Holding company owned by Michael Houck. Owns majority (sometimes 100%) stakes in: Anyhouck (the newsletter; legal entity Founding Journey, formerly Hard Calls), Megaphone, JOLT!, Lore, Hockey Stick.
- HQ: Charleston, SC. Small team; consolidated revenue detail Owner tier.
- North-star metric: consolidated net operating cash flow across ALL entities combined. Kick does not auto-consolidate; each entity is pulled separately and summed.
- Historical note: Rye Valley’s own Stripe + Mercury accounts ran ALL subsidiary revenue. Subsidiaries are migrating to their own accounts gradually, per-entity, no single cutover date. Hard Calls and Megaphone payments still partially flow through Rye Valley’s accounts today.
- Kick entityId: 2070.
- Account-level detail (keys, balances, migration log): Owner tier.
Web property map (2026-07-29)
- Nearly all Rye Valley sites live on Squarespace. API integration SKIPPED by Michael’s decision (2026-07-29): per-site keys too much hassle for the value. Revisit only if a concrete need appears (e.g. a commerce site whose orders should feed the scoreboard).
- Exception: viralexamples.co domain is registered at GoDaddy, domain-only (confirmed by Michael 2026-07-29); the site itself runs on beehiiv. Nothing to connect at GoDaddy. Hockey Stick demo site: hockeystick-seven.vercel.app (Vercel).
- Update this map as keys get connected: SQUARESPACE_API_KEY_
convention.
Meta Ads (2026-07-29)
One shared ad account for all entities: act_601589271801820. Env var: META_ADS_TOKEN (read-only). Plan: separate per-agency ad accounts eventually. Spend detail and connection-time benchmarks: Owner tier (Meta Ads section).
Live views: Rye Valley
Decisions
Recent meetings
| Date | Name | Attendees |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-15 | Chat w Emil (GovGrid): wide vs. deep data collection - Oct 15, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-14 | Houck & Ben (Ben Gusberg, Cape) | Michael Houck, Ben Gusberg |
| 2026-10-14 | [Weekly] JOLT! Sync | Michael Houck, Blake Stewart, Tatem Lindner |
| 2026-10-13 | Catchup with Emil (GovGrid) - Oct 13, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-13 | Mode Mobile <> GovGrid Pilot Scoping (Pramit Mallik) - Oct 13, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr, Pramit Mallik, Awais Junaid |
| 2026-10-13 | [Monthly] Houck x Steve (Mantis) | Michael Houck, Steve O'Brien |
| 2026-10-13 | Nyne Discovery (Michael Fanous) - Oct 13, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr, Michael Fanous |
| 2026-10-12 | Michael / Ben Ornstein 1:1 - Oct 12, 2026 | Michael Houck, Ben Ornstein |
| 2026-10-12 | Catchup with Landon - Oct 12, 2026 | Michael Houck, Landon |
| 2026-10-12 | Mode Mobile <> GovGrid Data Valuation - Oct 12, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr, Awais Junaid |
| 2026-10-12 | Post-Mode Call Emil Jam - Oct 12, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-11 | DataCow <> GovGrid - Oct 11, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr, David (DataCow) |
| 2026-10-09 | Houck / Emil Weekly - Oct 9, 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-08 | Tatem Huddle - Oct 8, 2026 | Michael Houck, Tatem Lindner (system audio only, not a Granola user) |
| 2026-10-07 | [Temp Hold] Houck : Andrew - Oct 7, 2026 | Michael Houck, Andrew Yeung |
| 2026-10-07 | [Weekly] JOLT! Sync - Oct 7, 2026 | Michael Houck, Blake Emal, Tatem Lindner |
| 2026-10-06 | Hockey Stick Sync | Michael Houck, Rafael (Rye Valley) |
| 2026-10-05 | Agree.com Kickoff - Will Hubbard and Michael Houck | Michael Houck, Will Hubbard |
| 2026-10-05 | Emil Quick MOU Chat for GovData Biz | Michael Houck |
| 2026-10-05 | Gem Studio Post-Call Team Huddle | Michael Houck, Tatem Lindner |
| 2026-10-05 | Gem Studio - Matt James JOLT Sales Call | Michael Houck, Tatem Lindner, Blake Stewart, Matt James |
| 2026-10-02 | Emil Post-micro1-chat Sync | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-02 | Gov Data Chat with Emil and Hunter (micro1) | Michael Houck, Emil Barr, Hunter (micro1) |
| 2026-10-02 | Houck / Emil Weekly - Oct 2 2026 | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-10-02 | Joe Quenneville and Michael Houck | Michael Houck, Joe Quenneville |
| 2026-10-01 | Draper Socials Content Discussion | Michael Houck, Tim Draper, Michelle Kwok, Addie (Draper VC) |
| 2026-10-01 | Shortform Kickoff for Houck (JOLT) | Michael Houck, Tatem Lindner |
| 2026-09-30 | Emil Personal Brand Team Sync | Michael Houck, Grig Richters, Tatem |
| 2026-09-30 | Emil Sync | Michael Houck, Emil Barr |
| 2026-09-30 | Haz Hubble Sales Call - Pally Prospect (Blake's Capture) | Blake Stewart, Haz Hubble, Michael Houck |
Playbooks
| Name | Owner | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Email consolidation runbook (Workspace -> single org + ImprovMX forwarding) | Michael Houck | 2026-08-03 |
| Engineering workflow | Michael Houck | 2026-07-30 |
| Funnel design: lead magnet must map to a monetizable back end | · | 2026-08-01 |
| Leverage scoreboard (weekly) | Michael Houck | 2026-10-15 |
| Publishing decisions to michaelhouck.co/decisions | Michael | · |
| Role classifiers (the five human buckets) | Michael Houck | 2026-08-22 |
| State of the Business: September 2026 | Michael Houck | 2026-10-01 |
| Working with the company brain | · | 2026-07-29 |
Clients
No data found.
People
13| ACAndrew Cheng | Content Operations Manager |
| ASAndrew Safranko | Writer |
| ABAngelica Beronilla | VA |
| BOBen Ornstein | Editorial Lead / review gate |
| BSBlake Stewart | Client-Facing Lead (sales, partnerships, account management, agency support) |
| CCharlene | VA, client account replies and engagement |
| MPMax Palmer | Chief of Staff |
| MJMehul Jariwala | Engineer |
| MHMichael Houck | Founder / Owner |
| RBRafael Bruno | Engineering Lead |
| RBReina Beltran | Executive Assistant |
| RHRizwan Hameed | Engineer |
| VVenus | VA, proactive engagement |
Decisions
View all 73| 2026-10-15 | Hockey Stick Workshop Signups: Auto-Add to Attio, Michael as Default Owner | decided |
| 2026-10-15 | GovGrid: Pursue Wide (30+ States, Shallow) and Deep (Single Agency) Data in Parallel | decided |
| 2026-10-15 | Creator Campaign Dashboard: Hold Until a Campaign Comes In | decided |
| 2026-10-14 | Stay on HeyGen pay-as-you-go API; decline Enterprise annual commitment | decided |
| 2026-10-13 | GovGrid x Mode Mobile Pilot: 2 to 3 Departments in One State, Accounting First | decided |
| 2026-10-12 | Apify: Pass on Enterprise Upgrade for Now | decided |