Cedric Williams II graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2020. Six years later, he is creating the kind of professional community he wished had existed when he began life after the military.
Introduced in the summer of 2024, BlueMagnet is a LinkedIn-style platform built to preserve the relationships, shared purpose and mutual support that often define service academy life — connections that can fade once graduates leave active duty and enter the civilian world.
“People who raise their right hand and put their life on the line for our country [have to] rely on each other — the environment fosters [that need],” Williams told The Post. “BlueMagnet [mirrors] that proximity and makes it easy for people to give back around their own time and knowledge.”
The platform brings service academy graduates together with mentors and fellow alumni through virtual connections and in-person gatherings. During registration, members outline their goals and experiences, allowing BlueMagnet to suggest advisors with relevant knowledge.
“It’s an open platform leveraging the entirety of the Academy network and all the nodes that stem from it,” Williams said. “As a grad, you can go in with any question, any need, and find exactly the right person to connect with.”
Williams’ own experience at the Naval Academy helped inspire the idea. He arrived as a confident athlete from Itta Bena, Miss., but quickly found himself struggling during the school’s demanding introduction to military life.
During the seven-week, boot camp-style training period for incoming freshmen, Williams lost 20 pounds. The star athlete from his hometown suddenly found himself at the bottom of a hierarchy far more intimidating than anything he had previously encountered.
“I was looking sick, beat down,” Williams said.
What sustained him was the bond he formed with other first-year students who were facing the same challenges.
“We were all swimming in the same direction,” recalled Cameron Hurd, a classmate and Williams’ track-and-field teammate.
Williams and Hurd became close during their four years at the Academy and remained in touch after graduation, even while serving on opposite sides of the globe. Hurd became a surface warfare officer in Japan, while Williams served aboard the USS Carter Hall. Maintaining that connection, however, was not typical for everyone.
“When you go out into the fleet, life happens,” Williams said.
By the summer of 2023, after his time aboard the Carter Hall, Williams was weighing what to do next.
He completed a monthlong internship with Academy Securities, a veteran-owned and operated investment bank, before using his growing network to land an analyst position on Wall Street.
Once word spread, former classmates and other peers began asking how Williams had entered finance without attending business school — and whom they should contact for similar opportunities. The volume of questions quickly became impossible for him to handle individually.
With no programming background and no AI coding tools to assist him, Williams began building a website and database himself. He contacted mentors and potential members throughout his network and created a place where their advice could be shared more efficiently. User membership is limited to graduates of the five U.S. service academies, while anyone interested in mentoring or advising veterans may register as an advisor.
BlueMagnet now has 770 members: 680 users and 90 mentors.
Hurd became one of the platform’s earliest supporters. Through BlueMagnet, he connected with mentors in Southern California who helped him secure a pre-seed investment round for Clutch Kickback, a Japanese racing organization often compared with Formula 1. Hurd now sits on the league’s board and oversees its operations.
In Hurd’s view, BlueMagnet is “a network of people who speak the same language and are open to learning from one another.”
The Naval Academy formally endorsed BlueMagnet in the summer of 2025. Since then, Williams has held discussions with leaders at the other four service academies about establishing comparable partnerships and alumni connections.
“This is about making sure veterans can get in front of resources, companies and people,” he said, “no matter where they are in their life or in the world.”
