Building ambitious companies.

Advisory, community, and venture building with founders in AI, markets, and infrastructure.

NYC · VIENNA · PHILADELPHIA
PREVIOUSLY
Y Combinator
Coinbase
BCG
Austrian Federal Chancellery
Harvard University
Wharton
WHAT WE DO

Build. Grow. Navigate.

01 · BUILD

Build

Full-stack, end-to-end agentic workflows, data pipelines, and signal generation. Architecture through deployment.

02 · GROW

Grow

Distribution, partnerships, and access to relevant networks of founders, investors, operators, and decision makers.

03 · NAVIGATE

Navigate

Policy, markets, regulation, and strategic decisions. Where AI products meet financial regulation, market structure, or governance.

AREAS OF FOCUS

Where we're uniquely useful.

AI & Agentic Systems

Frontier model integration, agent architectures, and production pipelines for AI-native products.

Markets & Financial Infrastructure

Fintech, capital markets, payments, prediction markets, and the rails underneath them.

Regulation & Public Policy

Crypto policy, AI governance, financial regulation, and the institutional fluency to navigate them.

GTM & Distribution

GTM engineering, distribution, in-person events, and curated access to founders, investors, and decision makers.

Stephan Rihs at an NYC Founders & Operators event
STEPHAN RIHS · FOUNDER

Working with founders building in AI, markets, and infrastructure. Building Veynor. Running the NYC Founders & Operators community and the Pulse newsletter. Based in NYC, working across North America and Europe.

COMMUNITY

A founder ecosystem, not a service firm.

1,000+ members in the NYC Founders & Operators community. Biweekly dinners, AI & tech events, the Pulse newsletter, a daily prediction-markets podcast, and strategic introductions.

NYC Founders & Operators rooftop
Founder dinners
AI & Tech events
Pulse newsletter
Strategic introductions
WAYS WE PARTNER

Startup and founder journeys are unique. Our support and engagement is tailored to your needs.

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Need sharper judgment at key moments?

High-level judgment, fundraising support, targeted introductions, and strategic counsel across GTM, partnerships, policy, and market positioning.

Best for founders who need leverage, judgment, and network access.

EMBEDDED OPERATOR

Need senior execution without a full-time hire?

Embedded operating support across growth, product, partnerships, GTM systems, and special projects. Typically 1–4 days/week for 1–3 months.

Best for founders who need an operator inside the team, not a traditional consulting engagement.

VENTURE PARTNER

Building in a market where we can compound together?

Long-term collaboration with aligned incentives through equity, revenue share, advisory, or partnership structures.

Best for exceptional founders building in areas where we have deep conviction in AI, markets, and infrastructure.

We don't believe every company needs a full-time hire, a consulting firm, or a venture round. Sometimes the right answer is focused support at the right moment.

Let's talk →
WHERE TO START

Most collaborations begin with a focused conversation. Start with a short intro call, a one-off expert session, or a structured sprint.

INTRO CALL

Free

· 15 min

A quick chat to compare notes on what you're building and explore whether there is a fit. Five slots per week, first come first served.

Best for first conversations and exploring whether to work together.

Book intro call →
EXPERT HOUR

$300

· 60 min

Bring one specific question on GTM, positioning, fundraising, product, or operator strategy. You leave with a focused conversation and a written 1-page summary within 24 hours.

Best for founders who want a focused answer on a specific question.

Book Expert Hour →
STRATEGIC SPRINT

$2,000

· 6 weeks

A focused 6-week engagement with 4 working sessions, Slack access throughout, and a written strategic recommendations doc at the end. For founders working through a high-stakes challenge.

Best for founders who need more than a single conversation but not yet an ongoing retainer.

Start the Sprint →
BUILDING IN-HOUSE

What we're building.

Building products ourselves keeps us close to the same technical, distribution, and operational challenges our founders face.

VEYNOR

Agentic infrastructure for prediction markets.

Live prediction market infrastructure built on Polymarket and Kalshi. Oracles, calibrated edge, and agents that act on it.

veynor.xyz →
BUILT ON
Polymarket
Kalshi
Oracles & agent loops
Calibrated edge models
SELECTED WORK

Founders we've built with.

Redouble AI
REDOUBLE AI · YC-BACKED

Silverlake: Agentic AI Operating System

Hands-on partnership with the YC-backed team building an agentic AI operating system. Architecture, GTM, and ecosystem access.

Tivara
TIVARA · YC-BACKED · FOUNDING HEAD OF GTM

AI agents for specialty clinic operations

Built the GTM engine from zero. Drove $500K+ in qualified pipeline.

Daneel
DANEEL · STRATEGIC ADVISOR

A diligence service built for dealmaking

Sourced and landed strategic partnerships to unlock distribution into NYC's dealmaking ecosystem.

WHAT FOUNDERS SAY

From the founders we've worked with.

Best-in-class execution, insight, and thoughtfulness. Stephan consistently combined strategic judgment with a bias toward action.
— Founder, YC-backed AI company
Stephan landed partnerships that were crucial to our growth and go-to-market efforts. He quickly became an extension of our team.
— Founder, AI infrastructure startup
A unique combination of intellect, charisma, operational rigor, and technical fluency. Stephan is equally comfortable discussing strategy, product, policy, or execution.
— Founder & CEO
THE PULSE NEWSLETTER

Join 1,000+ founders, operators,
and investors.

Biweekly notes on AI, markets, policy, and startups.

IMPACT

What that looks like in practice.

$500K+

Qualified pipeline generated for a founding-team GTM build.

$3B+

Planning and delivery of COVID-19 stimulus packages with the Austrian Federal Government.

1,000+

Members in the NYC Founders & Operators community.

Landmark legislation

Helped Coinbase secure US crypto regulation through C-level briefings, policy memos, and analytics tooling.

YC-backed partnerships

Hands-on partnership with YC-batch founders building agentic AI products.

60+ events

NYC founder dinners, AI & tech events, and strategic introductions.

CONTACT

Working on something interesting?

Book a 15-min intro call to scope out ways to work together — advisory, intros, partnerships, or something else.

Book a 15-min intro call →

Or email me directly at stephan@rihs-ventures.com