For the early portion of his life, William Zhou was under the impression that teachers had it easy. From his vantage point all they had to do was virtually grade some papers and they would receive three months off a year in return. That all changed when he spent some additional time with a few of his high school teachers and realized that his initial assumptions were vastly incorrect. After seeing the struggles and stress that many teachers endure in regards to the planning, assessing and evaluating portion of their jobs, Zhou decided to give back to his teachers in a sense.

At the age of sixteen Zhou showed a glimpse of what was to come when he began his entrepreneurial journey. At this young age Zhou created Design Vetica, a web consultancy. The most useful feature from Design Vetica was called Draftboard. Draftboard was an online tool where clients and designers to interact.

While Design Vetica was an impressive startup creation for Zhou, his best was yet to come. His brightest and most successful endeavor was sparked by his aforementioned meetings with his teachers. Because he saw the difficulties that teachers face on a daily basis, Zhou created Chalk.com. The main feature on Chalk.com is called Planboard, which is an organizing tool for teachers in regards to their planning, assessing and evaluating needs. In present day, Chalk.com is used by 20,000 schools and utilized by over 100,000 teachers. Zhou has been globally recognized for his innovation, as he was labeled one of the thirty best entrepreneurs under the age of thirty by Forbes in 2015. Zhou’s creativity can be found in his ability to recognize a seemingly obvious need and filling it efficiently like no one has ever done before.