You know that StoryProtocol raised $134 million, but did you know that its founder, Jason Zhao, is only 25 years old?
Here is the untold story of this young entrepreneur’s growth.
Source: Platum
In addition to Silicon Valley, the United States also has Silicon Mountains
As the most livable city in the United States, with no personal income tax, Austin has a long history of technological innovation
It is the headquarters of Texas Instruments and the second largest headquarters of many large technology companies.
"Keep Austin weird" is the belief in the hearts of Austinites. Technology, art, and rebellious spirit merge in this city.
Jason grew up in this environment
Jason Zhao has had an entrepreneurial heart since he was a child and is passionate about sharing ideas and supporting young people to start their own businesses.
While in high school, Jason was responsible for TEDxAustinYouth locally, supporting participants to explore new ideas and innovations through interaction.
He is collaborative and open to communication.
Image source: MarsBit
During the same period, he had already started trying to start a business. In ninth grade, he and his friends conceived the idea for a startup.
After repeatedly changing the company's strategy and running into obstacles, he realized that young entrepreneurs faced many problems.
Later, he founded Project Zilker, using his own failure experience to guide young entrepreneurs to avoid detours.
In the summer of 2016, Jason Zhao joined the MIT Launch training camp. During this two-month summer training camp, Jason Zhao and his peers established PolitiFund, a crowdfunding platform for political lobbying to help people strengthen their political expression.
During that time, Jason sent at least 1,000 emails promoting the platform.
This honed his ability to deal with rejection and acquire resources.
Image source: MarsBit
It’s hard to imagine, but on top of these activities, Jason participates in Model United Nations and is an Eagle (Top 4%) Scout BSA.
Jason has long maintained one of the best grades in his grade, graduated with honors as an outstanding graduate, and was published in school reports.
With a perfect SAT score of 2,400, Jason Zhao chose Stanford among full scholarship offers from Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Wharton and other universities.
Image source: MarsBit
Jason Zhao received his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Stanford and studied CS as a graduate student.
During school, he spent almost all his time on AI, conducted research with doctoral students, and entered DeepMind as an intern early.
He is passionate about translating fresh research results into useful commercial products.
Image source: MarsBit
It was during his internship at DeepMind that he re-read the Bitcoin and Ethereum white papers. Compared with the AI industry, he was shocked by the equality of blockchain research, the efficient transformation from technical research to product implementation, and the Darwinist environment of on-chain evolution.
This is a testing ground for cutting-edge technology, political philosophy, and the organic role of capitalism, which resonates with the soul of Jason Zhao.
During his undergraduate years, Jason Zhao founded Stanford Rewired, a campus dedicated to integrating technology and society.
This publication is dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices, providing diverse perspectives and stories across disciplines.
As editor-in-chief, he thinks deeply about the intersection of politics, philosophy, economics, governance, and technology.
Image source: MarsBit
AI reshapes creativity and makes content infinitely richer
Blockchain determines digital property rights and gives data verifiable scarcity.
AI + Blockchain + IP = Story Protocol
This exciting idea made DeepMind’s youngest PM quit his job and resolutely start his own business.
Image source: MarsBit
Jason first met SY, a young and experienced entrepreneur, at the a16z organization’s CSS accelerator.
They are all excited about solving real problems in the IP industry.
After working together for a month, Jason Zhao wrote the first version of the Story Protocol white paper
Image source: MarsBit
What will the world look like?
What do we need to do to make intellectual property fully programmable?
Just like blockchain allows currency to be programmable, through Story, we can unlock a network so that creativity, intellectual property, and ideas have property rights, and not only have property rights, but these property rights can be programmed
This is a vision for a new era of creativity
Building this infrastructure will spark a renaissance
Image source: MarsBit
Everyone knows the story behind it.
From the first contact with investors to the completion of the first round of financing, Story Protocol only took 3 weeks.
a16z has raised 3 rounds of investment in a row, pushing the total financing amount to US$134 million. At this time, Jason Zhao was only 25 years old.
"The easiest way to achieve success and happiness is to do what you want to do."
Growing up, Jason never wanted to be a good entrepreneur, and this has made him what he is today.
[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.
This article is reprinted with permission from: "MarsBit"
Original author: Story_Liu00
