BUSINESSBUSINESS INSIDER
I dropped out of high school at 16 to become a Buddhist monk. Now I run a startup taking on Accenture.
Lilly Chen, founder and CEO of FSH Technologies, recently raised $25 million in funding to help modernize government technology systems, competing with firms like Accenture. Chen recounts her unique journey, which included dropping out of high school at 16 and spending two years as a Buddhist monk before pursuing higher education through Colorado College.
Mentioned
Related Signal
Adjacent reporting
- We're childhood friends who scaled our startup to $13M by age 21. Dropping out of college was the right move — if anything, we did it too late.
- I left my $250,000 Meta job to coach startup founders. I work fewer hours, have less stress, and still make a good living.
- I dreamt of building rockets until my aunt's illness inspired me to build an AI startup that's raised nearly $10 million
- I skipped college and founded a company at 18. Several exits later, this is what I learned
- When I was 16, I was offered an internship while I served tables. It's been 17 years and now I'm the CEO of the company.