Date: 2026-10-02 4:00 PM EDT Source: https://notes.granola.ai/d/727d9cfc-bb4f-4384-9456-e0f337e27a40
Attendees
- Michael Houck (Rye Valley)
- Joe Quenneville (AI Standards, joe@aistandards.inc)
Summary
Sales call with Joe Quenneville, founder of AI Standards - an on-prem AI platform built around compliance and cybersecurity. Joe came inbound via LinkedIn. The call covered his company’s tech, go-to-market strategy, and Rye Valley pricing. He is self-funding and not yet ready to buy; agreed to reconnect in a few weeks once he has POCs progressing.
Company Overview (AI Standards)
- On-prem AI platform; all customer data stored on a private sidechain of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), making data immutable and fraud-proof
- Can close a CFO’s quarter in an hour by pre-building the data framework before the quarter starts
- Closes attack vectors by architecture; integrates zero-knowledge proof (ZKP)
- Biometric auth in development: heartbeat + iris via phone or wearable
- Engineering team in Kolkata; very low cost structure
- Building in-house IDE (Cursor-equivalent) and own ElevenLabs-style voice cloning engine
- Joe: 35 years in tech, cybersecurity, and compliance
Go-to-Market
- Primary goal: land 5 POCs before investing heavily in content or social
- Minimum deal size per POC: $250K
- Projected net margin: 58-60% even after paying employees
- Post-POC plan: video content with CISO/CFO/CEO customers, clip and flood the market
- LinkedIn network: 7,700 connections built via max-invite strategy over 2 years; mix of CISOs, CIOs, CFOs, CEOs
- Target podcasts: Moonshots, All-In, CISO Series, manufacturing-focused
- Key ally community: XRPL (rabid proponents who will amplify)
Rye Valley Fit and Pricing Discussed
- Joe can’t afford the $15K written content package today (self-funding)
- Interested in Jolt (short-form video) as starting point: $6K/month, $18K for 3 months
- Full package (written + video): ~$30-33K for 3 months with bundle discount
- Lore (SEO/AEO/GEO) flagged as potential add-on later
Decisions
None. Call ended with mutual agreement to stay in touch.
Action Items
- Michael: Check back in with Joe in a couple of weeks; revisit scope once he has POCs progressing.
Notable Transcript Excerpts
“I couldn’t hate reaching out to people on LinkedIn more. I just, I couldn’t possibly hate it more. But for 2 years, I paid a guy to just do my max invites every month and flood my LinkedIn with 7,700 people.”
“We close so many attack vectors just by our architecture. Just by how we do things.”
“We won’t take on a POC for less than $250K, and we’re doing all the work. So even when we’re paying employees, we’ll be at a 58-60% profit margin net.”
“It’s a strong pitch, I think, right? Why not just set that aside for AI and get something that’s already secure, already compliant, and already ready to go.”