# Zayd Syed Ali

> Zayd Syed Ali is the New York-based founder and CEO of Valley, an AI-powered outbound sales platform. After co-founding and exiting two appointment-setting businesses, he pivoted from the founder-investor social network Fish to software built around prospect research, relevant messaging, and sales conversations. He also publishes the Enabled newsletter and identifies himself publicly as an angel investor and limited partner.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Valley
- **Organizations:** Valley, Fish, Advisor Appointments, Antler, OnSide
- **Education:** Columbia University, Tulane University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and exited two appointment-setting businesses., First company sold for seven figures while he was in high school, according to Jeff Becker and Founding Journey., Raised $3.2 million for Valley, as reported by Ali and corroborated by Jeff Becker’s fundraising account.

## Career timeline

- **Age 14** — Recalls selling apples and oranges door-to-door at a 200% markup.
- **Age 17** — Started an outbound agency serving financial advisors, according to his LeanScale interview.
- **2021** — First agency exit, dated in his LeanScale interview; Founding Journey describes his first sale as occurring at age 18.
- **2022** — Started an outbound agency connecting emerging fund managers with limited partners, according to LeanScale; developed Fish during an Antler residency.
- **2023** — Second agency exit, according to LeanScale; became CEO of Valley in January according to Crunchbase. Valley began its pilot in March, according to November 2023 Forbes coverage.
- **2023** — Raised a pre-seed round in summer 2023 according to his later clarification; Forbes reported $2 million in November 2023.
- **2024** — Jeff Becker reported an initial $2 million raise followed by a $1.2 million commitment from existing investors.
- **2025** — Discussed his agency origins and Valley workflow on the LeanScale podcast, published October 29.
- **2026** — Published writing about marketing-led outbound and the need to delegate rather than personally solve every company problem.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and exited two appointment-setting businesses.
- First company sold for seven figures while he was in high school, according to Jeff Becker and Founding Journey.
- Raised $3.2 million for Valley, as reported by Ali and corroborated by Jeff Becker’s fundraising account.
- Publicly reports having employed more than 100 people across his previous companies.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — In an August 29 Enabled essay, reflected on Cars, his tendency to fix problems himself, and lessons about delegation from other founders.
- **2026-07** — In a July 18 LinkedIn article, argued that demand generation and marketing teams are increasingly important buyers of outbound software.

## Links

- Website: https://www.joinvalley.co/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zayd-syed-ali-4201101a9/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/zaydsyedali

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/zayd-syed-ali
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-08