# Jay Dang

> Jay Dang (Jiacheng Dang) is the co-founder and CEO of Kaon (formerly FlowGPT), an AI-native content platform he launched in January 2023 just two days after founding the company - at age 20 during his freshman year at UC Berkeley. He subsequently dropped out to lead FlowGPT full-time, growing the platform to 3+ million monthly active users and 100,000+ AI applications across 110 countries before raising a $10M pre-Series A round in February 2024 led by Goodwater Capital and DCM Ventures. Under his leadership, the company rebranded to Kaon and launched Emochi, an AI storytelling app that reached #12 globally with 12.3M monthly active users by April 2026.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Kaon (formerly FlowGPT)
- **Organizations:** Kaon, FlowGPT
- **Nationality:** Chinese-American
- **Education:** Computer Science (did not complete - dropped out during freshman year), UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded and launched FlowGPT within 48 hours of founding the company, Grew FlowGPT to 3M+ monthly active users and 100,000+ AI applications, Expanded platform to 110+ countries

## Career timeline

- **2022** — Enrolled at UC Berkeley as a Computer Science major
- **2022** — Completed four startup internships during freshman year semester
- **2022** — Attempted to build an AI-driven A/B testing platform for advertising; project failed due to co-founder disagreement
- **December 2022** — ChatGPT public launch pivoted Jay's focus toward consumer-facing generative AI
- **January 3, 2023** — Co-founded FlowGPT with Lifan Wang (COO) and Alex Xi (CTO)
- **January 5, 2023** — Launched FlowGPT publicly - just two days after founding
- **January 2023** — FlowGPT hit #3 Product of the Day and #3 Product of the Week on Product Hunt; 14,000 users in first week
- **Early 2023** — Dropped out of UC Berkeley to focus on FlowGPT full-time
- **2023** — Scaled FlowGPT to millions of monthly active users and 100,000+ AI applications
- **February 26, 2024** — Raised $10M pre-Series A led by Goodwater Capital and DCM Ventures
- **2024** — Platform reached 3M+ monthly active users across 110 countries
- **2024-2025** — Company rebranded from FlowGPT to Kaon; launched Emochi AI storytelling app
- **April 2026** — Emochi reached #12 globally with 12.3M monthly active users

## Achievements

- Co-founded and launched FlowGPT within 48 hours of founding the company
- Grew FlowGPT to 3M+ monthly active users and 100,000+ AI applications
- Expanded platform to 110+ countries
- Raised $10M pre-Series A from Goodwater Capital and DCM Ventures (February 2024)
- Recognized as the youngest Chinese entrepreneur to secure financing in the AI industry
- FlowGPT achieved #3 Product of the Day and #3 Product of the Week on Product Hunt at launch
- Emochi app reached #12 globally with 12.3M monthly active users (April 2026)
- Published AI-assisted glaucoma detection paper while in high school
- Built a multi-LLM marketplace supporting ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama 2, and more

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Emochi reached #12 globally with 12.3M monthly active users
- **2024-02** — FlowGPT raised $10M pre-Series A led by Goodwater Capital and DCM Ventures
- **2024-02** — TechCrunch published 'FlowGPT is the Wild West of GenAI Apps' covering both the platform's growth and content moderation challenges
- **2024-01** — Company began rebranding process to Kaon, signaling broader AI content platform ambitions
- **2023-01** — FlowGPT launched publicly and hit 14,000 users in the first week via Product Hunt

## Links

- Website: https://jaydang.com/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-dang-2142931b1
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/FlowGPTOfficial
- GitHub: https://github.com/JiachengDang

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jay-dang
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-18