Rift 🧭

Opening Remarks

This week, I’ve been thinking about why so many extraordinary companies are started by dropouts or while the founders are still in college.

My theory has little to do with what college teaches or the idea that dropping out somehow makes you a better founder. The greatest startups are often born from exploration, not optimization, and college is one of the last environments where exploration is still the default. You’re encouraged to experiment, follow curiosities, and figure out what you want to do before the pressures set in. That freedom to explore may be exactly why so many great companies are started.

Now, onto this week’s feature:

-Brett

Bulletpitch’s publication covers the hottest early-stage startups before being picked up by larger media outlets. If that’s you, apply here.

Setting the Scene

• The world is filling with autonomous machines, yet many still struggle with one fundamental challenge: knowing exactly where they are.

• Before a drone, robot, or autonomous vehicle can move safely, it must answer one deceptively simple question: “Where am I?”

• Today’s positioning technologies each have limitations: GPS can be jammed or blocked, cameras struggle without visibility, LiDAR can degrade in harsh conditions, and indoor systems often require dedicated infrastructure.

• As autonomous systems move across increasingly complex environments, relying on any single positioning technology becomes less practical.

• This week's company is building a software layer that fuses multiple positioning signals to keep autonomous systems accurately localized.

In a Sentence

RIFT is building the location infrastructure that allows autonomous systems to know exactly where they are, without relying on GPS, cameras, or LiDAR.

• Location Infrastructure: A software layer that combines multiple environmental and sensor signals into a reliable position.

• Allows: RIFT uses machine learning to fuse environmental signals, movement data, and mathematical coordinates into a precise location, allowing systems to remain positioned.

The Basics

• Industry: Location Technology, Autonomous Systems

• Headquarters: NYC

• Year Founded: 2026

• Employee Count: 3

• Business Model: B2B; hardware sales plus recurring per-device software subscriptions based on data processing

• Early Traction: Piloting with a U.S. aircraft manufacturer representing $350K in potential ARR, alongside an additional pilot with a drone operations company.

Event Board

• Founder and Investor Dinner, NYC: We’re hosting an intimate dinner for top-tier founders and investors on September 16th in NYC! Apply HERE.

• Founder and Investor Dinner, SF: We’re hosting one of our signature founder dinners in SF on October 5th! Apply HERE.

• Founder and Investor Dinner, LA: We’re hosting one of our signature founder dinners in LA on October 14th! Apply HERE.

Weekly Feature Continued

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

• Market Opportunity: As autonomous machines scale across robotics, drones, vehicles, and defense, the need for reliable positioning infrastructure will scale with them.

• Plug-and-Play Integration: RIFT works with customers' existing sensors and hardware, making deployment far easier than replacing an entire navigation stack.

• Data Network Effects: Every deployment strengthens RIFT's positioning models over time, creating a software platform that becomes more accurate as more autonomous systems use it.

POTENTIAL RISKS

• Technical Validation: RIFT must prove its positioning remains accurate across diverse environments, long-range deployments, and real-world edge cases at commercial scale.

• Category Creation: RIFT is positioning itself as a new infrastructure layer, which may require convincing customers that positioning should be purchased as a platform rather than built into individual systems.

• Defense Procurement: While defense is a significant opportunity, long procurement cycles and regulatory requirements could slow adoption compared with commercial markets.

Founder Profile

• Karolina Kaylani, CEO: Previously a management consultant at Coalesce and mentor at Techstars.

• Maximus Blackbourne, CTO: Previously built geospatial and navigation systems at Meta and Lockheed Martin.

• Victor Moncada, COO: PhD candidate in machine learning and electrical engineering with defense contracting experience and an active U.S. security clearance.

Comps

• Point One Navigation: Provides sensor-fusion software for vehicles, drones, and robots, but remains more closely tied to GPS correction than RIFT's broader GPS-denied positioning layer.

• Advanced Navigation: Develops inertial navigation hardware and software for defense, aerospace, maritime, and robotics, while RIFT differentiates through a sensor-agnostic software layer designed to learn across multiple types of inputs.

• SandboxAQ: Uses quantum sensing and AI for GPS-denied navigation, rather than RIFT's strategy of continuously combining whichever sensors are available.

Cast Your Vote

Last Week Today

• The Results Are In: Fanhaven, a company that turns merch transaction into a verified fan records that artists can own, retarget, and monetize, was a toss-up in last week's poll.

• Subscriber Feedback: “I think it has potential beyond music fans, expanding into sports, entertainment, branded merchandise, equipment manufacturers, retailers, and more.”