# Sam Li

> Sam Li is co-founder and CEO of Thoropass, the New York-based information security compliance and audit platform formerly known as Laika. He grew up in Shanghai, studied computer science and economics at the University of Virginia, worked at Goldman Sachs and Google, dropped out of Harvard Business School to run a YC-backed insurtech called Zinc Platform, watched it die, spent a year as an EIR at Bain Capital Ventures, then in 2019 co-founded a company to make SOC 2 audits less miserable. Thoropass has raised roughly $98 million across four rounds and now combines software with a licensed audit practice.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Thoropass
- **Organizations:** Thoropass, Zinc Platform (former), Bain Capital Ventures (former EIR), Goldman Sachs (former), Google (former), Samsung Electronics (former)
- **From:** Shanghai, China
- **Education:** BS, Computer Science and Economics, University of Virginia, MBA, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Raised approximately $98M across four rounds for Thoropass, Grew Thoropass to roughly 240 employees, Recognized by Goldman Sachs as a Most Exceptional Entrepreneur of 2024

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Analyst at Goldman Sachs; product/engineering roles at Google and Samsung Electronics
- **2015-2018** — Co-founder and CTO of Zinc Platform, a Y Combinator-backed insurance API startup; dropped out of HBS to focus on it; company closed in 2018
- **2018-2019** — Entrepreneur in Residence at Bain Capital Ventures
- **2019** — Co-founded Laika (later Thoropass) with Austin Ogilvie and Eva Pittas
- **2022** — Series C round of $50M closed November 2022
- **2023** — Laika rebrands to Thoropass
- **2024** — Named one of Goldman Sachs' Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at the Builders and Innovators Summit

## Achievements

- Raised approximately $98M across four rounds for Thoropass
- Grew Thoropass to roughly 240 employees
- Recognized by Goldman Sachs as a Most Exceptional Entrepreneur of 2024
- Built one of the few compliance software companies to run its own licensed audit practice

## Latest updates

- **2024-10** — Recognized by Goldman Sachs at the Builders and Innovators Summit as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2024.
- **2023** — Company rebrands from Laika to Thoropass.
- **2022-11** — Closed $50M Series C, bringing total funding to roughly $98M.

## Links

- Website: https://thoropass.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsli/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thoropass

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sam-li
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-08