About Me

I invest in and work with early-stage founders, with a focus on young builders. My work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, investing, and education.

I started as a dropout founder and built my first company to acquisition. Over the past decade, I’ve focused on one question: how exceptional young people start building earlier.

The Journey

I was on the founding team of YC China, working with Sam Altman and Qi Lu in its earliest phase. About a year later, Sam returned to the U.S. to focus full-time on OpenAI, and we continued independently as MiraclePlus. Sam later noted that the intern-based system I built at YC China was, for young people learning entrepreneurship, more effective than YC’s Startup School.

Being there at that moment mattered. I watched OpenAI move from a controversial idea to a credible lab, and eventually into a force reshaping how the world thinks about intelligence, work, and human potential. That experience left a lasting mark on how I think about non-consensus bets, early conviction, and what it actually looks like when something truly new begins.

I started as a student founder, dropped out to build my first company, raised multiple rounds, and later exited through acquisition. That early chapter led to recognition such as Forbes 30 Under 30—but more importantly, it shaped how I think about building from zero.

By the Numbers

During this period, I was involved in managing over USD 450 million in early-stage capital, across AI, hard tech, biotech, robotics, aerospace, fusion, semiconductors, and consumer.

• Evaluated 160,000+ startup applications

• Participated in 680+ early-stage investments

• Built a 7,500+ intern sourcing network to find young builders

The Thesis

At the earliest stage, what matters most is high agency—how someone moves when no one is watching.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked closely with thousands of young builders at the moment they first start—through hands-on programs across 100 top universities in China and Asia, and more recently, a three-month trip across 50 leading universities in the U.S., including the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley.

In that time, I backed dozens of young founders early, often before anything looked clear from the outside.

This experience led to a simple pattern: early signals rarely come from credentials or polish, but from how people move when no one is asking them to.

What’s Next

What I’ve seen is clear: the bottleneck has shifted. Capital and information are abundant. What matters now is when founders emerge, and how fast they grow.

I work directly at that super early stage. I identify a small number of high-signal people early, often before they have clear projects, and work with them under real pressure. No classes. No curriculum. Just challenges, fast iteration, and building in the real world. In some cases, this means a high-density environment.

Around that, I run a tight loop: early access to talent, direct work with builders, capital at the moment of conviction, and amplification through network and narrative. These pieces reinforce each other over time. Most people enter after the signal is obvious. I stay earlier, when trust networks are still forming, and the first generation is being defined.

Let’s Connect

If you’re building something others don’t understand yet, feel free to reach out.

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Personal

Outside of work, I spend a lot of time reading and thinking. My interests range from history and philosophy to technology and science. I’m drawn to both very old books that have survived centuries and new ideas about the future.

Travel has shaped how I see the world. I’ve visited more than thirty countries and remain especially fascinated by places where cultures intersect. South America left a deep impression on me.

In daily life I enjoy photography, swimming, boxing, and music. I’m also a dog person. I once had a West Highland Terrier named Bleu, who grew up by the ocean.