Gary Sheng & YJ Lin Initial Introduction Call

Date: June 20, 2025 Duration: ~14 minutes Participants: Gary Sheng, YJ Lin Connection: Introduced through Waz (via Beef Jones network)

Executive Summary

Initial introduction call between Gary Sheng and YJ Lin, a 30-year-old Austin-based professional with Houston roots and recent Christian faith journey. Conversation covered Gary's educational mission, institutional breakdown thesis, faith-based education approach, and practical next steps including Houston networking and Korean startup collaboration opportunities.

Key Conversation Themes

Connection Origin & Context

YJ's Introduction: "Hey, Gary. How are you? I'm down to jump on a Zoom call, or we can do it from whichever is more convenient."

Gary's Network Path: "Oh, I met him through Beef Jones. Do you know who Beef Jones is? So Beef Jones is a producer in many senses of the word. He's made music videos, documentaries, was a producer of TV shows on Vice and stuff like that. And he has a family not too far from downtown Austin."

Educational Event Context: "I was organizing a parent event on the future of education. It had to be postponed for reasons that are too boring for this call. But we started to get to know each other."

Gary's Life Mission & Institutional Breakdown Thesis

Career Journey: "It's been a long journey of figuring out what my role in the world is. I have a lot of interests, and I've had a bunch of different chapters in my career already. Even though I've only been in the career world for about 10 years now. I graduated in 2015."

Historical Moment Assessment: "We're in a very tough but exciting time in human history. Where all of our institutions are breaking down. They deserve to be broken down. I think it takes time for a consensus to grow. That these institutions are bad. And actually harming our kids."

Critical Mass Theory: "It's now super obvious to the people that matter, really. It doesn't even have to be 100% adoption, or even 50%. Even just a sufficient number to start with. Where you can really start to make a lot of progress. On laying a foundation for the next generation."

Educational Philosophy & Global Influence

Education as Root System: "Education is interesting to me because it's the root of everything. I would say we're always being educated. TikTok is educating kids all the time. YouTube is educating kids all the time. The culture that it creates, but it's also a part of, is educating kids all the time."

School System Critique: "Of course, the schools are educating our kids. I would say mostly mal-educating our kids. Harmfully educating our kids."

Global Leadership Access: "I talked to leaders of countries. I advised Pope Francis on AI, and tech, and youth strategy. No one knows what's going on. They need a lot of help from people that I try to be trustworthy. I try to be honest. It gets me and keeps me in interesting rooms."

China Leadership Engagement: "Literally after this call, I'm chatting with leaders of Shanghai. That are like, we have no idea what to do."

Faith Integration & Recent Conversion

Personal Faith Journey: "I don't know. It's fine if you're not. I'm a recent believer, but I'm a believer in God."

YJ's Parallel Journey: "I've been baptized for, I think, two years, three years now. I grew up as anything is. I just turned 30. When I hit 26, I went through a whole life crisis. I think within a year, I decided to get baptized."

Faith in Education: "My faith is quite strong because it comes from the spirit and logic. I realized that our first mistake was taking faith out of the classroom."

White House Faith Summit: "I was at the White House a few weeks ago for a faith leader summit. I was definitely the most newbie in terms of recent conversion."

Denominational Strategy: "I say this half-jokingly, which denomination is the right denomination? I think it's literally time will tell. Who fruitfully multiplies? That's ultimately the test. Who survives? Who fruitfully multiplies? That's why I advise multiple denominations."

Tulsa Operations & Invention Commercialization

Current Location: "Right now, I'm in Tulsa because a mentor and partner and I are cooking up plans to turn a lot of his inventions into commercial products. He's a super inventor. I'll send you information about him."

Educational Collaboration: "He's also very interested in education. He has a whole world view on how education should change. I have my own world view."

Tulsa Renaissance Mission: "But we want to really help Tulsa. We really want to help Tulsa. There's an important black legacy here with the Tulsa Massacre 100 years ago. We're trying to create a renaissance here."

Global Technology Transfer: "Also, the thing about technology and culture and philosophy is that it can benefit everywhere. It's literally why we're talking to leaders of China right now as well. There's a long story about his relationship to China and how he helped China really grow."

Alpha Schools Analysis & Scale Critique

Austin Connection: "I think why I'm in Austin is because I got a consulting gig with Alpha Schools, which is a K-12 system headquartered in Austin."

Critical Assessment: "I've gone in and out of being excited about Alpha Schools. I think the biggest thing that gives me hesitation— I've kind of made my decision about it. It's basically, to me, a bit of a lost cause, which is hard for me to admit."

Scaling Problem: "It's a reflection of almost a VC brain, where you're trying to create the future of education, but you're pressuring yourself, or I don't know where the pressure comes from, to scale irresponsibly."

Premature Distribution: "I can understand the desire to help more people, but if you're scaling something that's not even a solution because it's not even figured out yet, you don't even have enough data points. It's kind of like scaling a COVID vaccine."

YJ's Insight: "Like growing without attention, right? Or if you don't have the proper cold transport, and everything just expires by the time it gets to the person."

Responsible Education Development Philosophy

Small-Scale Approach: "I basically come to the conclusion that I will not be able to save almost anyone immediately, and so try to figure out how to do it the right way, where if my partners want to build the future of education, we're going to do it very responsibly."

Limited Cohorts: "We may only be working with a few dozen students at a time. In some capacities, we may be creating fellowships with only two people, right? Because we need to figure out what works before we expand."

Houston Network Connection

Sunny Zhang Introduction: "I'll assure someone. I just texted you her name, Sunny Zhang. She's based in Houston. She's a teacher at the University of St. Thomas, a professor, studied psychology marketing, also running a startup called Truly."

Educational Technology Passion: "Really kind of trying to figure out how to – she hates Canva and Blackboard, or whatever that thing's called, with a passion. So she's been trying to build out this new, like, leveraging tech."

Community Building Skills: "But all that to say, she's also a phenomenal community builder. So she might be a great person to connect with as well."

China Visa Opportunity: "Yeah, why don't you connect me? Because I need to go to Houston, apparently, to get my China visa. I need to go to Houston anyways."

Practical Next Steps & Collaboration

Houston Visit Timeline: "Probably early July." (Gary's planned Houston visit)

Local Hospitality: "Oh, if you need food recommendations and where you want to stay. But how about, like, I guess in the next week or two weeks, or whenever you know your schedule, let me know and I'll be happy to connect you and send out those warm instructions."

Road Trip Possibility: "Look, if you're also planning to make a trip anytime soon, we could even just do a trip together. I don't know, up to you. But we could get to know each other on a road trip or something."

Korean Startup Tour: "I'll be in Toronto from Monday to Thursday, and then I'll be in the office Friday where I'm giving a tour to a few Korean startups that are visiting with the University of Texas. So I'm going to give them a demo in our Dell campus."

Tour Participation: "Is it invading the sanctity of the tour if I join the tour? Yeah. So it's next Friday from 9 o'clock, and it'll be at our office."

Strategic Implications

Network Expansion Opportunities

1. Houston Educational Hub: Sunny Zhang connection to University of St. Thomas
2. Korean Educational Technology: International startup partnerships
3. Dell Corporate Network: Enterprise educational technology access
4. Austin Faith Community: Shared Christian foundation for initiatives

Geographic Strategy

• Houston: China visa processing + Sunny Zhang collaboration
• Austin: Korean startup partnerships + Dell campus resources
• Tulsa: Invention commercialization + Black Wall Street renaissance

Educational Philosophy Alignment

• Shared skepticism of premature scaling in education
• Faith-based approach to educational transformation
• Focus on responsible development over rapid expansion
• Community building emphasis in technology integration

Follow-up Actions Identified

1. Sunny Zhang introduction for Houston visit
2. Gary's potential participation in Korean startup tour
3. China visa processing coordination in Houston
4. Educational technology collaboration exploration
5. Austin-Houston corridor development for faith-based education

Character Insights

YJ Lin Profile

• Professional Maturity: Strategic thinker about education technology scaling
• Community Orientation: Emphasizes relationship building and local connections
• Faith Journey: Recent convert with authentic spiritual transformation story
• Geographic Bridge: Austin-Houston connector with family and professional ties

Gary's Approach

• Strategic Patience: Rejection of premature scaling in favor of responsible development
• Global Perspective: Simultaneous work with local communities and international leaders
• Faith Integration: Natural incorporation of spiritual dimension into educational mission
• Network Leverage: Efficient use of introductions for strategic advancement

Conversation Quality Assessment

Duration: Efficient 14-minute introduction call Depth: Substantive discussion of educational philosophy and practical collaboration Outcome: Clear next steps with multiple potential collaboration paths Relationship Foundation: Strong spiritual and professional alignment established