Last edited: 2026-04-06 06:43:54 | 4 revisions | All changes

Leo Zhang

Category: People Nickname: The Florida Man Last updated: 2026-04-06

Overview

Leo Zhang is a Caltech student from Florida — Jack calls him “the Florida Man.” They met at Internapalooza hosted by Cory and bonded immediately over a shared rejection of startup culture’s most hollow value.

How They Met

Leo and Jack met at Internapalooza, an event hosted by Z Fellows Levy. The conversation that kicked off their friendship: Leo said prestige is bullshit. Jack agreed. They’ve been talking ever since.

For context: “prestige” is the word that organizes an enormous amount of tech and startup decision-making — which school, which company, which investor, which accelerator. Leo’s willingness to call the whole system out by name signals a level of independence from status games that Jack finds rare and valuable.

Profile

School: Caltech
Origin: Florida
Vibe: Contrarian, direct, calls things what they are

The “Prestige is Bullshit” Theory

The fact that a shared rejection of prestige-seeking was enough to start a lasting friendship says something about both of them. They’re the kind of people who filter for signal fast — one honest take and you’re either in or out.

Notably, this is a more radical position than it sounds. Both Jack and Leo operate in environments saturated with prestige signaling — Caltech and the Bay Area startup scene are arguably the most prestige-dense environments in the country. Saying prestige is bullshit from inside those environments is different from saying it from outside.

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