THE ENTREPRENEUR
RILEY WALKER, 37
Founder and CEO
ryco.io, Tampa
THE BACKSTORY
Riley Walker grew up in Maine, in a town of about 3,000 people. School came easily to him. He earned good grades and moved along the academic path. But watching others struggle, especially his sister, planted a seed that has shaped his life’s work.
His sister was an artist, creative and expressive, but traditional classrooms didn’t know what to do with her, he says. “Had she learned math via Monet or Van Gogh, she would have cared a lot more, but that wasn’t the case. It was a one-size-fits-all curriculum, and many kids struggled with that.” Walker sensed that education should be something more personal, more human.
That curiosity followed him to the University of Tampa in 2007, on scholarship, where he found a strong business program, met his future wife and unknowingly began a parallel journey into education technology that now has encompassed half his life.
As an 18-year-old college student waiting tables in downtown Tampa, Walker met a theoretical particle physicist who owned an educational publishing company. When he asked for a job designing educational products and personalized learning experiences, the answer came with a challenge: Learn to write, learn curriculum and learn education from the inside out.
ROAD TO RYCO
Walker started by writing assessments and teaching guides, then textbooks, then advanced math content and educational software. Over time, he worked with professors from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh and led very early projects in gamified learning. These included digital arts programs and experiential learning curricula.
Along the way, Walker noticed that publishing, dominated by massive companies like Pearson and McGraw-Hill, created high barriers for smaller publishers and schools alike. Schools licensed generic content for years at a time, even when it didn’t fit their students. To help solve that, Walker launched a marketing company in 2012 that helped publishers sell directly to schools and build custom products. He ran it for about five years and then worked at a technology consulting company, gaining perspective on how other industries operated.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, educators across the country panicked. “My former colleagues reached out and said, ‘Hey, we’re in trouble. We don’t know how to provide online learning, but we know you do.’” Walker had the skills, the relationships and the urgency, so he jumped in acting as a writer, developer, educator — “the everything.”
That scramble became his startup ryco.io. “Then I hired way better developers, way better writers, way better educators, surrounding myself with a team,” Walker says.
Advice to new founders: “Listen more than you talk. Know that it is going to be a long road — grit is everything. And then, be helpful to others around you. If you mentor them and give them opportunities — guess what? An opportunity is probably coming your way.” — Riley Walker photo: Mark Wemple
MISSION AND GROWTH
Walker says ryco, which offers subscription plans to schools and organizations, was profitable from the start and the company’s growth doubled the first three years. What evolved is a scalable education publishing platform now used by dozens of schools and organizations in Florida and across the country. The startup doesn’t license products; it builds custom content that is flexible and fully owned by the client. “We are not one-size-fits-all. We are almost acting as an in-house educational publisher for schools.”
Ryco operates out of Tampa’s Embarc Collective, a startup hub that provides access to advisors, office space and other services. The company’s team includes educators and technologists in equal measure, with 10 full-time employees in the United States, six in South Africa and several dozen contractors. Every project manager is a former teacher working directly with teachers to create lessons.
The company builds everything from AI-powered lesson tools and personalized content to gamified learning, virtual campuses, augmented reality experiences and 24/7 AI tutors trained by educators. Interactive lessons could have topical or school-related themes and are easily adaptable. For example, if some students quickly finish their classroom math lesson, a teacher can instantly generate additional lessons for those students tailored to their individual interests, like sports or music, to keep them engaged and learning while the teacher helps students who are struggling. Recently, ryco has begun working with companies that are seeking personalized corporate training and onboarding materials, too.
The startup has generated millions in revenue, Walker says — and so far, he hasn’t raised any outside funding. He owns 100% of the company, following the advice of a mentor, Tampa-based ReliaQuest founder Brian Murphy, to choose hustle over premature dilution.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Ryco’s target market today is mainly private and charter schools, including Mater Brickell Academy in Miami and Commonwealth Charter Academy in Pennsylvania. Looking ahead, Walker also sees potential in higher education and is talking with the University of Tampa.
Another big target is public school districts, including in Tampa Bay’s Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Teachers and students “deserve it,” he says. “Teachers are underpaid and overworked and now they are also the curriculum developer because what they received just doesn’t work. I would love to break into public districts.”