YangzhenChen

Hello

AboutYang.

Hi, I’m Yang. Thank you so much for visiting my personal website! I built this while teaching a 3 day seminar on AI and coding at a private school in Jakarta, where I showed my students how to code something like this in under a few hours.

I’m originally from Brooklyn, New York, and I study at Harvard. Here’s everything about me, so feel free to go in depth, even though you’ve probably already picked up a few things along the way :)

Experience

  1. Co-Founder & CEO

    2025 to Present

    Ignius · ignius.ai

    • Building Ignius, a knowledge tool that captures the decisions and expertise teams bury in Slack, GitHub, and Jira, then resurfaces them on demand with cited sources, so no one has to re-explain themselves twice
    • Designing brain-scoped knowledge groups and a privacy-first ask experience that answers from a team's own saved context

  2. Alternative Data Researcher Summer Associate

    June 2025 to August 2025

    Balyasny Asset Management · Manhattan, NY

    • Synthesized Bloomberg data, company 10Ks, and sell-side research on Coursera and Udemy to triangulate data points to inform proprietary TAM models and assess company-specific tailwinds/headwinds
    • Analyzed demographic and credit retention data to evaluate the disruptive impact of AI-powered edtech startups offering personalized learning experiences
    • Conducted time series analysis (Pearson correlation, moving averages, lag regression, seasonality decomposition) and principal component analysis of anonymized credit card transactions and mobile app usage in Excel to forecast COUR and UDMY Q2 2025 earnings
    • Acquired industry acumen through in-depth conversations with leaders such as Global Head of Quantitative Research Gappy Paloeologo, Chief Investment Officer Dmitry Balyasny, and Director of Research Bill Wappler
    • Proactively met with the Director of Alternative Data and Portfolio Managers to integrate predicted KPIs into relative valuation frameworks like EV/Sales, going beyond assigned responsibilities

  3. Venture Capital Analyst

    October 2023 to June 2025

    Borex Capital · Manhattan, NY

    • Evaluated product-market fit and competitive moat of target edtech startups through deep product analysis of UI/UX and direct founder diligence, including solo investor meetings with the CEO of YC-backed Ultra
    • Drove 50% year-over-year growth in partner connections by executing an AI-powered email prospecting strategy that sourced over 54,000 leads

  4. Product Development Intern

    October 2023 to January 2024

    Proto Banao LLC · Remote

    • Synthesized qualitative data from 30+ consumer interviews to inform the data model of an AI-powered tool that helps entrepreneurs gauge product viability in a simulated, unpredictable client environment
    • Secured the only paid intern position out of nine students and was recognized by the Product Manager as the top intern

  5. Finance Intern

    April 2022 to July 2022

    Bumper Investing · Remote

    • Executed SWOT and Porter's Five Forces analysis to recommend adjustments for a SIPC-insured investing platform
    • Located three partnerships via networking, cold emailing, and LinkedIn, enhancing Bumper's connections with student-led nonprofits

Volunteering

  1. Founder & Chairman

    Future Investors of America (FIA) · Education

    • International 501(c)(3) with 17 staff increasing financial literacy, startup internships, and U.S. college access for 4,000 students across the U.S., Canada, Korea, and India

  2. Keynote Speaker

    Apex for Youth · Children

    • Selected as the sole speaker out of 2,300 youth to deliver a deeply personal keynote at an exclusive venue with a high-profile audience of 60+ individuals, including BD Wong, the 3.1 Phillip Lim CEO, the CEO of Alger, a 5-time Emmy-winning investigative journalist, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Joan Shigekawa, Managing Directors from Goldman Sachs, Citadel portfolio managers, Olympic Gold Winner Suni Lee, and OceanX CEO Mark Dalio

  3. Board Member

    The Internatus Business Club of New York · Economic Empowerment

    • Youngest board member (dropped the position to found FIA)

  4. Representative

    Chinese-American Planning Council · Civil Rights & Social Action

    • Championed a $30M budget to support 100+ AAPI organizations via small-group discussions with the Legislative Directors of State Senators Iwen Chu, Scarcella-Spanton, and John Liu in the New York State Capitol

Awards

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS OLYMPIAD1stPLACEUS · SOLO2024

Featured

International Economics Olympiad, Open Track

1st Place in the United States, competing solo against the country’s strongest economics students.

Business & Finance

  • Finance @ Columbia Pre-College (1 of 2 full-merit scholarships out of ~500)
  • Bloomberg Market Concepts
  • Citibank 2024 STEP Program (Finance Bootcamp)
  • Next Chapter Fellow
  • Roote Fellow (RF 9th Cohort)
  • Yale Entrepreneurship Society Fellow (full-ride; dropped to work independently on FIA)

Recognitions

  • 2024 Alexander Hamilton Scholar
  • 2025 Apex for Youth Scholarship
  • 2025 Association of Asian American Investment Managers Scholar
  • 2025 UFT Albert Shanker Scholarship
  • 2025 Fuzhou America Scholarship
  • 2026 APIA Scholar

For Fun

  • Ex-top-ranked Brawl Stars player in North America (#1 out of ~60 million)
  • 1st out of 3,189 in LEGOLAND Discovery's Expert-Level Laser Maze
  • TEDx Speaker @ Connect-In-Place: Importance of Investing for Teens
  • Ex-TikToker with 120K followers and 100M+ views in middle school
  • Full scholarship to study abroad at Seoul National University (dropped for Ignius)

Academics

  • AP Scholar with Distinction (2x)
  • SIAM M3 Math Modeling Competition (Top 25% internationally; youngest competitor at 14)
  • National First-Generation Recognition (first in my family's history to attend high school, now college)
  • President's Award for Educational Excellence (Gold Seal)
  • Salutatorian out of 727 @ FDRHS
  • Thrive Scholar (dropped)

Education

Harvard University, Class of 2029

Extracurriculars

  • Harvard Undergraduate Marketing Group (Ex-Board Member)
  • Harvard Fencing Group (Member)
  • Seminar Leader @ HAUSCR Summit for Young Leaders in China (VC & AI Ethics), Hangzhou
  • Harvard AI Safety Student Team (Member)
  • Harvard Computer Science Society (Member)
  • Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association (Member)
  • Instructor @ Learn with Leaders (AI & Computer Vision), Jakarta
  • Harvard Undergraduates in Asia Program (Ex-Attendee, Hong Kong University Conference)

Skills

  • Mandarin Chinese
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Claude Code
  • Agentic Workflows
  • Microsoft Office
  • Bloomberg Terminal
  • Canva
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Monday.com

Interests

  • Biohacking (Whoop/Creatine)
  • AGI Implications
  • Affective Science
  • Decision Theory
  • Religious Theory (Pascal)
  • Bouldering / Calisthenics / Weight Lifting
  • Venture Capital Scouting
  • Brawl Stars (#1 US)
  • FGLI Advocacy
  • Hamilton Musical
  • Competitive Laser Tag / Maze
  • Monopoly Deal (17 Win Streak)

Writing

I publish essays and startup ideas I want to exist. Read them on my Substack, or browse the highlights on my Works page.

Contact

yangchen@college.harvard.edu, yang@ignius.ai, or on LinkedIn.