About Ryan O’Connell

Ryan O’Connell is the founder of How To ADU and an advocate for more housing in California.

Ryan moved to Napa, California in 2012 to start nakedwines.com – now one of the twenty largest wineries in the United States. With a membership in the hundreds of thousands, this winery funds talented, independent winemakers around the country and around the world.

In traveling all over California’s beautiful wine regions, Ryan had too many occasions to meet vineyard workers, winery teams, and hospitality staff that cannot afford to live in the regions where they work.

While grateful for the success and growth of California’s wine country, Ryan also saw a fundamental problem pushing people out of their communities, or driving them to spend far more than a third of their income on housing. There just isn’t enough housing.

Falling back on his political science background (B.A. Tulane University), Ryan set out to explain Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to California homeowners. He wants to create simple ways for homeowners to reduce California’s housing shortage, in a way that benefits them and their communities.