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Joshua Xu

Founder

Founder at HeyGen

Los Angeles, CA

FoundedHeyGen

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About

Joshua Xu co-founded HeyGen in 2020 and scaled the AI avatar-video platform past $200 million in annual recurring revenue by June 2026 — while burning only about $25 million of the $74 million raised and staying cash-flow break-even, roughly $1.5 million of revenue per employee. He spent six years engineering at Snap, the last two on the ads team building AI into the camera, then founded the company in Shenzhen as Surreal with Tongji and Carnegie Mellon classmate Wayne Liang, moved it to Los Angeles, and renamed it HeyGen in 2023 as it pivoted from spokesperson clips to a full video-generation platform.

Beyond investing

Founded
Co-founded HeyGen — originally Surreal, then Movio — in Shenzhen in 2020 with Wayne Liang, his Tongji University classmate and fellow Carnegie Mellon master's graduate.
More
Spent six years at Snap, the last two on the ads team working on AI integration and an AI-augmented camera — the direct antecedent of HeyGen's product thesis. Relocated the company from Shenzhen to Los Angeles in 2022 and dissolved the Chinese entity in 2023 over investor-regulatory concerns. HeyGen went from $1M ARR in March 2023 to $200M in June 2026 — and has burned only about a third of the capital it raised. His stated product philosophy: focus on the identity and the message first, not the cinematic.

Mentioned above: the Tongji University mafia →

From upstartsmedia.com — common ground for a warm intro.

Founder at HeyGen

Intro paths

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In turn, Joshua can intro founders to HeyGen's investors below.

HeyGen's investors · 11

avraHillsboroughBaidu VenturesBeijing · since 2022BenchmarkSan Francisco · $100K – $15M checks · since 2024Bond Capital ManagementSan Francisco · $100K – $25M checks · since 2024ConvictionSan Francisco · $1M – $25M checks · since 2023Dylan Fieldsince 2024Elad GilSan Francisco · $100K – $10M checks · since 2024IDG CapitalHong Kong · $1M – $100M checks · since 2022SV AngelSan Francisco · $150K – $20M checks · since 2024Thrive CapitalNew York · $500K – $25M checks · since 2024ZhenFundBeijing · $250K – $3M checks · since 2022

Co-founders at HeyGen

WLWayne Liang
Wayne LiangFounder
JX
Joshua Xu Wayne LiangFounder

Experience

  1. HeyGenCo-Founder and CEOcurrent2020 — presentLos Angeles, California, United States
  2. Snapchat, Inc.Software Engineer2014 — 2020Greater Los Angeles Area

Skills & more

Machine Learning55MapReduce25Algorithms52Distributed Systems18Artificial Intelligence11Hadoop13Data Mining9Databases11Software Engineering27Java44SQL10C27
+7 moreLinuxComputer VisionImage ProcessingNumerical AnalysisPythonC++Embedded Systems

From Joshua's professional profile.

Podcasts & interviews

featuring Joshua Xu

Can AI replace the camera? with Joshua Xu from HeyGen

No Priors

Joshua Xu, Co-Founder & CEO at HeyGen — Interview Series

Unite.AI · unite.ai

Frequently asked questions

Who is Joshua Xu?
Joshua Xu co-founded HeyGen in 2020 and scaled the AI avatar-video platform past $200 million in annual recurring revenue by June 2026 — while burning only about $25 million of the $74 million raised and staying cash-flow break-even, roughly $1.5 million of revenue per employee. He spent six years engineering at Snap, the last two on the ads team building AI into the camera, then founded the company in Shenzhen as Surreal with Tongji and Carnegie Mellon classmate Wayne Liang, moved it to Los Angeles, and renamed it HeyGen in 2023 as it pivoted from spokesperson clips to a full video-generation platform.
Where does Joshua Xu work?
Joshua Xu is Founder of HeyGen.
What companies did Joshua Xu found?
Joshua Xu founded HeyGen.
Where did Joshua Xu go to school?
Joshua Xu studied at Carnegie Mellon University (Master's degree, Computer Science); Tongji University (BS, Electrical Engineering).
What podcasts and interviews feature Joshua Xu?
Tracked appearances include "Can AI replace the camera? with Joshua Xu from HeyGen", "Joshua Xu, Co-Founder & CEO at HeyGen — Interview Series".

Founder mafias

Same school

Shared employers