One evening after work, Cody got off the bus around the corner from his home and started crossing the street. Immediately after taking a couple of steps, a car made a sharp turn hitting Cody with immense impact. Cody rolled onto the hood of the car and wound up spinning off it. Cody hit the ground hard with his life flashing before his eyes.
“When I hit the ground, it was a surreal feeling. I really didn’t know if I was alive or dead in that moment. I was pinching myself to figure out if I was alive or not.”
An ambulance arrived and took Cody to the hospital, where Cody was diagnosed with a torn ACL and MCL. As a result, he had been forced to be away from work for 6 months and go through a grueling 2 years of physical therapy.
It was during the 6-month break from work that Cody began to think about his future and what he really wanted in life. He reflected on the comfortability he had developed since starting his job at J.P. Morgan, the feelings he had towards his job, and the overall direction of his life. Being a cog in the machine, feeling replaceable, and not fulfilling his true potential were the thoughts running in his head. His mom pushing for him to get a graduate degree also rang in his ear.
After some deep self-reflection, Cody realized that life is too short to not do what you’re passionate about. He decided it was best for him to go back to school and follow his dream of starting his own business. Having been interested in an MBA for both personal satisfaction and academic gratification, Cody opted to go to a business school as an MBA candidate. Cody also figured that he could enroll in an MBA program to pursue what he always had a passion for: real estate.
When he returned to work from his medical leave, Cody spoke with one of his colleagues about pursuing an MBA. During their conversation, Cody learned about The Consortium, which is an organization that provides African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans with scholarships for MBA programs.
Cody researched The Consortium and learned one of the school partners that they worked with was one of Cody’s top undergraduate choices: Cornell University. In addition, he researched the best programs for real estate and entrepreneurship, with Cornell often being named as one of the top universities for these fields. He also noticed Cornell uniquely offered a dual-degree between their MBA and Master’s of Real Estate programs, which was perfectly aligned with his future goals. Cody applied to The Consortium and Cornell, and got accepted into both! At the age of 24, Cody would be going back to school for two master’s degrees at an Ivy League school with the financial support from The Consortium.
When he informed those around him that he’d be leaving his comfy job at J.P. Morgan, they questioned his decision.
“[People] didn’t really see why I would want to leave a job with security and financial stability for something unknown. They didn’t understand why I would want to take that kind of risk.”
Despite what people said, Cody knew it was the right decision. He wanted to increase his knowledge on real estate, and learn how he could utilize his entrepreneurial spirit. Cornell’s dual MBA and Master’s of Real Estate program would fulfill both of those things for him.
Cody described his experience as a Cornell student to be life-changing. He gained a deep knowledge across all areas of the real estate industry as well as how to launch, scale, and manage a business. He’s also been able to build his network through introductions to alumni and leading professionals in the real estate industry, and has had numerous leadership and professional opportunities including serving as the president of clubs and leading diversity initiatives.
One of the conversations Cody took upon himself to bring up in class and meetings was the lack of focus on Affordable Housing and the risk of gentrification in low-income areas. He noticed discussions were focused on traditional real estate developments, primarily within the luxury realm. Coming from an area with a large number of low-income residents like the Bronx, Cody was disappointed by the lack of discussion about the impact of real estate investment on economically distressed communities. He argues that there are more people that can’t afford luxury properties than those who can, but through mindful and socially inclusive development, these communities can be transformed in a way that helps residents to thrive and prosper.
During his first summer of graduate school, Cody held an internship at an affordable housing development firm. This allowed him to get hands-on experience and learn more in-depth about real estate development and financing affordable housing deals.
That same summer, Cody’s passion for real estate and helping low-income communities led him to found his own real estate development company, Grimm City Investors. Along with this, he also started a luxury cannabis lifestyle brand, High Life Luxury Cannabis.
Grimm City is focused on owning and operating real estate assets in targeted locations with the specific goal of creating positive social and economic impact for the company as well as the communities they operate in, while High Life is a brand that will be utilized in conjunction with select Grimm City real estate assets in order to provide cannabis consumers with top quality experiences through a combination of dispensary and consumption spaces such as hotels and lounges. Together, Grimm City & High Life will work to positively impact economically distressed communities through real estate and cannabis by making mindful investment and operating decisions.
Cody envisions his two startups as a way to revitalize low-income communities. He argues that the “War on Drugs” and discriminatory housing policies such as redlining have led to low-income, predominantly minority communities being in the condition they’re in. He also states that this lack of historic real estate investment has made these communities prime areas for gentrification by developers that only care about quick profits rather than the impact of their investment on the community. For these reasons, Cody hopes to utilize cannabis and real estate to benefit people of color by creating jobs and utilizing investment capital to make a positive change through the very things that have caused so much destruction in those communities.
After finishing his summer internship, Cody spoke with a mentor of his (a young, Black Cornell alum working on his own real estate venture), who unexpectedly offered Cody the opportunity to work for him part-time during the school year. This allowed Cody to gain even more hands-on experience, as he successfully advised on over $150 million in deals ranging from value-add acquisitions and ground-up developments to CMBS securitizations.
For the summer between his second and final years, Cody opted to not intern at an established company, and instead spent his summer working on his startups by participating in the Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator program at Cornell. He followed this with his participation in the eLab Accelerator at Cornell, where he continued to work on his startups throughout the school year. Through these programs, Cody has received structured guidance in building his business models, has been awarded non-dilutive funding, and was given the opportunity to pitch his business in front of an audience at Cornell Tech in Roosevelt Island. He credits the ongoing support and resources of Cornell for positioning his startups for success.
Cody is often questioned on why he founded a cannabis-based startup. Besides being an avid cannabis consumer himself, he also recognizes the medical benefits of cannabis. He recalled his grandfather and great-uncle being diagnosed with different forms of cancer right before enrolling at Cornell, and both using Rick Simpson oil as successful medical treatments. Rick Simpson oil is a highly-concentrated cannabis oil known to target and kill cancer cells. Beyond this, Cody also believes he can help change the perception of cannabis.
“[The negative stereotype] is something I’m working to change. There’s that negative stereotype of cannabis consumers being stoners, lazy, stupid, or unemployed. This is what people think when they think of cannabis users. I know a lot of successful people who consume cannabis.”
Today, Cody is in the last semester of his dual-degree at Cornell. He’s set to graduate from Cornell in May 2022 with his MBA and Master’s of Real Estate and plans to continue working on his startups full-time after graduation. He is actively working on his first real estate development in New York City, while simultaneously socializing and commercializing the High Life Luxury Cannabis brand. In the next five years, Cody hopes to have Grimm City and High Life fully operational with multiple locations.
Growing up, Cody thought of himself to have a glass ceiling for how much success he could achieve in his life. These thoughts stemmed from the fact that he was a young Black and Hispanic male from the Bronx. However, he’s on track to do great things through the impact he’s set to make on the world.
When asked what advice he had to share with the youth living in areas like The Bronx, he had a blunt answer that perfectly ends this post.
“Never let people tell you what you can and can’t achieve, or what is or isn’t possible. American society has historically portrayed Blacks and Hispanics in a certain way, and has led us to believe that we’re only capable of achieving at a certain level. My advice is f*** that – do whatever you’re passionate about, work your hardest, and manifest the reality you want.”
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Moves in Color is a blog series highlighting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) professionals in New York City making an impact on their lives and others. Want to be featured? Submit an interest form by clicking here.
All views expressed do not represent the organizations mentioned.