Zayd Ali
Entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Valley, and a two-time agency founder before that.
Zayd Ali, also known as Zayd Syed Ali, is a New York-based entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Valley, an AI outbound platform for B2B sales teams.
He started his first company at 17. With a friend he met online, he co-founded an appointment-setting agency that booked LinkedIn meetings for financial advisors, using automation with people on top to research prospects and write messages. That company, Advisor Appointments, was acquired in 2021. He then built a second agency, FISH (“Funding is Hard”), for emerging fund managers raising from LPs, and handed it to a co-founder who led its exit in 2023.
In 2022 he joined Antler’s New York residency to build Fish, a social app for founders and investors. When it stalled, he pivoted in early 2023 to the problem he knew best and founded Valley, which turns the research, qualification and personalization his agencies did by hand into software. Valley has raised $3.2 million from investors including Antler, O’Shaughnessy Ventures, Jason Calacanis and his LAUNCH Fund, GC Venture Fellows and Transform VC.
As a teenager in Washington, D.C., he founded OnSide, which used soccer to welcome refugee children into their communities. It earned him a 2020 Prudential Spirit of Community Award and a Daily Point of Light. He graduated from Sidwell Friends School, attended Tulane University, and later attended Columbia University before dropping out to build Valley.
Source: The AI Report, Mar 7, 2025 · Michael Houck, Fundraising Case Study: Valley (Jan 24, 2024) · Jeff Becker, Monday Morning, Jul 15, 2024 · PR Newswire, Feb 4, 2020
Career
- 2017–2021
Advisor Appointments. While still in high school, Zayd co-founded an appointment-setting agency that booked meetings for financial advisors. It grew to about 25 people and was acquired in July 2021; he lists the acquirer as Next Stage Ventures.
Source: Michael Houck, Fundraising Case Study: Valley (Jan 24, 2024) · LinkedIn profile · The AI Report, Mar 7, 2025
- 2019–2020
OnSide. He founded OnSide, a program using soccer to connect refugee children with their communities in Washington, D.C. It was covered by FOX 5 DC and Sidwell Friends, and earned him a Prudential Spirit of Community Award as one of D.C.’s top two youth volunteers of 2020 and a Daily Point of Light.
Source: FOX 5 DC, Mar 11, 2020 · PR Newswire, Feb 4, 2020 · Points of Light, Jul 8, 2020 · Sidwell Friends, Feb 27, 2020
- 2020
Sidwell Friends School. Graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.
Source: Sidwell Friends, Feb 27, 2020
- 2021
Tulane University. Enrolled at Tulane University; the Advisor Appointments sale closed two weeks before he started.
- 2022–2023
FISH (“Funding is Hard”). He started a second agency, helping emerging fund managers raise capital from LPs. He later handed it to a co-founder, who led its exit in 2023.
Source: The AI Report, Mar 7, 2025 · LeanScale Podcast Ep. 51, Oct 29, 2025 · Michael Houck, Fundraising Case Study: Valley (Jan 24, 2024)
- 2022
Antler residency. Joined Antler’s New York residency to build Fish, a social app for founders and investors, and raised his first venture checks from Antler and Jason Calacanis.
Source: Jeff Becker, Monday Morning, Jul 15, 2024 · Michael Houck, Fundraising Case Study: Valley (Jan 24, 2024)
- 2023
Valley. Pivoted Fish into Valley, an AI sales-development product, and became founder and CEO. Valley raised a $3.2 million pre-seed from investors including Antler, O’Shaughnessy Ventures, Jason Calacanis, GC Venture Fellows and Transform VC.
Source: Michael Houck, Fundraising Case Study: Valley (Jan 24, 2024) · PR Newswire, Dec 8, 2023 · Zayd Syed Ali on LinkedIn, Nov 30, 2023
- Columbia
Columbia University. Attended Columbia University in New York and dropped out to build Valley full time.