Hello, I’m Tian-Yuan Zhao
As an entrepreneurial person, I believe in the intersectionality of design, exponential, and systems thinking and aim to become an engineer, entrepreneur, and entertainer. Ever since I was a youth - I was a highly creative person (right-brained), as well as highly analytical (left-brained), which led me to becoming a digital product designer after majoring in human-factors engineering background at the University of Toronto.
Ever since my university years, I have been guided by a deep-seated longing to make a positive change in this world, one that is scalable, sustainable, and systemic in nature. This has led me to theworld of Web3. This also stems from my profound conviction to be future-proofed, love for the people within this space especially people like Vitalik Buterin whom I met back in 2015, as well as the understanding that it is truly the next evolutionary step of the internet.
Where I presented
The following are various mediums, platforms, and locales where I've either given talks in-person, virtually via a podcast, or even performed (as the founder of Tales of Harmonia - a vocal group that I led/conducted, arranged music for, and even sang within).
Tales of Harmonia
Cyberpunk vs. Solarpunk 2077
The Circular Economy and ReFi with Tian Zhao
ReFiTO's Launch
Designing an internet that truly lives up to its ethos!
Design in Web3 with Tian Zhao, KB4 Fellow and Design Lead
Kleros-CRED Dispute Revolution Conference - Challenges in Legal Design
Designing for Web 3.0
Take a look at my work & life summary
Primary to Secondary Education
My upbringing can best be characterized by my love for arts + music, but I was also pretty good at the STEM subjects, which is whyMy university years got me into the world of human factors engineering, which is all about human-centered design
These university years and the subsequent ones thereafter were incredibly transformative as they pulled the wool over my eyes w.r.t. ultimately helping me to formulate the following question: “how might we make the world a better place in a scalable, sustainable, and systemic way?”
This question led me to a great variety of experiences such as the following: founding a choir in university called Tales of Harmonia. Composing/arranging music for it, conducting it, and singing within it is what led me to falling in love with the world of tech startups.
Due in part to the self-sacrificial nature of the entrepreneurial spirit which was so evident in my parent’s immigration spirit, I embarked on a journey of working for various companies - big and small.
From interning within the realms of data analytics to product management to working professionally post-graduation within the world of digital product design design...
From participating in various hackathons, entrepreneurship competitions, consulting competitions, tech conferences, and innovation-based fellowships to publishing articles regarding the worlds of innovation/disruption, technology, startups/entrepreneurship, personal/professional/career development, and product design/management... I've demonstrated great passion for my career.
The big question
My early university years where I basically went through a big discovery phase of trying to answer that big question above
Hackathon in UWaterloo
A turning point for me when I first me Vitalik Buterin at a hackathon in UWaterloo where he dropped out from
Digital Product School
During crypto-summer, I had finished university and went abroad to Germany to participate in the Digital Product School
Working part-time & full-time
I worked for a variety of companies in both my full-time and part-time capacities such as most notably - ConsenSys + Kleros + Raise , RBC, BlockXLabs
Flinks + Web3.0
Working full-time at Flinks and part-time working on a variety of Web3.0 product design work such as with Weavik + Keyko + Linum Labs + Winding Tree
Present day
The following are companies I've worked for on the side: Keyko + Linum Labs + Deep Work Studio + Round Sky Studio (my own design studio) which are all in my portfolio except for Linum Labs, due to NDA. Please contact me for links.
