My name is Tian-Yuan Zhao

May 2015 to May 2016 - transformative year because it was the year I met Vitalik Buterin and got accepted into the Thiel Foundation / 1517 Fund community which led me to begin my journey as a digital product designer within various tech startups both in the Web2 and Web3 worlds such as Canadian Tire and a couple startups at Communitech & the MaRS Centre respectively.

Fall 2016 to Fall 2017 - I tried dabbling in the world of entrepreneurship myself by getting accepted as a Finalist with The Next 36, as well as finally getting accepted into the Engineers without Borders Fellowship program but then subsequently losing it due to a misunderstanding that related to mental health. This proved to be a hugely transformative moment for me which propelled me to work abroad in Germany instead by getting accepted into a program called the Digital Product School where I designed a fintech app all about investing your spare change in cryptoassets from scratch called "Belt"

Jan 2018 to April 2019- after I came back to Toronto, I wound up getting multiple companies interested in working with me which was why I founded my own design studio called "Round Sky Studio" and worked with various clients such as Maropost, Raise, Kleros, Block X Labs, and the Royal Bank of Canada

May 2019 - I juggled a full-time permanent job at Flinks as their solo product designer whilst after getting accepted to the Celo Prosper Retreat where I got to meet a key figure whom connected me to Andreas Freund thus giving me the opportunity to juggle a part-time job as a product designer at ConsenSys due to the fact that the project I worked on - "Kapture" didn't have enough of a budget for a full-time role for me at the moment.

May 2020 - I got hired at Flinks as their solo product designer because ConsenSys laid me off during that same summer due to their unsustainable growth and the financial downturn during that time

May 2021 - I took up a few part time product design gigs with various Web3 agencies including Keyko + Linum Labs + Deep Work Studio so as to supplant my portfolio with additional Web3 projects

Jan 2022 - I accidentally got myself over-employed by juggling 2 additional full-time Web3 jobs at Tempus Finance & Passage Protocol on top of my full-time Web2 job at Flnks. Then May 2023 - I ended up leaving all of them for one full-time Web3 job at GoodDollar as their Lead Designer, but then the Terra stablecoin spiralled out of control which caused my layoff from GoodDollar 2 months in. The day after I got laid off however I was able to get myself rehired at Cultos as their full-time product Senior Product Designer.

Jan 2023 - I'm currently freelancing with various Web3 orgs: Passage Protocol, DeFiCurrent, Raise, IOTAbee, and Shell Protocol whilst trying to get myself back into full-time employment due to being laid off from Cultos ever since January 2023 as their senior product designer as a result of the FTX contagion.