First of all, it is important to note that Eric Zhu is not your typical 15-year-old. Though his skepticism of authority and resistance toward institutions is a classic Gen-Z trait (and has sent him to the principal’s office numerous times), Eric has a surprisingly intricate knowledge of the startup world. He speaks the language of founders and is already embedded in the SF tech scene.
You may be asking, “How is this even possible for a 15-year-old?” Simply put, Eric has hustled. By capitalizing on Discord servers during the Covid quarantine and booking cold calls via Calendly, Eric has already met with hundreds of prominent voices in the startup ecosystem. Furthermore, despite his young age, his knowledge is deeply relevant and markedly insightful.
What struck me most about Eric when we spoke was his disregard for the “right” way of doing things. Though many people have tried (and failed) to garner VC support using traditional means, Eric never even considered these avenues. Instead, he built a web scraper to (“nonconsensually”) schedule meetings via Calendly with fund partners like Eric Bahn. And, as if that was not unorthodox enough, he attended those meetings from one of the stalls in his school bathroom.
Crazily enough, it worked.
To date, Eric has raised over $1m for Aviato while also co-managing Bachmanity Capital, which just completed a $20m round for early-stage deployment. The moral of the story?
Audacity wins the day.
Also, if the names “Aviato” and “Bachmanity Capital” ring a bell, that is because they come from Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley series on HBO. Needless to say, Eric also has a sense of humor.
When telling me his story, Eric discussed how he was able to break into the tech scene while still living in Carmel, Indiana (or, as he put it, “kind of like the middle of nowhere”). Interestingly enough, Eric attributed the beginning of his journey to Roblox, through which he discovered Hack Club. Though Eric got banned from Hack Club’s online community within 24 hours of his joining, he connected with a group of other teens who reached out “because they thought it was funny.”
Eric learned how to code and founded AcademiaEdge, a nonprofit that offered free programming classes for students. After hosting a hackathon with Elon Musk’s son, the pandemic struck. However, rather than taking the time to kick back like most middle school students, Eric quickly recognized an opportunity to get ahead.
Armed with only an internet connection, Eric joined the “Gen Z Mafia,” where he began leveraging his contacts to outsource simple jobs from startups to independent contractors. He told me, “San Francisco was like a Discord server back then [in quarantine].”
One of these startups was Carbon Zero Financial, a fintech that eventually brought Eric on as an intern (“because it turns out that you can’t get a job legally as a 13-year-old”). After roughly a year, Eric felt ready to branch off and build E-Social, an ed-tech platform that garnered over 50,000 students on a waitlist while simultaneously scaling to 50 schools.
After a stint as a venture scout (where he implemented his infamous Calendly scraper), Eric faced his most recent challenge: Aviato.
You may be asking: “So what? What’s the moral here?” Networking is changing, and Eric’s story is proof that its traditional rules are crumbling. His career, albeit short, has been a masterclass in inventive networking. We should take some notes.
A LinkedIn profile may not be enough to break the mold, and cold emails (or even warm emails, for that matter) may not be the solution. Networking today is more about creativity than it is about initial social capital.
Maybe give Roblox a try.
Though my original article in March was a pessimistic perspective on the current fundraising environment, Eric’s story gives me hope for the future. There are a few reasons for my shift:
First off, Eric was able to close his $1m round for Aviato within three months by utilizing a simple tactic. “Pitching is horrible,” he said. “You never want to be transactional in the first conversation.”
For Eric (and, hopefully, other Gen Z-ers that will soon enter the VC space), the startup ecosystem is less about clout and more about relationships. This trajectory shift is crucial for venture capital firms to actualize their lofty goals. Why? Changing the world is only possible through leveraging real connections. Eric understands this principle intuitively, which makes me excited to see this next generation of founders/investors.
The second reason for my shift is Eric’s relentlessly positive outlook, coupled with his contrarian methods. He acknowledges that many people may disagree with his techniques (he calls these people the “MBAs”), yet he doesn’t falter or capitulate. His brand is unashamedly Gen Z: Eric shitposts on his personal Twitter account while enabling his 32 thousand followers to follow his continuing battle with his high school administration. In other words, he uses Twitter memes to generate excitement about his brand. And he’s not afraid of the fallout.
Furthermore, Eric sees the nuances and apparent contradictions within the VC space. He is self-aware of his position. Specifically, he perceives consumer tech as hype-driven, high-visibility fundraising, while the real money is “under the cover” and not nearly as glamorous (think semiconductors or big data). Eric knows that his ventures have tended to be in the former lane. As such, he is prepared for the assumptions that people may draw from his approach (me included). However, as I have seen firsthand, the “MBA” assumptions fail to tell the complete story.
Maybe I am at risk of overquoting Thiel in my recent writing, but his synopsis of contrarianism clarifies Eric’s story so far:
“The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.”
Whether you agree with his methods or not, Eric Zhu does just that.