Run Zhou

Who they are

Run Zhou is a Builder at a stealth company — founded Zenie AI, a Gradient Ventures-backed self-care journal, and built chords.page, a public chord-lookup tool for piano, guitar, and ukulele.

Person

Run studied Applied Mathematics and Statistics (minor: Economics) at the University of Toronto, then took an MS in Biostatistics at Duke — a quantitative foundation that shaped the first decade of his career. He moved from transplant research data analysis at University Health Network into applied ML science at Uber, then into an ML-adjacent role at a stealth supply chain AI startup, before pivoting to growth. In 2024 he co-founded Zenie AI, an AI-powered self-care journal backed by Gradient Ventures (Google's AI Fund) and HF0, where he served as Head of Growth. He joined his current stealth company in April 2026. Alongside his employed track he has built or is building: Zenie AI (AI-powered self-care journal), chords.page (a public tool for piano, guitar, and ukulele chords), Obsidian Integrations (plugins helping creators write, draw, publish, and organize knowledge), Little Inner Voice (a podcast on conscious living and inner growth), and a children's book illustration project focused on reconnecting adults with childlike wonder — he is also studying Children's Book Illustration at the School of Visual Arts. He posts actively on LinkedIn across themes of AI/ML, the creator economy, lifelong learning, and conscious living — the through-line is someone who treats both data science and inner life as design problems worth shipping.

Network

No direct relationship edges are available for Run Zhou. His known institutional touchpoints include Gradient Ventures and HF0 (backers of Zenie AI) and Hugging Face, which also supported Zenie AI — suggesting a network that overlaps with early-stage AI investors and the open-source ML community.

How they likely show up

  • Multiple simultaneous side projects (chords.page, Obsidian Integrations, Little Inner Voice, children's books) alongside full-time roles → high agency, likely drives work independently without needing much external structure.
  • Career arc from biostatistics → applied ML → growth → founder → builder → new stealth role → unusually comfortable switching between rigorous quantitative work and creative/product/growth modes.
  • Founded Zenie AI in 2024 and moved on to a new stealth role by April 2026 → operates in short, intense cycles; doesn't linger once the learning curve flattens.
  • Continuing Studies in Children's Book Illustration at the School of Visual Arts alongside tech career → invests in craft for its own sake, not just for professional utility.
  • Active public writing signal on LinkedIn across AI/ML, creator economy, and conscious living → comfortable being visible and opinionated across multiple domains at once.
  • Built chords.page as a public service with no apparent monetization signal → motivated by utility and generosity, not just commercial outcome.

Conversation tips

  • → Ask specifically about Zenie AI — what the self-care journal format unlocked that generic AI chat didn't, and why it attracted Gradient Ventures.
  • → Reference chords.page or the Obsidian plugins — he builds tools for himself and then releases them publicly, and he'll appreciate that you noticed the specifics.
  • → Bring a concrete take on the creator economy or knowledge management; he posts actively on both and will engage if you have a real position, not a question.
  • → Don't treat the inner growth / conscious living thread as a soft aside — it's a through-line in his public voice and likely shapes how he thinks about product for self-care.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on Zenie AI — he founded an AI-powered self-care journal in 2024 that landed backing from Gradient Ventures (Google's AI Fund) and HF0, which is a specific bet that reflective, structured journaling is a better format for AI self-care than chat.
  • Reference chords.page — he built a simple, public chord-lookup tool for piano, guitar, and ukulele and offers it as a free service, which says something about how he thinks about building things that should just exist in the world.
  • Bring up the Obsidian Integrations project — he's been building plugins since April 2025 specifically for non-technical users and story creators, a niche bet on Obsidian's extensibility at a time when most AI writing tools chase the mainstream.

Discovery questions

  1. What did Zenie AI teach you about designing for inner life — where did the AI journal format succeed or fail versus what you expected?
  2. Your background is deep quantitative (biostatistics, applied ML) but you're now building in creative and growth-heavy domains — how do you think about where the stats instincts actually help versus get in the way?
  3. The Obsidian plugin space is pretty niche — what drew you there specifically, and who are you really building it for?

Avoid

Don't treat his pivot from biostatistics to founder to illustrator as scattered — the through-line is intentional and he's likely tired of explaining why it makes sense; engage with the specifics instead.

Make it yours

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Sources

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on August 15, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →