William Zhou (BMath ’15) co-founder and CEO of Chalk.com, an education software company designed for use in kindergarten to grade twelve, has been passionate about entrepreneurship from a young age, founding his first company in high school.
Alumni Relations met up with William to ask him some questions and talk about life after Waterloo.
Name:
William Zhou
Profession:
CEO of Chalk.com
The first thing I look at when I wake up is:
My inbox.
The last thing I Googled was:
Flight tickets to Salt Lake City.
If I were to change professions, I would:
Design buildings.
The most challenging aspect of my career is:
Shouldering all of the responsibility. It’s a pretty thankless job. When things are good they don’t praise you, when things are bad they scold you.
The thing I remember most about my time at Waterloo is:
The geese hissing at me.
One piece of advice I'd give young alumni is:
Learn to tell stories and learn how to sell. I find that engineers tend to look down on sales, but everyone has to sell. Not all of us sell products or services, but we do sell ourselves.
If I could have dinner with anyone in the world deceased or alive it would be:
Salvador Dalí.
The worst job I've ever had was:
Back in high school, I used to run a web development shop for local businesses. Building websites was fun but dealing with some of the customers was just painful. Some clients looked down on me because I was so young. Either way, it was a great learning experience.
On the day I graduated, I wish I'd known:
Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
The last book I read was:
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed by Ben Rich and Leo Janos.
The best part of my career is:
The network and friendships I’ve built.
One word to sum up the culture in my office is:
Learning.
My favourite movie is:
Lost in Translation.
My first job after graduation was:
Chalk.com
UWaterloo is celebrating its 60th year. My predictions for the next 60 years at Waterloo are:
Lots more innovation and entrepreneurs. The University has laid down fantastic infrastructure in terms of funding, facilities, and network. We’ll start to see that pay dividends.
What I hope to be doing when I retire is:
Is there such a thing? I’d probably teach a class that crosses between entrepreneurship and life.
Chalk.com was featured in Exchange Magazine’s article about Waterloo’s StartUp Pledge – read the story and learn more about the StartUp Pledge.
