A hybrid venture and tech talent studio, RYZ was founded by Amazon alum Jordan Metzner and Lyft alum Sam Nadler
Metzner & Nadler had previously founded Washio and California Burrito Co.
LOS ANGELES. August 17, 2022 – RYZ Labs, a new hybrid venture studio and human capital agency, officially launched today to develop new startups and to help existing startups scale fast and spend less.
RYZ Labs was founded in Los Angeles by Jordan Metzner and Sam Nadler, who have a long history of working in both Silicon Valley and Latin America. Their first venture was building California Burrito Co., a popular chain of burrito restaurants that started in Argentina and expanded to six countries across Latin America. Later, they built Washio (“Uber for Laundry”), a venture capital-backed, on-demand laundry service. Most recently, Metzner and Nalder spent five years at Amazon and Lyft, respectively, before deciding to return to their entrepreneurial roots.
RYZ Labs is powered by its human capital agency which allows RYZ portfolio companies, as well as other startups, to leverage top-tier technical talent in Latin America. Metzner and Nadler’s shared expertise of the LatAm market, coupled with their early-stage startup know-how, allows them to identify and engage the best engineers in the region.
“Starting RYZ has been a combination of my two passions: Latin America and business creation. Having lived and worked in Latin America for many years, I love the people and truly believe in the region’s tech prowess and potential. I also love the roller-coaster of building something from scratch. Paired together, RYZ can help startups to build fast and cost-effectively, and help other entrepreneurs do the same,” said Metzner.
With the rise of remote work and inflation, Latin America has become one of the best places for U.S. startups to recruit engineering talent. Its geographic and time zone proximity, highly-educated population, and competitive salaries give Latin America a strong advantage over other emerging market regions. For early-stage startups competing against large tech companies, recruiting is a constant challenge, so working with RYZ’s near-shore talent provides a clear opportunity.
RYZ Labs has been working in stealth mode for the past twelve months and has already launched several startups, including venture capital-backed HipTrain, a marketplace for 1:1 wellness coaching, and Offsiteio, a one-stop shop for booking corporate offsites. Both startups have grown considerably in less than one year: HipTrain has already facilitated 15,000+ fitness training sessions, while Offsiteio is on track to surpass $1M+ in revenue this year.
“Working with RYZ has been game-changing for HipTrain. Our partnership allowed us to launch quickly and develop our product in a cost-effective and timely way. RYZ has helped us scale our teams and develop a strong infrastructure, while providing invaluable insight, particularly into the Latin American tech industry,” said Joshua Ford, CEO of HipTrain.
RYZ’s internal team develops ideas and builds MVPs before recruiting leadership and preparing revenue-generating businesses for outside investment. Each concept leverages the RYZ Human Capital agency to scale with Latin American tech talent. They offer this service to other high-growth startups looking to augment their product and engineering teams and are already servicing multiple clients.
Metzner spent five years at Amazon, working on popular initiatives like the Ring Drone and the NFL on Twitch. Nadler received his MBA at MIT. Their experiences at those two institutions inspired them to incorporate Amazon’s “Working Backwards” and MIT’s “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” methods into the RYZ startup development process.
“We are so proud of what we have accomplished with RYZ Labs in just one year’s time. Our portfolio company HipTrain is providing amazing health and wellness sessions to consumers around the globe, and garnering significant media attention. Offsiteio is growing faster than we expected, having booked corporate retreats everywhere from Panama to Miami to Barcelona. RYZ is moving fast and we can’t wait to help other startups and builders get started on their journey,” said Nadler.
