“Silicon Valley loves to romanticize the 21-year-old college dropout founder,” says Jess Zhang (BMath), founder of Blockus. But she wants students to know this isn’t the only path to entrepreneurship—in fact, it may not even be the best one.
Before launching her own company, Zhang spent seven years working in the tech industry, an experience that proved essential to her path as a founder. It not only built her skills and knowledge, but also exposed her to real-world industry challenges, including the problem that would define her career.
During her time at Roblox, Zhang witnessed the rise of online gaming ecosystems and was struck by the incredible creativity they unleashed. She remembers one user painstakingly recreating their entire high school campus in Roblox during the pandemic. Yet she was bothered by a fundamental flaw: creators had limited ownership and control over what they built on the platform.
The emergence of blockchain and Web3 offered a solution. Realizing that true digital ownership was possible, Zhang founded Blockus, an all-in-one ecosystem that empowers game developers to integrate Web3 features and give players full control over their digital assets. The company has already raised $4 million in pre-seed funding and continues to scale. Ultimately, she hopes Blockus can be part of a larger movement, one that leverages blockchain and web3 technologies to build greater social connectedness.
We had the chance to talk to Zhang recently and asked her about her time at Waterloo, her commitment to helping women+ in STEM fields and her journey to Blockus.
