About
Former partner at T Fund, Walden, and Granite Ventures, and a former board member at Marqeta.
Jay Zhao π @jzhaos
20/ We spent the last three years asking: Which model is smartest? The next three will be about: Which organization is smartest at spending intelligence? Every enterprise gets an AI budget. Every workflow gets an expected ROI. Every agent gets a spending policy.
Jul 13, 2026
Jay Zhao π @jzhaos
19/ The most effective AI companies will: β’ Treat routing as an engineering discipline β’ Measure gross margin by workflow β’ Price according to value and cost tiers β’ Use evals to downgrade models safely β’ Build spending policies directly into agents
Jul 13, 2026
Jay Zhao π @jzhaos
18/ Cloud created its own management stack: Monitoring Security Cost optimization AI will do the same. First came model access. Then observability. Next comes governance and economic control.
Jul 13, 2026
Experience
- Leonis CapitalFounding Partnercurrent2021 β presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- Harvard Business SchoolCase Study Speakercurrent2024 β present
- Stanford University Graduate School of BusinessGuest Speakercurrent2021 β present
- Tulane University - A.B. Freeman School of BusinessGuest Lecturercurrent2021 β present
- LimeAngel Investorcurrent2018 β present
- MaintainXInvestorcurrent2019 β present
- Motion (YC W20)Investorcurrent2021 β present
- Method FinancialInvestorcurrent2021 β present
- Spectro CloudInvestorcurrent2019 β present
- SleeperAngel Investorcurrent2018 β present
- KubitInvestorcurrent2018 β present
- Plus One RoboticsInvestorcurrent2018 β present
- Manifold MarketsInvestorcurrent2022 β present
- LowkeyInvestor2018 β 2021
- T FundPartner2018 β 2020
- Motiv IncInvestor2014 β 2020San Francisco Bay Area
- Walden Venture CapitalSenior Director2016 β 2018
- HireVueBoard of Directors2014 β 2016
- Marqeta, IncBoard of Directors2014 β 2016
- Workboard Inc.Board of Directors2014 β 2016
Education
- Tulane University
Skills & more
+6 more
Product ManagementManagementStrategyStrategic PartnershipsE-commerceMobile DevicesLanguages Chinese Β· English
From Jay's professional profile.
Same school
Also attended Tulane University60
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Shared employers
Also worked at Stanford University Graduate School of Business149
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