Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Former UW Child Prodigy Behind New Startup

A former child prodigy who graduated from the University of Washington at the age of 12 with three degrees, Andrew Hsu, is behind Silicon Valley's latest startup, Airy Labs, which announced a funding round today. Hsu, who entered the University of Washington at the age of 12, graduating with three honor B.S. Degrees in Neurobiology, Biochemistry, and Chemistry with a minor in mathematics at the age of 16, is the founder of the Silicon Valley based startup, which said it raised $1.5M in a seed round of funding from Foundation Capital, Google Ventures, and Playdom founder Rick Thompson. Hsu was most recently pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford, but was pried away from academics by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who awarded one of his "20-under-20" awards to Hsu, a grant which looks to encourage the young to drop out of college and instead pursue an entrepreneurial venture. Interestingly enough, although Thiel's program has bee criticized for encouraging students to not pursue college, Airy Labs' Hsu has three college degrees already under his belt. More information »