William Zhou is the co-founder and leader of Chalk.com. The education software company helps teachers from the kindergarten level to 12th grade, or the end of secondary school. Zhou was born in Beijing, China. He grew up in the Canadian city of Vancouver and founded his first company when he was still in high school. Zhou sold the company when he was studying computer science at Canada’s University of Waterloo. But he strongly wanted to make a change in education. From his dorm room, Zhou created Chalk. It is a group of programs that supports individual teaching and learning. Based in Canada, Chalk is now used in 20,000 schools by more than 100,000 users worldwide. Forbes magazine included Zhou in its list of top 30 under-30-year-old business leaders for education in 2015. Zhou says building startups is a difficult process because it could last years. It’s only worth it if you find something you truly care about something you’re passionate about. Otherwise, you may just end up crashing.