Remembering Jeff Williams
- Jeff Rayner
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
Co-founder, CFO, COO, and the driving force behind MYPAD3D, MXTreality, and Drivers of Tomorrow.
It is with heavy hearts that we share our co-founder, partner, and dear friend, Jeff Williams, aka JW, recently passed away following a heart attack.
Jeff was born on October 12, 1966, and lived a life defined by resilience, humor, and an unwavering commitment to the company, the people and the projects he cared about. To us, he was far more than a CFO or COO. He was the steady hand behind the scenes, the alternative voice of reason in difficult moments, and often the one who could make us laugh when things felt overwhelming.
In 2013, after being introduced by our mutual friend Derek, Jeff and I took a leap of faith and started MYPAD3D together. We didn’t know exactly where the road would lead, but we knew we worked well as a team and shared a belief that technology could create meaningful, human-centered experiences.
That belief evolved into MXTreality in 2016, where we began pushing the boundaries of immersive, mixed-reality experiences. In 2021, we launched Drivers of Tomorrow, carrying forward Jeff’s commitment to practical innovation that could make a real difference in people’s lives through better driver training and safety.
Jeff was instrumental in shaping all of these ventures. While many saw the creative and technical output of our work, Jeff was the one ensuring the foundations were solid - the finances, the operations, the structure, and the discipline that allowed our ideas to become reality.
But what many people may not know is that Jeff loved working with his hands. He didn’t just manage operations from a desk. He built. He tinkered. He experimented. I still remember the countless hours he spent toiling over our very first driving simulator. He didn’t outsource the hard parts, he welded the first components himself. That was Jeff: if something needed to be built, he rolled up his sleeves and did it.
Over the past several years, Jeff faced numerous health challenges. Yet, if you ever worked with him, you would never have known the extent of what he was carrying. He met adversity the same way he met everything else: with a smile, a joke, and his favorite line when someone was overthinking things “You goofball!”
His resilience was quiet, steady, and deeply inspiring.
His impact on MYPAD3D, MXTreality, and Drivers of Tomorrow cannot be overstated. These companies exist in their current form because of his vision, discipline, and belief that we could build something meaningful together.
We will miss our friend.
We will miss his laugh.
We will miss his steady presence.
We will miss hearing him say, “You goofball!”
Jeff’s legacy lives on in the work we continue to do, the culture he helped shape, and the people he influenced along the way. Inside every experience we build, if you look carefully, you'll find an Easter Egg in his honor.
He also had a collector’s spirit, fascinated by collectible cards, sports memorabilia, gold, and houses. He appreciated things that held value, history, and stories. In many ways, he treated our company the same way: something to be carefully built, protected, and passed forward.
We are grateful for the years we had with him, and we will carry forward what he helped build with the same spirit he brought to it every day.
Thank you, Jeff. We will do our best to make you proud.
If you are able to attend, Jeff's funeral will be held:
Friday 17th April
Holy Family Catholic Church
505 17th St, SE
Auburn, WA 98002
9:00 am Rosary
9:30 am Mass
Light refreshments after.
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