Risely AI: AI agents that automate administrative work across college campuses.

AI agents that automate administrative work across college campuses.

Risely’s AI agents will form the new operating system for universities, improving retention, staff productivity, and efficiency. Our platform integrates directly into existing university systems (SIS, LMS, CRM), learns each institution’s unique workflows, and deploys specialized AI agents. This dramatically reduces the $735 billion universities spend annually on administrative labor, expands staff capacity without increasing headcount, and improves the student experience. This hasn't been done before because university workflows require nuanced, autonomous judgment, exactly what agentic AI was designed to solve. Our team uniquely combines deep expertise in higher education, enterprise-scale AI, and regulated enterprise sales. Sadia previously built Salesforce’s Education Cloud from scratch, creating the core Student Information System widely used across higher education. She deeply understands university operations and maintains trusted relationships with hundreds of higher-ed CIOs and Provosts. Danial was one of DoorDash’s earliest engineers, where he architected and scaled complex systems from zero to billions of transactions, including their search, recommendation, and Voice AI platforms. He knows how to build robust AI solutions that reliably perform at enterprise scale. Shahryar was a GM at Airwallex, where he built the entire Americas business from 0 to 1 and drove 11x revenue growth. He’s also a master closer, single-handedly securing over $17M in enterprise deals at NerdWallet. He’s a relentless startup executor with deep expertise launching and scaling go-to-market machines in highly regulated industries. We launched six weeks ago and are already at $8k MRR, growing 55% week-over-week -- one of the fastest ramps ever in higher ed. Universities urgently need solutions that expand labor capacity and efficiency, especially as they face unprecedented budget pressure and staffing shortages. With unmatched buyer access, deep technical expertise, and rapid early traction, we are perfectly positioned to own this enormous market.

Active Founders

Shahryar Abbasi

Founder

CEO & Co-founder of Risely; serial operator with 13+ years building businesses. As GM at Airwallex, I built the Americas business from 0 to 1 and delivered 11x revenue growth. As VP Product at Trustedhealth, I transformed the growth funnel with automation and drove double-digit conversion gains. As Head of Platform Growth at NerdWallet, I drove $17M+ in P&L impact, and at Bain, I shaped market strategy for leading tech firms. I’m most at home building from zero & closing seven-figure deals.

Shahryar Abbasi

Founder

CEO & Co-founder of Risely; serial operator with 13+ years building businesses. As GM at Airwallex, I built the Americas business from 0 to 1 and delivered 11x revenue growth. As VP Product at Trustedhealth, I transformed the growth funnel with automation and drove double-digit conversion gains. As Head of Platform Growth at NerdWallet, I drove $17M+ in P&L impact, and at Bain, I shaped market strategy for leading tech firms. I’m most at home building from zero & closing seven-figure deals.

Danial Asif

Founder

CTO & Co-founder at Risely AI. Previously an early engineer at DoorDash, where I led the Voice AI team and launched the first fully automated conversational ordering system. Also built and scaled DoorDash’s global search platform, supporting over $7B in annual revenue and 6B+ orders. Love building (and breaking) things!

Danial Asif

Founder

CTO & Co-founder at Risely AI. Previously an early engineer at DoorDash, where I led the Voice AI team and launched the first fully automated conversational ordering system. Also built and scaled DoorDash’s global search platform, supporting over $7B in annual revenue and 6B+ orders. Love building (and breaking) things!

Sadia Saifuddin

Founder

CPO & Co-founder of Risely AI. Previously, I spent 7 years leading product development for Salesforce's Education Cloud, where I built from scratch the Student Information System that campuses everywhere rely on as their system-of-record. I also served as a voting Regent on the University of California Board of Regents, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Chancellors, Presidents, CIOs, and CFOs - giving me deep, firsthand insight into how universities operate and make decisions.

Sadia Saifuddin

Founder

CPO & Co-founder of Risely AI. Previously, I spent 7 years leading product development for Salesforce's Education Cloud, where I built from scratch the Student Information System that campuses everywhere rely on as their system-of-record. I also served as a voting Regent on the University of California Board of Regents, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Chancellors, Presidents, CIOs, and CFOs - giving me deep, firsthand insight into how universities operate and make decisions.

Company Launches

Risely: AI agents that automate administrative tasks across college campuses

See original launch post

Hi! We’re Sadia, Shahryar, and Danial, co-founders of Risely AI.

TL;DR
Risely’s AI agents automate administrative tasks across college campuses. Our first product, the AI Advisor, improves retention by connecting to university systems (SIS, LMS, and CRM) and unifying student data to flag at-risk students, send personalized outreach, and draft success plans, all in natural language.

Ask: Know a university leader looking to improve retention? Introduce us! Email us at founders@risely.ai or book a demo.
https://youtu.be/qqyKgn7LmWE

The Problem

Colleges spend millions of dollars recruiting students, only to have 1 in 3 students drop out because of poor student service.

Academic advisors – the front line of student support – spend more time digging through clunky systems to manually find at-risk students than helping them succeed.

By the time they realize a student is struggling, students have already slipped through the cracks.

Our Solution

Risely’s AI Advisor improves retention and expands a university’s capacity to deliver personalized support to every student.

Our AI Advisor works across the SIS, LMS, and CRM to:

📍 Flag students showing signs of risk before it’s too late
✍🏽 Generate personalized success plans in seconds
🧠 Answer questions about students, courses, and caseloads in natural language
🗂️ Send personalized outreach and follow-ups

And this is just the beginning.

Risely’s AI agents will form the new operating system for universities, improving retention, staff productivity, and efficiency. Next, we’re building an AI Sidekick for every student, an AI Registrar, and an AI Research Admin - all deeply connected to campus workflows and knowledge.

Risely’s early customers include private colleges, large public systems, and online universities - all delivering personalized support at scale without increasing headcount.

The Founders

Sadia (CPO) – Sadia spent 7 years at Salesforce leading product for Education Cloud, where she launched a next-gen Student Information System now used by universities globally. She also served as a UC Regent, shaping policy at one of the largest public systems in the world.

Danial (CTO) – Danial was a senior engineering leader at DoorDash, where he built the Voice AI and Search platforms that powered billions of customer interactions. He specializes in scalable AI systems and enterprise-grade infrastructure.

Shahryar (CEO) – Shahryar is a former Bain consultant and GM who built Airwallex’s U.S. business from scratch, scaled growth teams across sales and marketing, and led $20M+ enterprise deals at Nerdwallet. He brings deep go-to-market and operating expertise to Risely.

We met at UC Berkeley over 15 years ago and bring deep, complementary expertise across higher ed, AI, and startup execution. We started Risely to fix a system we know is broken, from the inside out.

OUR ASK

We are looking to connect with university leaders who want to shape the future of AI in higher ed. If you know someone focused on student success, we’d love to hear from you.

👉 Book a demo or email us at founders@risely.ai
👉 Follow us on Twitter/X and[ LinkedIn
](https://linkedin.com/company/risely-ai) 👉 YC batchmates, reach out if you want to jam on use cases or pilot ideas
📣 Share this post with anyone in your network working in student success, advising, or higher ed innovation.

Thank you!

YC Photos

Jobs at Risely AI

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Founding Engineer

San Ramon, CA, US

$150K - $180K

0.25% - 1.00%

3+ years

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