Risely: AI agents that automate administrative tasks across college campuses

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!