Speaking
Practical talks for founders, operators, boards, and business communities.
Alex speaks from operating experience: building companies, managing complexity, revitalizing assets, reducing founder dependency, and using AI where it improves real business workflows.
Speaker bio
Founder to founder. Operator to operator.
Alex Riley is a Detroit-based entrepreneur and operator with more than 15 years of experience building, acquiring, scaling, and revitalizing businesses across real estate, hospitality, workforce development, staffing, facilities services, and technology.
He helps founder-led businesses build the systems, workflows, automation, and operational discipline needed to scale. AI is part of the work, but the starting point is always the business.
Speaking topics
The founder bottleneck: why growing businesses get stuck.
How owner-led businesses should think about AI.
Building a business operating system for small and mid-sized companies.
Practical automation without operational chaos.
Lessons from staffing, hospitality, real estate, workforce development, and local services.
Why credible
These topics come from operating, not theory.
- More than 15 years building, acquiring, scaling, and revitalizing businesses.
- Operating background across real estate, hospitality, workforce development, staffing, facilities services, events, and technology.
- Managed large teams, physical assets, service delivery, contractors, venues, customers, vendors, and cash-flow pressure.
- Recognized by Inc., Fortune, Entrepreneur, Crain's Detroit Business, DBusiness, Metro Times, and Michigan Celebrates Small Business.
Recognition / media proof
Entrepreneurial and operating credibility.
Personal recognition includes Inc. 30 Under 30, DBusiness 30 In Their 30s, Zeta Psi 40 Under 40, Young Entrepreneur of the Year recognition in 2015, and Crain's Detroit Business 20 in Their 20s.
Source note
Past speaking is intentionally not listed yet.
Source material confirms possible event references, but it does not yet provide a complete verified list of talk titles, dates, audiences, or host organizations.
Next step
Looking for an operator-led speaker or advisor?
Use the contact form for speaking, advisory, board, media, or event inquiries. The best conversations start with the audience, the operating problem, and what would be useful for founders in the room.