Editor's note: This year we honored some of the brightest young minds in the Bay Area innovation sector as part of our Inno Under 25 feature. Check out all the profiles from this year's honorees here.
As far as origin stories go, Eric Zhu’s is unique. The 17-year-old founder started Aviato while still attending high school back in his hometown in Indiana, and his process for raising funding involved taking investor calls in the school bathroom. Eventually, teachers found out that he was buying bathroom passes from other kids to skip class and school officials shut down his unauthorized personal office space.
The strategy worked, though. Zhu raised a little over $2 million for Aviato (yes, it’s named after a fictional company in HBO’s “Silicon Valley”) and moved to San Francisco to continue building it while taking online classes to finish his high school diploma. He’s undecided about going to college but said his mom is pushing him to at least apply. What would he study? Zhu is interested in pursuing gender studies at Stanford.
Where does your interest in tech and startups come from?
During quarantine (for Covid), I was online and you could pretty much talk to anyone. I’m from Indiana, which is pretty much the middle of nowhere. I got a computer and I met the right people at the right time. All these people were in this Discord server called Gen Z Mafia and I ended up meeting a lot of these people and they’re like, “You know, there’s these cool things out there.” I was like, “Holy shit, it’s some cool stuff.”
Would you say taking calls from a bathroom was a good way to build a company, or would you prefer to have a real office?
Definitely a real office. It was the circumstances. The bathroom was a horrible place (for dealmaking).
Do you have advice for any other aspiring young entrepreneurs?
Take qualitative advice in aggregate. Don’t listen to one person. Be smart with how you take advice and how you take feedback.
About Eric
Age: 17
Education: Taking online courses to finish high school
Residence: San Francisco
Role: CEO and co-founder
Company: Aviato
