How ambitious can youth entrepreneurship be in the era of artificial intelligence? Wu Yang, a 2002-born founder based in Nanjing’s Jianye District Model Academy OPC community, offers an impressive answer. With four startup ventures, multimillion-yuan revenue generated during high school, and a decision to pause his university studies to launch an AI technology firm, Wu has demonstrated remarkable resilience and capability—operating like a one-person army on an unconventional entrepreneurial path.
“AI gave me the tools, experience gave me conviction, and partners gave me warmth,” Wu reflects—a statement that encapsulates both his entrepreneurial philosophy and the driving force behind his growth. While many spent their childhood at play, Wu was already building his career. By fourth or fifth grade, he used his Lunar New Year money to teach himself graphic design on Tencent’s online courses, honing an early sense of product aesthetics. In seventh grade, he met Chen Yongting, now his long-term business partner, through a QQ group. Together, they ventured into bare-metal server virtualization, gaining their first commercial experience through coding.
During high school, noticing how tedious it was for live streamers to manually post comments and thank gift-givers, Wu developed an RPA bot to automate interactions. The product quickly rose to become a leading solution among industry service providers, earning him tens of millions in revenue. These experiences taught Wu that a single individual equipped with technological tools could sustain a business—planting the seed for his later choice of OPC’s lightweight entrepreneurial model.
In college, Wu tested the waters with cultural and creative e-commerce on Douyin, ranking first in the stationery category within just three months. He mastered the dynamics of traffic, supply chains, and automated operations. “Rather than following a conventional academic path, it’s better to fully commit to a genuine trend,” he says. In his view, AI represents the most promising arena for such commitment.
In 2025, Wu took a leave of absence from university to establish Meng Dangran Technology (Nanjing) Co., Ltd., and officially joined the OPC community at Jianye’s Model Academy. “Initially, I wanted to build AI programming infrastructure, but that required too much capital,” he recalls. As he poured his early savings into the venture, competition intensified. To survive, he pivoted toward digital transformation in educational publishing.
His team developed a multimodal AI-rich text editor capable of integrating text, images, formulas, audio, video, and 3D models—creating interactive digital textbooks far superior to traditional printed materials. Wu proactively reached out to Tsinghua University Press, with whom he had a prior connection, and won his first contract through solid technical execution.
The entrepreneurial journey has not been without hurdles. Labels like “young” and “inexperienced” sometimes led to setbacks. While distributing flyers at an exhibition, Wu suddenly experienced chest tightness, fatigue, and physical stiffness. He was later diagnosed with depression. “When talking to people, I would freeze—no reaction for over ten seconds… But when I got the diagnosis, I was actually relieved,” he shares. Identifying the root cause of his long-term exhaustion allowed him to confront his mental health, seek support from mentors and friends, and gradually recover through willpower and professional guidance.
Wu later steered his team to deepen and stabilize their educational publishing services, partnering with dozens of top-tier domestic publishers. The company now ranks among the top three in China’s vertical market for digital textbooks, undertakes national-level cultural digitization projects, and has grown its annual revenue to 30 million yuan.
In Wu’s entrepreneurial playbook, AI is never a shortcut to complacency. “AI lowers the barrier to entry, but not the standards of entrepreneurship,” he emphasizes. He constantly reminds himself that betting solely on a narrow AI function is risky—next-generation general models could render specialized solutions obsolete. True sustainability, he believes, lies not in relying on endorsements, but in continuous innovation and superior product capability.
Today, Wu enjoys a stronger foundation for exploration: a stable business ensures payroll is no longer a worry; the Model Academy provides free workspace and resources; Nanjing’s first OPC sci-tech subsidized loan offers financial support for expansion. Most importantly, through referrals and industry exchanges, he has gained access to major project opportunities.
Wu has since expanded his AI applications into government services, healthcare, and medical insurance sectors. Competing alongside established tech giants in a provincial medical insurance AI project, his team built a drug-return risk analysis and operational platform, presenting their results at Jiangsu’s AI+Healthcare Promotion Conference.
Looking back, Wu describes his trajectory with three keywords: “hustle,” “focus,” and “long-term vision.” For him, “hustle” is a Gen-Z trait—early experimentation builds the versatile skills most needed in the AI era; “focus” means diving deep into a chosen direction without distraction; “long-term vision” entails staying ahead of technological shifts to foresee future trends.
From wanting to do everything to committing only to what lasts, from a teenage maker to a pioneer in AI infrastructure, from solo hustling to leading a team—Wu Yang continues to evolve, writing an inspiring story of ambition and perseverance. Young people in the new era never lack courage or creativity. With AI empowerment and supportive policies, every dream has the potential to become reality.
Comments