Ian Zhu

Founder

SchoolJoy

Ian founded SchoolJoy to empower every student to feel seen for who they are and who they aspire to be. As an immigrant, he experienced firsthand the challenge of feeling invisible in the classroom. He wanted the adults to know that he was capable of so much more despite his language barriers. What made Ian realize that skills mattered as much as grades was his decade-long journey in enterprise software and consulting. The constant factor across every project was the need for durable skills like communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. His personal and professional experiences evolved into a deeply rooted conviction that our traditional classrooms have a unique opportunity through AI to adapt to real-world environments and better prepare students for an increasingly dynamic future. Every child deserves to feel seen and pursue an education that is relevant to their own future. SchoolJoy has grown to serve more than 100,000 learners and thousands of teachers. Recently, SchoolJoy pioneered an application of voice AI technology that enables competency-based assessment at scale across every classroom. Through partnerships with leading higher education research institutions, SchoolJoy delivers an evidence-based framework for developing durable skills, which is currently piloting with premier competency-based institutions in both K-12 and higher education.