Austin Rief is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew, the business media brand he built from a college newsletter to a $75 million exit. He is now building his next company, a heavily backed, seed-stage vertical AI startup currently operating in stealth.
Austin co-founded Morning Brew alongside Alex Lieberman while the two were undergraduates at the University of Michigan, starting as a daily business newsletter before rebranding and scaling into Morning Brew. Under his leadership as CEO, the company grew to over 5 million newsletter subscribers and crossed $50 million in annual revenue before its acquisition by Axel Springer in 2020. He stayed on as CEO until February 2025, when he stepped into his current role as Executive Chairman.
Today, Austin's primary focus is his new venture in vertical AI. Still in stealth, the company has raised significant seed funding as it builds AI-native solutions for a specific industry, bringing the same operator mindset that took Morning Brew from dorm room to acquisition.
Alongside his operating work, Austin is Co-Owner of Oceans, a talent platform connecting high-growth startups with vetted operational talent in Sri Lanka, which has scaled past $15M in annual recurring revenue. He also invests in early-stage startups through Austin Rief Ventures, with 19+ investments to date.
Austin is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and was named alongside Alex Lieberman as one of The Hollywood Reporter's 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media (2022), the youngest two people on that list.