Marissa Fetter Hochster

Marissa Fetter Hochster is the founder and CEO of Hylite, a platform that turns employee recognition into AI search recommendations for hospitality brands.

The idea for Hylite was inspired by Darryl, the barista at Marissa’s neighborhood Starbucks who had her order ready every morning before she walked in. After realizing there was no easy way to publicly recognize him, she created one. Hylite makes it simple for guests to recognize individual employees in the moment – shared instantly with the employee and their manager, with a prompt to post publicly as a five-star review. Brands using Hylite see measurable improvements in employee retention, guest experience, and online reputation.

Before founding Hylite, Marissa spent over a decade in employee development and people strategy. She led new hire and business development programs at Goldman Sachs and previously held roles at Ripple Labs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA with honors from the University of Texas at Austin. Marissa lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two children.