Ryan Nowicki Stewart

Co-Founder & CEO @pennant_ai (YC S26). Building AI-native solutions for public markets. @PalantirTech Startup Fellowship.
Created @govarena.

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Our team at @pennant_ai is building the Corporate Governance OS for the next age of public markets. We're proud and incredibly excited to be launching with @ycombinator today.

We know this market and the pain points we are solving for firsthand, and we are thrilled to be defining a new way forward.

Lots of hard work to get here and plenty more ahead, grateful to be on this journey with @0xtotaylor!

If you touch proxy voting, shareholder activism or corporate governance, and want to shake things up, let's talk.

https://t.co/Ug6JSlUPGS

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

What a week on the road in the 'Boom Belt'! 🇨🇱 🇺🇸

Seeing clients and industry partners across Texas, Georgia, Florida and beyond was energizing as always, and we're thrilled to be serving institutional investors across the region with the world's third largest GDP.

Highlights from @BloombergLive:
- Leadership from the @TXStockExchange, @NYSETexas and @Nasdaq Texas shared developments and trends across reincorporation and dual-listing activity
-@Walmart shared the issuer perspective on empowering an AI-enabled workforce and looking for partners with a shared emphasis on a people-led, tech-powered approach
- @RossPerotJr and @DM_Rubenstein spoke about the culture, values, environment that are providing a competitive advantage in attracting talent, capital, and investment
- The legendary Elaine Agather shared her wisdom on what's different in markets (and the same) this time around, and shared breaking news that she will be riding in the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo for her 38th straight year

A few facts about the 'Belt':
- Home to 1 in 4 U.S. Large Public Companies (126 HQ'd in the Fortune 500)
- 40% of total US Exports
- $8.9T Annualized GDP, #3 behind US and China

Looking forward to more travels across the US and beyond this month as we stay on the frontier of an evolving governance landscape.

(P.S. Chile was as close as I could get to the Lone Star flag working with limited emoji library)

[David J Phillips @davj]

15 YC companies announced new rounds in the last two weeks:

Blacksmith — $66M Series C (@adijayaprakash)
Broccoli — $52M Series A + B (@abhishekjain25)
Greptile — $50M Series B (@dakshgup)
Infisical — $40M Series B (@matsiiako)
Easol — $30M Series A ext. (incl. $10M debt)
Vera Health — $28.5M Series A
Firstwork — $15M Series A
Paradev — $11.5M Seed (@FlyaKiet)
Sava Trust — $10M Seed (@nimit)
Neuron Industries — $10M Seed (@the_dennis_ren)
BioStack — $9.5M Seed (@sanatmishra7)
context(dot)dev — $9M Seed (@mynameisyahia)
Mochatrade — $5.5M Seed
Pennant — $5M Seed (@rywicks)
Manicule — $1.3M Seed (@NamanBansal0611)

Congrats to all of them 👏

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@breezwoods No excuses 🫡

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

💻🎃

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@lutherlowe 🤌 Nichely done

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@keyserfaty Congrats guys! 🚀

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@AarushYadav47 Congrats team and nice demo digs!

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Thank you @business for covering our progress, we're thrilled for what's next and grateful to our clients, investors and partners.
Signed, former BBG A-desk intern (circa summer 2015).

[Pennant @pennant_ai]

Corporate governance is entering a new era of technology-driven transformation.

In a new feature for @Bloomberg , Frances Schwartzkopff covers Pennant's recent seed financing led by Urban Innovation Fund, our participation in @ycombinator and the @PalantirTech Startup Fellowship, and the growing pressure on traditional proxy advisory infrastructure.

For decades, financial markets have invested heavily in technology for trading, portfolio management and investment research, while corporate governance and stewardship have remained comparatively underserved. That is beginning to change.

At Pennant, we're building AI-native infrastructure that enables institutional investors to make independent, informed proxy voting decisions at scale, grounded in their own investment principles and policies.

As our Co-Founder & CEO @rywicks told Bloomberg, Pennant is “a technology partner and a facilitator, not an influencer.” Our role is to empower investors' judgment, not replace it.

Thank you to Frances and Bloomberg for featuring Pennant and highlighting the transformation underway in institutional proxy voting.

Read the full article in the comments below.

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@Mclader @cognition @ScottWu46 Congrats MC!

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@davj @thestartpod Co-sign! Well deserved

[Dylan S Phillips @dylsphillips]

Knowing your customer’s job is a starting point. Not a reason to stop asking questions.

Know the role. Stay curious about the reality.

[START @thestartpod]

Don't just build what you think customers need. Get close enough to their work that you know what earns a place in their daily routine.

[Fondo.com @Fondocom]

Would your former boss use the product you’re building?

Every day. On the job. Not just as a favor.

That’s the standard @rywicks and his co-founder @0xtotaylor set for @pennant_ai

Huge congrats to the @pennant_ai team on their $5M seed round!! 🚀

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Thank you @Fondocom and @thestartpod, grateful to be our investors, partners and our clients on this journey with us!

[START @thestartpod]

BREAKING 🚨 @pennant_ai, co-founded by @rywicks (CEO) and @0xtotaylor (CTO), raised a $5M seed round led by Urban Innovation Fund with participation from @ycombinator and a group of strategic angel investors, to build the world model for corporate governance, starting with proxy voting.

https://t.co/zPpV8Y7jfV

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

@livilouuuuuu Congrats!

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Let's go! Thank you to our investors, partners and clients on this journey with us, just getting started.

[Pennant @pennant_ai]

We’re proud to announce Pennant’s $5M seed round.

Thank you to our lead investor, Urban Innovation Fund, to @ycombinator, and to our many valued industry investors, partners and clients who are on this journey with us.

We’re hiring in New York City. If you want to build frontier AI with @0xtotaylor, @rywicks and the team at the cutting edge of corporate governance, helping investors and companies navigate decisions that shape trillions of dollars in public markets, we’d love to hear from you.

https://t.co/ISUuvDcOuP

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Nothing further to add

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

https://t.co/PFfNR5zkEl

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Fresh off of our summer with @ycombinator, we're based back in NYC, we're hitting escape velocity and we're hiring at @pennant_ai! If you're ready to be part of a founding team that's empowering investors and public companies to make their biggest decisions that move markets, we want to hear from you. You'll know your power users on a first name basis, and build IRL on a team where everyone is expected to execute like an FDE. And don't worry, no wall street hype video required... Although, we're based down the street from @NYSE , so we're not ruling out a sequel. Apply at the links below.

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

https://t.co/nnwvZMFjDO

[Ryan Nowicki Stewart @rywicks]

Huge shout out to Jen and the team from the Spectacle Shoppe in @VisitOrlando who will probably never see this but came in super clutch for a guy that did not pack enough contact lens for this conference!