# Jesse Zhang

> Jesse Zhang is the 28-year-old co-founder and CEO of Decagon, a San Francisco-based enterprise AI company valued at $4.5 billion that builds autonomous AI agents for customer service. A Harvard Computer Science graduate who sold his first startup Lowkey to Niantic, Zhang pivoted to enterprise AI in 2023 when GPT-4 arrived, spending months in customer discovery interviews before writing a single line of code. In under two years, he scaled Decagon from stealth to unicorn status, raised $481M total, landed clients like Duolingo, Notion, Hertz, and Deutsche Telekom, and made Forbes 30 Under 30. He is also a Grandmaster-ranked Teamfight Tactics player, a competition math problem author, and an angel investor in 20+ startups.

- **Role:** CEO / Co-Founder at Decagon
- **Organizations:** Decagon, Lowkey, Niantic, Sequoia Scouts
- **From:** Boulder, Colorado, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Harvard University, High School Diploma, Fairview High School
- **Known for:** Built Decagon to $4.5B valuation in under 3 years from founding, Raised $481M total funding across 6 rounds, Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list (2026)

## Career timeline

- **2016-2017** — Internships at Citadel, Google, Hudson River Trading, Intel, and Kensho during Harvard years
- **2019** — Graduated Harvard University (Computer Science, 3-year accelerated program)
- **2019** — Founded Lowkey, a social gaming platform for capturing and sharing gameplay clips, backed by a16z and Y Combinator
- **2021** — Lowkey acquired by Niantic (maker of Pokemon Go)
- **2021-2023** — Worked on Niantic's Social team, integrating Lowkey's technology at massive scale
- **2023** — Left Niantic to co-found Decagon with Ashwin Sreenivas after GPT-4's release; spent months in enterprise customer discovery before building
- **2024** — Decagon emerged from stealth; reached unicorn status ($1.5B valuation) within ~one year; raised $231M
- **2025** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list; Decagon scaled to $50M ARR in 15 months; team grew from 12 to 200+ employees
- **2026-01** — Decagon raised $250M Series D led by Coatue and Index Ventures, tripling valuation to $4.5B
- **2026-03** — Decagon completed its first tender offer at $4.5B valuation, letting 300+ employees sell vested shares

## Achievements

- Built Decagon to $4.5B valuation in under 3 years from founding
- Raised $481M total funding across 6 rounds
- Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list (2026)
- Scaled Decagon to $50M ARR in 15 months
- Grew team from 12 to 300+ employees in 18 months
- Successfully exited Lowkey through acquisition by Niantic (2021)
- Angel investor in 20+ startups including Pika, Cursor, Cognition, and Visual Electric
- Part of Sequoia Scouts program
- USA Math Olympiad Program participant; Intel Science Talent Search Finalist
- Reached Grandmaster rank in Teamfight Tactics (top 0.02% globally)
- Contributed problems to American Mathematics Competitions (AMC 8 and AMC 10)
- Secured enterprise contracts with Duolingo, Notion, Hertz, Avis Budget Group, Block, Deutsche Telekom

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Decagon completed its first tender offer at $4.5B valuation, allowing 300+ employees to sell a portion of their vested shares
- **2026-01** — Decagon raised $250M Series D led by Coatue Management and Index Ventures, tripling valuation to $4.5B; investors included a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Elad Gil, and Ribbit Capital
- **2025-12** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list; Decagon surpassed $50M ARR
- **2025** — Decagon added over 100 new enterprise clients including Avis Budget Group, Block, and Deutsche Telekom
- **2025** — Decagon team scaled from 12 to 200+ employees within 18 months of founding

## Links

- Website: https://jessezhang.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejessezhang
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/thejessezhang

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jesse-zhang
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-12