Duke freshman Leon Zhang's Journey to Raising $350k & building a $1M Investment Firm | Ep 11

Leon Zhang, a Duke University freshman, entrepreneur, writer and researcher, shares his journey from childhood in China to becoming a research assistant at Columbia University at 14 years old! Leon is an expert on China and its relationship with the outside World. He discusses the benefits of research and knowledge in solving real-world issues and the importance of understanding China's perspective in global relations. Leon talks about his ventures in entrepreneurship, including helping to found Multum and raising $350,000 for his startup. He emphasises the value of building networks and the role of advisors in his success. Leon is the Founding Partner of Iuventus Capital which is raising $1m in capital. Additionally, Leon highlights the significance of education and his role as an advisor for Yuto, bridging the gap between American and Chinese businesses. In this conversation, Leon Zhang shares his experiences in building trust and facilitating investments, his future plans and mindset, advice for young entrepreneurs, the startup culture at elite universities, venture capital and entrepreneurship in China, and finding happiness and success. He emphasises the importance of trust, courage, and dedication in entrepreneurship and encourages listeners to pursue what makes them happy.

Personable is a podcast dedicated to helping listeners become the best they can be by learning from the world’s best in their respective fields. This mission is inspired by my mother, Louise, who encouraged me to become the best version of myself before she passed away from cancer in 2023.

Connect with Harvey:
Harvey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harveybracken-smith/ 
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My dad's startup: https://www.thedraft.io/
Donate to the charity we have founded in memory of my mum: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/LouLouRacefoiundation?utm_term=PvByaxmdn

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello and welcome to episode 11 of Percival Today. I am hugely honored to be joined by Leon Zhang. Leon is a classmate of mine, a freshman at Duke University. I'm hugely honored to have him on today. He is originally from China. He started out in his teenage years as a research assistant at Columbia University, becoming a writer, a project member at the Ford Foundation. He has created a startup called Malton in which he has raised $350,000 for, and he is the chief advisor as well. He is the financial advisor for a company called Uto, which he helps to advise for from China. He is also the founding partner one of the founding partners at Juventus Capital. There was a lot to go into today. Thank you so much, leon, for joining me.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Thank you so much, Howard, for having me. It's a great honor to be on your podcast. It is a great honor to know you as a friend as well. I'm very excited for the interview today, or the fuck walls today, as we like to say stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:02

As many of our fellow classmates at Duke, you're obviously highly accomplished, but in particular, what you've been able to achieve is truly extraordinary. I'd like to first dive into for you to describe a bit about your childhood and then how that led to your research position at Columbia.

Speaker 2: 1:21

I think everyone at Duke is very talented, and then I'm actually just greatly honored to be interviewed. I was a little bit of my childhood. I was born in China and I was born in Shenzhen, china, which is one of the tech hubs of the entire country. I lived in China until I was 13, and then I moved to US and then I started to study in the US as a high school freshman. I spent the past five years in US and now I'm at Duke.

Speaker 2: 1:52

I have always been extremely interested in economics since I was a kid, not because of the financial side, but because I was very interested in the economic policymaking process, particularly because my parents and then my family are very much involved in this particular field.

Speaker 2: 2:13

I was born in a city that very much demonstrated China's extraordinary growth in the past decades. Then I basically grew up witnessing how the city, and along with the country, achieved rapid economic liberalization and then achieved very high economic growth. Then that particular interest drove me into diving into the study of economics as an academic subject, and specifically political economy. Then I was lucky enough to be invited by, at that time, a very distinguished professor at Columbia University to be his disciple and then to essentially study theoretical work and then also some empirical studies under him. I've been doing that for around four years and then I started off to do a theoretical study, but then later on, obviously I started to focus more on East Asia and then I specialized in East Asian political economy. It's been a heck of a journey and it's been one of the most precious memories of my life.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Why? This sounds like a bit of a ludicrous question, but why would a senior professor one of the best universities on the planet want to take a young teenager on board as his mentee? Why not choose a 30-year-old that spent years in the field, or even a college student? Why a young teenager?

Speaker 2: 3:56

It was kind of like an insane story. Actually, I was a 14-year-old high school student this guy he's extremely distinguished and then for me I remember it was 2019 Christmas and then one of my really good friends from high school actually introduced me to this guy. Then we were just talking but I was kind of invited to see if I can participate in this project which he made me write literature reviews for globalized cities. I remember this topic correct vividly, and then I was researching globalized cities and then I wrote a lot of literature for him and then he sent it back to me and he said, although this is not so good, just rewrite everything I underlined. And then I opened the doc, everything besides the headline was underlined.

Speaker 2: 5:08

And then I have always been a very I wouldn't say high achieving, but I always wanted to do my best and I don't like it when someone tells me that this is not too good and that I spend the next four days just working on this and I don't even think I focus on schoolwork at all. I didn't even care about, like I didn't even have any intention to, just want to prove that I can do this and then send it back to him. The guy talked to me again. The guy was like wait, you're actually pretty talented as a high school kid. Maybe you can try to join my team and that's it. Well, if you want me to. So that's how I joined it.

Speaker 2: 5:49

And then in the beginning, of course, I was like this guy holding teachers' graduate student in there for me. I was just like I'm a high school kid, who am I to be here? Just a lot of self doubt, a lot of imposter syndrome. But over the years, especially as soon as I started to touch on these days and stuff, I kind of had this unique edge that other people don't have, because I grew up in China and real a lot of good stuff and just gradually became more and more confident. And yeah, that's how it worked.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Although you had this interest and this talent in the economic field, in particular in Asia and in China. What do you think was the when you were in that position? What do you think the main benefits of doing this work with the professor were? Because there's often a for people that aren't in the academic field. There's often a viewpoint of that they're just researching things that will never be used in the real world. So what did you think was the practical use of doing something like this and what was the output of your four years of work with the professor?

Speaker 2: 6:54

Well, I would say the most important knowledge I gained was how you look at things in a more macro way, because I had a lot of macro economic stuff and then in the business world, a lot of people. We analyzed the business a lot of times and then in the business world, a lot of people were very successful.

Speaker 2: 7:16

But then, because you're particularly in this field, you don't really think about zooming out and taking a look at a bigger picture and then that's one of the greatest skills I've learned, because, without analyzing specific phenomenons as something based on years of data, or we try to look at things through cultural, political, economic phenomena of lenses, and then we try to lend all these perspectives together and try to create like a more holistic review of the entire economy. So this kind of skills I think a lot of them from the business world lives, because you're more focused on technical stuff and then sometimes they just forget to zoom out a little bit. And I think another good skill that I gained was how to really think about how things generally work. And then what I meant by this is a lot of times in the beginning, when I was analyzing things and then looking at the data. I'm like a mod, I'm like a machine. I'm always modulated, trying to think at least just data is I want to get a good result.

Speaker 2: 8:32

But then my professor told me you can't think about numbers, you got to think about people. And then a simple number of unemployment rate might result in tons of thousands of families losing their primary income source, and then these are very serious stuff, so that you really got to start to compassion these people. And then that's what really changed the game, because that gave me like a on yielding passion to make the world a better place. And then a lot of times now that I'm doing in the business world, when I'm interacting with people, looking at especially like when I'm trying to, when I'm in touch with new concepts, and then in startups, I really try to think about how they impact our world and then what kind of demand do they are really responding to? And then this is one of them. This is also a very good tool that I have gained throughout my research years.

Speaker 1: 9:38

How I saw that you've also engaged in writing and papers, especially in China. Now, do you think that your writing and your research and your knowledge has helped to solve issues or at least draw light? Can you give me an example of something you wrote about in one of those papers and how that translated to sort of like identify problems?

Speaker 2: 10:02

Yeah, so I think one of my unique edges was people that understand Western economics theories don't really understand China the way I did, because China is a very the Chinese political economy, like the subject itself, is a very enclosed subject because not many people can really dive into elite politics in China or like the exact policy making process, and then to be as deep as I am is particularly hard. And then my cultural background helps me a little bit and then throughout the years, my ability to speak both languages also helped me a lot, and then people that understand how Chinese politics and economics works don't necessarily have a theoretical background that I do, and a lot of things I wrote ended up being very helpful for the government or just the academic general to analyze China in a different way. It's a different perspective that a few people has. And then one example would be I think when I was this was the first publication I had.

Speaker 2: 11:15

I believe I was 14 when I wrote this and then I wrote about how actually my city, shenzhen, as the financial center of China, you need to take on a bigger role as China started to develop.

Speaker 2: 11:30

And then I indicated a potential financial issue, that is, the lack of financial liberalization and market liberalization, I suggested that I should go further and then, I think around six months later, actually they suffered the issue that is directly caused by the lack of financial liberalization.

Speaker 2: 11:51

And then actually one of the then leaders of the city actually came to me and he was like you know, man, you're actually right, you know. Like I don't know how you did it, you're a 14 year old kid. But you know, I wouldn't expect to point out something like this. And the reason why I could do this is because I told him I have a different perspective, I think, in a different way, educating in a different way. And then from then on I've been writing a lot of stuff that just tried to represent my views and then what people has taught me and then these articles has generally helped the general public to understand China more and then for China itself, you know, tried to help people with China to understand how to collectively with other people in the world to just create a better future for all.

Speaker 1: 12:45

You've worked as well for the Ford Foundation, which I'll let you go into a bit more detail on as well. It's something I'm curious about. I can understand that the US perspective on wanting to gain more insight into China and how China works. But does China like the people and the government officials in China? Do they like the idea of the US and the wider world being able to understand them more greatly, to be able to solve their issues? Or is it more of a black box that you're externally looking into China and trying to understand how they work and that so the bike doesn't look how they work?

Speaker 2: 13:18

I think absolutely. I think anyone, I think everyone in China wants to be understood or wants to be understood. And then I think the primary reason is because the more we understand each other especially given the creative situation between the US and China and all that the more we understand each other, the more mutual connection we'll have and then the more likely that we're going to work better together. And then, given the current situation, I just feel like there's an ever-growing need to understand China. We are the second largest economy in the world. We are obviously one of the major players in global politics, and then people need to understand China and China wants to be understood too.

Speaker 2: 14:05

A lot of things we have a lot of great economic policy-making experiences. We created one of the economic miracles of the 21st century and then the 21st century. These knowledges can be used in other countries as well. Currently, we have the Belt and Road Initiative and we're trying to help other developing countries, and then we're really trying to use our experiences growing in China to help other countries to grow and alleviate poverty in these places. In addition, the Chinese culture itself is extremely fascinating, and then a lot of American sinologists and sinologists across the world have been repeatedly pointing out that China is a fascinating country with 5,000 years of history. We want to be understood, and then we want to understand other people more. It's always good to have a better understanding of China, and then it's always good for China to understand the rest of the world more, because this is all about how we can work together better and create a better future for the human race in general.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I'll argue I think a lot of listeners sort of basing the Western world and listening to Western media often get an outside glimpse of the current situation between the US, china and the rest of the world. But I'd like to hear a bit more of your perspective on China's perspective on the current situation with them in the US, where it's been over the past few years, the current situation and where sort of China think or you think that it should progress, moving forward.

Speaker 2: 15:52

I've been studying US for 5 years and then I would argue that I have pretty good grasp on the US culture and what the US think of China. I generally think there are a lot of misunderstandings between these two countries. And then I think in China, when I was growing up, when I was a kid, the word US in China actually translates to beautiful country. So we call US to beautiful country, we call England the egalitarian country, Stuff like that. So we think of what's going on, but we think Western countries are great nations and we think the Western civilization is extremely fascinating.

Speaker 2: 16:45

And then the whole idea of opening up China and exposing China to Western ideologies in the Western economy was carried out by the leaders back in the 1980s.

Speaker 2: 16:58

But as time goes on, I thought there are a lot of confusions between these two countries and then that spurred from just general ignorance from people of China and people of US. And I think there's a lot of misunderstandings and I think China still, you know, given like, even though we have, you know, misunderstandings and you know these these like minor conflicts China in general wants to be in touch with the rest of the world and then being in touch with the rest of the world means that we have to, you know, be friendly and then cooperate with other economies, other, you know, leaders of the world, and you know, because we all shared this responsibility of, you know, making the world a better place. And so I think, in general, China wants to be engaged, it being engaging with the rest of the world, and China wants to be friends with the rest of the world. And then we've been doing this since the 1980s and then we will keep doing, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:06

What? Why is this? So you mentioned these misunderstandings and obviously I'm and probably with a lot of the listeners I'm a bit confused by what you mean by misunderstandings, because sort of like relationships sort of with the UK, the EU and lots of other countries. I know China is different, but what makes China different? Why are these misunderstandings, why are they not, you know it, kind of sounding like China wants to work with the US and the US works with China? But I don't think it's as simple as that. What are these misunderstandings? What's been going wrong and what needs to change for these two countries to be more harmonic in the future?

Speaker 2: 18:47

I think in the US a general misunderstanding is you know, chinese people are one kind of people you know, especially, like you know Chinese people and this and that, and then that's a huge misunderstanding because you know, as my professor pointed out, numbers represent phenomenons by numbers, and then you know the cause of a China represents like thousands of, like billions of different. You know people and then we are a very diverse group of people with thousands of years of history, and then even me, as a native Chinese, can't, you know, fully understand like a rich history as well. You know like it's a hard thing, but you know it's also fascinating, it teaches you a lot. And then there are traditions in our country that are very virtuous. That has been practicing for, has been practiced for, you know, thousands of years, I think to understand China you know you was really not just you, it's just the rest of the world really needs to dive into a culture and it's really fascinating, obviously.

Speaker 2: 19:59

And then you know, and there's different people, we have different ethnic groups, we have, you know, different thinking, we have, you know, and then these are all Chinese things that are extremely fascinating, but a lot of times people just think of China as, you know, the second largest economy in the world.

Speaker 2: 20:19

You know, like the leader of these, you know something like that. So you know, I would say in the past decades China has developed itself rapidly and then this dramatic economic development kind of kind of attracted all the attention. And then the rich history and the rich tradition that we have that has been there for 5,000 years and then has potentially contributed to this economic development, was neglected. But the truth is, you know, nothing can happen. You know, within a day, you know say like it has to deal with something that like has been prepared, prepared for this for a long time. And then you know there's a huge tradition and a very solid foundation for our culture, for our nation, and then these kind of stuff really needs to get more attention. And I think that's where the general misunderstanding comes from.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Thank you. I mean truly incredible and I'd love to have many more conversations about that post the podcast. I think both your ability to create some state insight between the US and China and what you've done, especially as a teenager working with Professor Columbia, is truly incredible. But what I think will be perhaps even more interesting to many listeners is how you've managed, you know, to get into entrepreneurship. You founded a business called Malton in high school. Could you tell me a bit more about that? How the idea came, what it is and where it's headed?

Speaker 2: 22:04

Well, it's very interesting because I initially did not want to do business and then I always hated it when people you're studying economics because you want to go into the finance world, because, for me, I was more of it, I was more of an academia. But the reason why I entered the business world was because I started to see business, you know, not as a traditional thinking of like, oh, you're making money, you're like savvy businessman, not like that. I started to see business as more of a form of community service. And then I think, you know, doing business is one of the few ways that allows you to, you know, do whatever you want and then, at the pace you want, with the direction that you want to go to. And then that is something that really attracted me. And then, when I started to think about this, I wanted to do something that can serve the community, that is profitable, for sure, but can also serve the community. And then I want to do something that can allow me to utilize a lot of my background and then to, basically, you know, I want to do something that allows me to translate some of the tools, like my toolbox, that I gained from academia to the business world.

Speaker 2: 23:32

And then me and my best friend, you know, rithik Puli, we started this company.

Speaker 2: 23:40

We started as an alternative to delivery services as Uber and then Lyft, but the main difference was we were able to allow you to tell me how much you want to pay, and then what I mean by that is we have a dynamic pricing system in which you know you can basically negotiate with the drivers about the price that you want to pay for the food to deliver to your door. You know online, and then you know the idea is, with this system, you know we can create more jobs for the local community, and then we can, you know also, you know pay the drivers more, and then you know you can also save more because when you guys are directly negotiating, there's no third party that's like taking advantage of you, and then it's a really transparent system really, and later on the system was introduced to the field of home services. You know, you know if you need a plumber and if you're like I don't know if your sink broke down, you know you can use your system to negotiate with people in the community again to fix it for it, and then this has been a very exciting journey, because it is a very interesting concept that attracted a lot of people's attention, and then it is also just an awesome way to create more jobs. And then you know, we always want more jobs, right? So yeah, and yeah, that's Moulton.

Speaker 1: 25:21

Whereabouts is Moulton based and how did you actually go from having the idea to building product?

Speaker 2: 25:29

Well, moulton is based in Washington DC and we're actually doing a piloting, a piloting Washington DC right now. We're partnered with several hotels I believe Marriott and then Sherton, all these hotels in Washington DC and they were delivering hotel food these days, and you know, yeah, and then it was surprisingly easy to start a company like this, because America has, like, extremely matured startup culture and this is something that I have never, ever seen before. You know me and Rithik, when we started this company, you know we're like, okay, we got to raise money.

Speaker 2: 26:08

we got to do this not, and that we need advises from people. You know, and when you go to entrepreneurship events, like you can get all these, you know you meet people basically, and then when you meet people, they tell you their experiences, you learn from them. Then you sort of like, based on their experiences, design your own journey and then you know when you need to raise money, you know, you talk to these guys and then you know, maybe, luckily, if someone's interested, they will do the pitching some, you know. So it's really an organic system that when you have a truly good product that everyone can use, you know you can always benefit from this system. And then you know this is a period of our life where we did travel around the country, you know, just to raise money and then, do all that and then it was exhausting but it was also fascinating.

Speaker 2: 26:59

You know like I personally, I met some of my best business partners and then like or just friends in general from these events and then from this environment. And then, you know, at Duke even I'm looking forward to meet, you know, similar minded people and then, you know, even potentially created a culture like this or like a, like a hub for people like this myself.

Speaker 1: 27:24

Yeah. Did you raise this money free product? Or are you technical and already built something before you presented to people?

Speaker 2: 27:32

Yeah, so we raise this money free product base, and then a part of it was raised through these events and a parli was raised through you know, just people in our community that I wanted to chip in. And you know, obviously, you know we built this product. Actually, I think a very interesting thing is when we're trying to build this product. You know, rithik, and I was trying to find, like you know, people that can code or people that can manage and all this. You know all the software and like coding stuff, which I am, I have no idea how to do these and that my my like.

Speaker 2: 28:08

You know, I specialize in easy Asian political economy and then I analyze Asia a lot and I was like, well, we only find somewhere with cheap labor, you know so, actually. And then in India there's this company that are willing to do this, this development, with extremely, extremely cheap price. And then you know so, so, like, so building, so so basically what happened was we got to ask people we got built this, this is a very good price. You know, do you want to chip in? I give you some of our stocks. You know so, like stuff's like that. And then there were some questionable like, there were some things that we didn't do. Well, you know, because we're just kids maybe like sign some very terrible deos, but like in the end it all worked out because you know you learn from your mistakes and yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:53

Did you identify these coders before raising the money and how did you make sure they were trustworthy? I mean, being cheaper doesn't always mean better, right.

Speaker 2: 29:02

Yeah, and then that's that's certainly. That's certainly a risk to take, but I think in India right now, especially in cities like Hatharvut, there are tech hubs right now. And then you know big companies like Amazon, like Google, I believe they all have, you know, they all have their, you know separate like offices, and in these places right now, and then also, india is also just an incredible place to and then and it's going to have a incredible period of economic growth and they have a really matured or they have really they have quite a developed system for startups and for technology. And then you know, you know, obviously we have to be extra careful when we're talking to these people, because we want to make sure that they're not like just guys trying to trick us. But I guess that's just we gotta make these decisions based on your perspicacity, right, like that's how it works.

Speaker 2: 30:04

And then for me, I've personally talked to a lot of people to eventually decide where do we want to, who do you want to trust with our product? Because another thing that I carry on my shoulder is the responsibility to make sure that this is a good product, and then, if I need to put my name on this product, I gotta make sure it's good, because it's my reputation at risk and then if I mess this up, it's just a disappointment to the community. So I see this. I take this very seriously.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Why do you say the community? Who is the community?

Speaker 2: 30:39

Just people, people in DC and the people around us actually for this product. The government at DC actually we've been recently talked to them and they're like this reduces unemployment rate. This creates jobs for low income people, because in DC you can just deliver for about what and a lot of people, given the current economic situation, you just lost a job and then we're food makes perfect sense, and then this is something I'm really excited for and the government representatives. We're talking to them.

Speaker 2: 31:12

They're like if you want any help, we can also help you. So we're also trying to see at this stage how do we expand into the greater DMV area and then potentially to the country.

Speaker 1: 31:26

I mean, even just raising the money, building the products is insane. But one thing that I'm very interested in, and a lot of my guests, is their ability to build networks, and not just the people that they know, but people that are willing to help them. You've mentioned the DC government and you've also mentioned building partnerships with, like, the Marriott Hotel chain. How did you get your foot in the door with these people? And then how were you able to sell yourself as a founder to be able to close deals with them and get them to actually work with you and take you seriously?

Speaker 2: 31:55

My philosophy is I don't care who you are, I just talk to you, and I'm a great guy. I don't even necessarily want to talk to you about business sometimes. And then, if you want to tap into my journey, sure tag along. A lot of times I meet people and then I am just genuinely interested in what's going on. You know what are you doing, how's your family, stuff like that. And then eventually we became friends and then your friends will help you, and then all that.

Speaker 2: 32:24

And then there's actually an interesting story where I was at this event in San Francisco with a organization called Thai Silicon Valley, which is a very large entrepreneurship group, and then they had this huge event with this speaker and then this guy. Everyone was basically trying to see if they can bond some the mix of connections, and then the guy was just exhausted. I was just sitting there. I was like huh, you know, I don't know if I want to talk to this guy because he's apparently being overwhelmed by his like worshipers right now. And then, you know, I actually met this guy later after the event in the restroom and then, and then we started talking to the resume and then for me I was just like I didn't want to know about your business. I know you're an incredible person, but you know you've been talking about this all day. Tell me about your kids. How do you balance your life and work? How do you? How do you? How do you, how do you, how do you deal with your wife? You know, like you know, do you drive your kids to school? You know you're so busy doing all these.

Speaker 2: 33:25

And then this guy just opened himself to me and told me everything. He's like. You know, I've been struggling all this and that, and at that time I wasn't even trying to build connection, I just wanted to hear about his story. And then, you know, I want to see how to balance my life and work in the future. And then you know even just how to maybe comfort this guy. And then, and then he became very vulnerable in front of me and he invited me to his house. And then later on he became really good friends. And then he's still one of the best advisors that I have for my business. And then he connected me to a lot of other people. So this is generally how I meet people. You know. I just, I just genuinely enjoy talking to people. And then I want to. I want to bring people some positive energy and I think when you do that you know the community response. In a way, that would make a lot of things work.

Speaker 1: 34:17

How can you've got this very unique skill I mean, it represents the exact name of the podcast, but being personable and that you're very likable and you find connecting people is a big skill of yours. But for people listening, you can even use me as an example, or someone else that wants to create a business. They have a startup idea, but they're non-technical. How do they go about selling themselves to raise money, like you did? Well?

Speaker 2: 34:47

I think you just got to. I think one important thing you got to think about is what demand are you responding to? And if you want to create a business, you know you are essentially responding to it Like, hopefully, bro, demand is fatty, and if you're supplying this demand, you know you will find people that are interested. And then I think you really need to identify your. You know, like, what your product does and then what problem does this? And then you know, and then once you identify this, you know you really got to try to dive into this community or this industry and then just try to meet people, you know, try to talk to people. You know, especially, don't be afraid to talk to people, because you know you have.

Speaker 2: 35:34

Like my mind says, I have nothing to lose and I don't care if you're CEO or founder of this, and that you know I have nothing to lose. You know, I want to ask you, I want you to help me. If you don't help me, don't hate me. You know it was like I shot. I just talked to people and it's it's, it's, it's, it's, it's. That will be my advice, you know, just talk to people and then, I think, really just start up culture. You know, aside from the technical side, it's all about people. You know it's all about how do you build trust, build a good reputation, how do you know, be sincere to people? You know, really try to respond to people's knees. And then, you know, as long as you're genuinely you're, you're this is as long as you have a genuinely good product that everyone can use, and as long as you're a really good person really wants to. You know, transform the community. You know, try to try to make some changes. You will always find people that will help you.

Speaker 1: 36:29

If you had already built this business, develop this incredible network of people and we haven't even got onto your other ventures yet. Why bother going to university? What does Jude mean to you? Why do you specifically and what do you hope to get out of more education instead of doubling down on your startup and spending your time doing that?

Speaker 2: 36:50

The fun fact is that on TIC I basically don't take the commerce course, duke and you would know it or be like I basically don't really work on economics, so it's really business stuff. I take random classes, you know. Like this semester I'm taking evolutionary anthropology in a class about how racism works with the biology. Next semester I'm taking Jewish history and the Ottoman Empire and stuff like that. So like I'm really trying to get a liberal arts education here and I believe getting this type of education, getting this type of education, you know, allows you to broaden your mind. And then you know I don't know if you, I don't know if you heard about this, you know, in the famous Steve Jobs, you know, commencement speaks, you know, speech to the Stanford graduates, you mentioned this idea of connecting the dots. And then the idea was you know, you might learn a lot of stuff that you don't think is gonna be helpful for you in the future, but you gotta believe that Some point you'll be able to use it. And then I trust the process.

Speaker 2: 37:55

I believe that everything I learn in college at some point in the future will help me too, just make myself a better person, to be successful in my career. And then that's one of the reasons I wanna come to college. Another important reason is I wanna learn from people, and I think there are much more like there's a lot of things to be learned in the textbook, but there are also a lot to be learned from people. And then just meeting people like you, meeting people like classmates, building connections, you know, having friends, it's an incredible journey. You know, people have different stories, people have different perspectives. They could be good, they could be bad, but you know, I believe you can always see another version of yourself in another person, and then that reflection allows you to determine which direction you wanna go for in your future, in the future, and then it just keeps you in check. It's like a mirror. You know people are like a mirror. It keeps you in check, and I think that will be the two things I wanna gain from college.

Speaker 1: 38:57

You've spoken a lot about the importance of a network and also, if listeners may have picked up, on the importance of advisors as well, and that leads to talk about your next venture, juventus Capital. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, so I'll let you correct me, but could you describe a little bit about what that is for those that have never heard of it before and what that's trying to achieve? Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 39:24

Juventus Capital responds to the need for new generation of people like people like us, kids that wants to invest more. And then, generally, people like us have a very high risk tolerance, have relatively new experiences and then want to invest. And then you know, we all know that a lot of people know that they wanna invest as soon as possible. They don't know how to, they have no experience and they wanna make money, stuff like that. So you know that's really what we do, and then that's the issue that we're trying to solve, you know. And then this capital we have you know we focus on both public and private markets, and then we have people there that are very experienced in these markets to help invest. And then, more importantly, this entire fund, this entire investment fund, it's 100% millennial, gen Z, you know, backed and then Gen Z or millennial run. So our advisors, our young people, you know, our partners, young people, you know our COO is young persons, like we were all just kids.

Speaker 2: 40:34

But I believe in today's world, kids can make a change and I believe in today's world there are a lot of people like you and I are passionate to make some, to build their own career, and then this is really a platform for these people to to me to talk. You know, it's more than just a fund. It's an environment, it's a society, it's a you know it's, you know, it's almost like a fraternity in a sense, if you want to like, look at it that way. But the end goal is for people to meet good people to people, for people for like-minded business or rented, you know, college students to really connect to each other and then, you know, hopefully embark on a new journey of business together, you know. So that is that's basically. That's basically the concept.

Speaker 1: 41:27

Yeah, Could you add some context about, like, the types of advisors you're getting on the people joining the community and then also the size of the fund?

Speaker 2: 41:39

Well, I keep this fund as a extremely, you know, exclusive thing, primarily because I want to make sure that everyone is serious about this whole thing. They want to do business, they want to meet people, and then, you know, it's not just something we should come at like half a fund. Well, there's going to be lots of fun, but, you know, I also got to make sure that people are all serious about this. And then Our advisors are, you know, startup founders that have been very successful. You know, or you know, some of the advisors are really high-profile, and then, you know, they run their like pioneers in their own field, even though they're like 37 years old, something like that, you know. And then a lot of our partners are people that have already had exits. You know, a lot of our partners are people that you know haven't worked in this field for a long time, even though they're very young people. And then they, you know, have a lot of experiences, interest in general and, most importantly, have new ideas. They have vibrant, that, this vibrant. We have this vibrant energy. We're just like, we just create, like we've got so many ideas that we want to touch on. And then, you know, and then for our members.

Speaker 2: 42:53

You know, these are all people that are passionate about their career. You know, we are 18 years old, 21 years old, like just young people, and then we have so many different ideas. We see this aside in such a different way that a lot of other people do. And, you know, most importantly, we're young and then we're allowed to take risks, we're allowed to chase our dream, and then we're allowed to go anywhere we want.

Speaker 2: 43:21

And then this is why we have this, the whole society, because I want this to be a powerhouse for people like me and you, and then I want this to be something that will keep supporting us to pursue, you know, our career in the future with passion. And then, you know, hopefully, we can keep supporting our members till, you know, till forever. You know, I hope, hopefully in the future. You know, when we are all successful in respect to careers, we can, you know, reconnect through this fun and then, you know, you know, embark on a new journey together. So it's always exciting, you know, it's always exciting. It's an exciting time, we have exciting people, and then it's an exciting fun.

Speaker 1: 44:03

Why do you think that this entrepreneurship community has become so close and that people want to help each other so much and you've thoroughly touched on this about the importance of advisors how do you think that idea came to you about needing someone that's already gone through the journey to actually help you through the process?

Speaker 2: 44:22

Because people that, because only only people that have gone through this understand the hardships and the excitement of this journey, and then they are the only people that can help you. And then you know, our advisors are all I have like. A good way to say this is that all of our advisors are either are still in this journey, are still discovering themselves we're young people and they could have a couple million dollars or like a huge company in their hand, but they could get fired immediately. You know, like without knowing anything. They're still trying to figure out what they're doing with their life. Right, and then you know the matter. Of course they have business successes, and then they have a lot of serious business, but they're still trying to figure things out.

Speaker 2: 45:19

And then the good thing about still trying to figure things out is that we are open to the greatest changes. And then you know which is the reason why we're so supported to each other, because you know we have to share passion. Toys is a similar goal, but in the meantime, we're also open to change. And then you know we're open to perspectives. We're open to a lot of things. We are a fluid, we're fluid people, and then when we blend with each other. We sort of just you know, learn from each other and try to extract the experiences and then like to diverge you from each other. And then you know, and then just become better entrepreneurs or better business-oriented people. You know, I would say that's how everybody works.

Speaker 1: 46:10

How have you used that skill from entrepreneurship with Juventus, capital and Molten and then blended that with your knowledge on China and economic policy into your role working as an advisor for a company I believe is called UTO? Could you explain a bit more about what UTO is, how you became an advisor for them, what the goal is and why your expertise is so important in working with someone like them or with them?

Speaker 2: 46:37

So, early on I was working as a research assistant, I have been extremely passionate about the idea of me understanding both American economic policy and Chinese political elite politics, that this concept of me being fluent in both languages, you know, really allows me to make a change. And then, later on, when I was working with a lot of think tanks for a foundation or just academic or business organizations in general, I realized that my special background in East Asia really helped me because, you know, as you can see, if I speak in English, like you, I'm just like you. You know, I'm a kid. I listen to Kendrick Lamar, all that. I'm just a normal kid. I have this other side, where I understand China a lot and understand what's going on in this country. You know so.

Speaker 2: 47:36

You know, a lot of times it's easy for me to build a trusting relationship with an American investor or start. In the meantime, I have a trusting relationship with a VCPE or with a company that is established in China. You know, these are two totally different societies with two with totally different rules. And then again, as I mentioned, there's a lot of misunderstandings, asymmetric information, you know so. But for me I'm able to bond these people together. And then, because I am the agent that they're mutually trust, you know I can create a lot of business opportunities between all limited business opportunities between a lot of companies in China and US or other countries.

Speaker 2: 48:29

And then U2 is one of the largest plastic packaging manufacturing companies in the world and then they are very successful. And then I had the privilege to know, you know, excuse me, to know their founder and CEO through work. And then you know, one day we're talking oh, you know, they're like we want to invest in India, we want to, you know, establish a fascist India and in fact this company has factual all over the world. But you know, my co-founder, rithik, is extremely connected in India and it's similar to me. You know he has, we have mutual trust and he has mutual, he has trust with like real trust relationship with some companies in India. So there's a lot of so there's. So what happened was I was like, wait, I can help you guys because I just this guy I absolutely trust. And then we were friends and then he's friends with a lot of big Indian you know politicians and you know like companies. And then you know, maybe we can all invest.

Speaker 2: 49:29

And then so we actually help them to connect a lot of people in India. And then we're, we literally just sit there and translate for them, and then we literally just we are the only people that are facilitating this. And then it's a 20 million, like they don't want to invest $20 million around, and then, like we me and Rithik are the only people that are doing doing this and we're just facilitating everything. But I would argue that the interesting fact is, without me and Rithik, rithik just think would never happen, because, particularly because you know, you don't find people that you trust that easily in India and in India. And then you know you don't find people that you trust that much in China.

Speaker 2: 50:07

As an Indian, you know businessmen, so like these. So me and Rithik allowed this bond to be very deep. And then you know, because we all trust each other, we make deals happen, and I would also argue that in my cap, in my fund but you went to capital there are a lot of people like this. We have people that have backgrounds in different regions of cultures, but you know we have we're such a diverse, you know society, but you know we all share the same level of trust with each other, and then with this, we can basically mobilize a lot of resources, you know, in different regions of the world and really just try to see if there's any chemistry between between them, and then, you know, possibly, you know, just just just just create more business opportunities, economic opportunities, you know, in this ever globalized economy.

Speaker 1: 51:06

What would you say is next for you? You're very young, you're still under 20. You've got a lot of years ahead of you and you're already doing all of these things. And is the goal to continue down entrepreneurship path, doing more deals on a larger scale across the world? Build up your Ventus capital, build up molten and you know subsequent ventures? Would you have a thing about going into politics or anything like that? What's the goal in this short, medium and long term?

Speaker 2: 51:33

I have no idea, and that's the best part. I have no idea what I'm going to do after you've been to capital, and I had no idea that I was going to do that I was going to found Motum. You know, when I was working as a researcher and then I was working on Motum, I had no idea that I'm going to do this job. So you know, for me I just go with the flow. And then the good part is, the good thing is I have such a such a great toolbox that allows me to solve a lot of problems. And then, you know, I can work on almost like a lot, like anything that I want to with my knowledge. And then, you know, just, I just let my life take a rubber, I go, and then you know, I'm always just relaxed. You know, well, I'm a little bit tense. I'm working. You know I'm always generally relaxed about my life. And then you know, just, you know, see where ever, see where life takes me.

Speaker 2: 52:22

And then that's the best part, because when you're doing this, you you're open to creative change. And then I have a high tolerance. I'm young, I'm 18, you know I can mess up a little bit. You know it's all right, I'll get back up. And then I don't know what was waiting for me. It's coming for me and then I am extremely excited. You know, I do a lot of things. I do a lot of business stuff. I'm still 18 year old kid. I'm extremely excited for my future, you know.

Speaker 1: 52:50

What advice would you have for other teenagers, even younger, or people in their 20s or even older that would like to get into entrepreneurship but don't currently have the toolbox that you have? What advice would you have for them to be able to create the skills that they need to conjure up ideas, to do deals, to get involved in the entrepreneurship and business world? Do you want me to say?

Speaker 2: 53:17

Yep, wait one second, leon. We can. We can cut this and then read a line. Do you need to go? No, I just charged my laptop.

Speaker 1: 53:27

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 53:42

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay, I'll get it to cut this minute out and then we'll just go back into it. So let me. I've got my next question, so I'll just go straight into that. Alright, yeah, all good, I think that's a bit of delay in Wi-Fi. Let me just get that live. Go like that, if you can see me Lay on a bit of a thumb off, if you can see me. Alright, cool, alright, three, two, one. So, leon, what advice would you have for young entrepreneurs, people in their teenage years or even people that are older in other fields, that would like to get into entrepreneurship but don't currently have this toolbox that you describe in that being skills of what it takes to create a business or conjure up an idea? How would you suggest they find these skills or develop them to get involved in this world, to do deals and get involved in entrepreneurship and business world?

Speaker 2: 54:48

I think, you know, if you watch those like Marvel superhero movies, you know it's like the reason why a lot of people become superheroes is often time because, like one specific, you know, I get bit by like a spider, become superhero, like that embarks on an incredible journey that, basically, you know, becomes the main theme of life, and I think a lot of people wait for this thing to happen. You know a lot of people. You know young people or especially, like you know, older people would be like, you know, I'm not going to do business, you know, but maybe one day, if there's good opportunity, if, like, someone invite me, if I bump into this like great person, that's like I would do it, you know, and for young kids they're like, maybe I'll learn more, maybe I'll wait a little bit, Maybe, you know, one day I'll learn this. I would meet this great person that will teach me a lot about business and I will get into business. You know, maybe one day I will found this really cool concept that I can work on, and then you know all sorts of stuff, and then my idea is you don't have to wait, you don't really have to wait to be bitten by the spider, you know, you can just go. And then I think, more like being being have the courage, having the courage to go forward and then bark on this journey is the most important thing, you know.

Speaker 2: 56:04

You know I would also argue that a lot of times when you want something, bad enough you would be to get it. And then, when I was a scholar, I've never when I was like an academia, I was I never thought of doing business. You know I've got to talk to some people. You know you got a lot of people my trick, you know, doing stuff like that, but you know I just decided to do it. You know, it's literally just. Maybe one day you woke up and you say, okay, I'm going to try to see what can I do. I want to. I would jump into this water and then I will see what it takes me Right.

Speaker 2: 56:33

So I think, especially for young people, this, this, this, this mindset is extremely important and you have to relax, you have to be open to change and all that. These are all important and also, it is also important to be to be patient, because you know, a lot of times you work a little bit, there's no, there's no result. You know, I don't want to work anymore. But the reality is, I failed so many times before I eventually established a good business or established a good foundation for my business. You know, you know, even now I'm making mistakes every day, but then every. But the most important part is that I don't give up. Every day I correct my mistakes and then. This is a hard journey to go to, to go on, but it's also fascinating because you get to meet so many great people, you get to change your life in such an exciting way. You know, I would argue that it's always worth it.

Speaker 1: 57:29

Being a high school kid and creating a startup, I think is commonly viewed as an anomaly. Having seen people like Martin Zuckerberg and particularly Stanford University, I think there's a common misconception that there's this huge startup culture on campuses and professors and every student is just frantically creating a startup and it's you know. This thing that's seen everywhere. From my own experience, I would say that it's been a lot harder to find entrepreneurs on campus and that these people are more secluded and hidden off themselves. But what you're doing with your Ventus Capita is obviously bringing people together. What is your experience being of the startup culture after the universities and what's the day to day like being an actual startup founder at you?

Speaker 2: 58:17

Well, it's actually well. I think I have a very unique way to work. I really just I'm a really explosive person in terms of working and then I don't have a consistent. You know I'm not consistent. I would say when I have something like, I usually just sit down, relax and just chill. But when something goes up, I become really intense and I fix these issues pretty efficiently.

Speaker 2: 58:50

But as an entrepreneur, on campus, you're always expecting to. You always want to meet new people and then the most important thing is you have to think about, you know like you have to remind yourself that at any moment you know you might just meet a person to change your life. That gives you new direction. That you know it gives you a new idea. You know that inspires you, and then that has happened multiple times throughout my you know short what three months of experience at Duke is fascinating, and you know you got to always constantly remind yourself to measure people and not buy. You know their size, their appearance, but their heart. You know there's so many different people from so many different backgrounds, but you know some of these people are really, really impressive and in date, you know. So, on campus, you know, just always expect to meet good people and then, when you meet good people, take good care of them, and then, you know, connect to them and, you know, try to talk to them more and then, you know, be friends with them. You know, that's, that's, that would be my, my, my take, and but in addition, also like you, you, you also, you have to I would argue that like just really don't care about, don't, don't, don't really care about the hiring, like at Duke especially, like our colleges, like there's undergrads are especially taken care of and then they have so many resources. You know, don't be afraid to talk to people.

Speaker 2: 1:00:18

You know, like there's just one day I was walking around the university admin building and then I met like the, the provost, or something like that, and then I talked to her and then, you know, I didn't even know she had, I was just joking around. I'm like, are your professors? Yeah, I said, do you teach? She said no. I said, okay, do you do research? She said no. So, so you got to pay for doing nothing on stuff like that, right, so I just talked to them and then, you know, and I get the number. You know, like I talked to them and then they, they, they these are very great people Then virus and release a lot of opportunities. So just always be open to change.

Speaker 1: 1:00:55

And then always that's going to be the podcast title Leon Zang says jeep cross, there's nothing. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, you can realize. No, of course, not, of course. I've got sort of two final questions. I mean you've had this very unique perspective and being immersed in a lot of different things and the people you've been able to meet. I've been like curious as to your thoughts on the mind behind the VC firm, but particularly I'd be interested in your thoughts on entrepreneurship in China and what it looks like in China. I mean, you were talking about that specific community and how your research was particularly prevalent in wanting to encourage more entrepreneurship. They didn't do that and then they had a financial problem. So yeah, just to review that line of VC firm and then also entrepreneurship in China, your thoughts on that VC firm in China or VC firm in general.

Speaker 2: 1:01:50

Either way Okay. So, um, actually, a lot of our partners at fund are, you know, very distinguished individuals from BC, and then you know, I would say, a VC firm again. It's a very exciting culture. It's like you're meeting all these young people. They start something and they might become the next big thing. You never know.

Speaker 2: 1:02:17

So when it comes to VC firms they're always looking for though there's, of course, technical side are you going to be successful or are you going to work with the man you're responding to? But I think the person you are really matters. And then it's not always about the more matured I am, the more calculated I am better, the more appreciated I will be. Sometimes it's a good mix of maturity, and the good mixture of maturity and childishness allows you to be able to work hard in the meantime, take risks. There's a combination of courage, patience and, more importantly, your dedication to your cause. That really inspires, that really gets you the attention from the VCs. But that would be my general answer. But again, I cannot speak for all VCs. And then I would say that every VCS are on low philosophy, and then to raise money you've got to talk hundreds of them For me. I probably gave my pitch like probably 300 times hopefully. But yeah, I talked to people about it. It's like in the back of my head right now. I just I can just snap like go through all my other products and every single pitch I've been through. I know how to. I can just pitch here right now I don't even have to think at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:03:51

But that would be for VCs and in China. China is such a fast-in-any-country man, it's just so many opportunities. And then the startup culture in China is definitely, definitely has rooms of improvement. But I would also argue that China is a very unique society that has unique demands that a lot of people this is tricky to understand. The question of understanding China is elusive, and even for Chinese people themselves, even for me. So, like we have a lot of good companies but we would have very good investment firms. But I say it has rooms of improvement. But again, at anywhere in the world, to have us to build a good startup culture as a startup to be successful in this country, you need to abide to these principles or these philosophies that I would I just mentioned. I would say and then you know if you stick to these principles, you will be successful in your own.

Speaker 1: 1:05:01

Do you have anything else that you'd like to share with listeners? I mean, if there was one thing that a listener could take away from today about Leon Zhang and think about, that could help their life or chase the way they think about things going forward, what would that be?

Speaker 2: 1:05:17

I would say in the end, like if you wake up in the morning and you're happy, you're successful. And then there's many, many different ways to define success. And I am an entrepreneur, I do a lot of things, I you know cool things, you know working with YouTube and I tell people about it like, oh shit, it's crazy. But in the end, there are many different versions of success, in that everyone has their own version of success. Like, sometimes you know, every Thursday, like in Thursday, I would work in this like food truck with like two guys and like like in like a small ass food truck for like six hours serving kosher Jewish food to the new community I feel happy, you know like.

Speaker 2: 1:06:00

So you know, in the end, do what makes you happy. And then you know, in the end there's I don't think there's a distinguish, there's just like a very fine line between work and leisure. I think there's just things that you don't want to do and things you want to do, and then always do things you want to do and then just just always be happy. You know if you're happy with it, right.

Speaker 1: 1:06:26

Amazing. I'm very privileged to be able to listen and ask you lots of questions today. I'm sure I'm going to ask you a lot more going forward as I engage my own entrepreneurship journey. I feel I feel like that there's so much that you've been able to touch on and I feel like we could have even made probably 10 podcasts just going over each of the different things that you've achieved in such a short period of time.

Speaker 1: 1:06:48

I think what you've been able to do going from, you know, writing to a professor, actually working for him and then writing for newspapers, getting involved with the Ford Foundation and then actually creating and getting immersed in business I think there's one thing for saying I'm going to do this or I'm interested in China, or I'm actually want to do something, but what's so impressive about you is you've actually done it.

Speaker 1: 1:07:13

You say these things and then you've actually gone and achieved them. I mean what you've done with Walton and actually being able to raise huge amounts of money and actually go and build the business, generate partnerships with the Washington DC government, generate partnerships with the Merit Merit Hotel and I'm sure there'll be a lot more to learn about going forward, as that enrolls and actually be able to see what you've done with your Ventus Capital and I'm hugely interested to see what happens with that moving forward and I think both the quality of the advice that he got on but most importantly, as I was mentioning with, in my opinion, the lack of entrepreneurship community and building people like that at Duke and across college campuses is amazing, and then also obviously also your amazing work with UTO. I'm sure anyone that's listening to this podcast has a huge amount to take away from it. I think there are so many learnings to take, and the fact that you're only 80 and have been able to generate all of these insights is incredible. So thank you so much for joining me today, leon.

Speaker 2: 1:08:11

Thank you for having me. It's my honor and this is just a story of me. I'm still just an 18-year-old kid. I have so many different things that always new chapter awaits, so I'm happy to be on this podcast. I'm really honored and then I hope my story can help people understand how to deal with specific especially. I wanted teenagers. I want to help teenagers and kids to understand how to transition themselves to be a business person or to do whatever. So if I can help, it will be my greatest honor. Thank you, brad.