fbpx
Connect with us
Apply Now

Entrepreneurship

A Founder’s Story with the CEO and Founder of Shop LIT Live, Toby Zhang

Toby Zhang is the CEO and founder of Shop LIT Live, the social media-powered shopping platform. Toby leads a talented management team focusing on driving growth and innovation. Previously, Toby was a partner at CRCM Ventures leading the firm’s investments in consumer and emerging technologies. During his tenure, his successful investments include Musical.ly (now TikTok), Ripple, Ginkgo Bioworks, Firework, Wink, Itui, Drone Racing League, and more. In 2016, Toby was voted Forbes VC 30 under 30.
Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up? 
I was born in Beijing China, and after migrating to the US, grew up in the suburbs of Maryland. My father was quite literally a rocket scientist and at a young age, I became fascinated with the ways his work helped us explore and understand the universe around us. On the other hand, my mother was an artist and she taught me that we should always strive to see the world around us through different perspectives and that oftentimes the answers are not always absolute. Growing up I was an avid participant in team sports with my favorite sport being basketball. I still play regularly to this day. Influenced by technology, creativity, and a team environment, I’ve continually sought education and career opportunities that combine all of these elements. This eventually led me to pursue formal education in engineering and business and to embark on my entrepreneurial journey.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
After completing my master’s in engineering at Michigan, I spent several years leading technical product teams at Microsoft. After that, I pursued an MBA at Wharton and transitioned from a builder of tech to an investor. I spent the next 7 years as a VC Partner at CRCM Ventures. During my tenure, I was blessed to work with many entrepreneurs and startup founders in their early days. Inspired by them, in early 2020 I started Shop LIT Live and transitioned from my investment role back into an operating role. We are now a team of more than 20 people and it has been an incredible journey!
What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?
Companies of all stages should be continually innovating. Don’t be afraid to pivot and try new things when something isn’t working. Most successful companies have changed many many times along the way. Do what you love and do it with the people you love doing it with. Eventually, all the right things will fall into their place.
Continue Reading


Copyright © 2022 Disrupt ™ Magazine is a Minority Owned Privately Held Company - Disrupt ™ was founder by Puerto Rican serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony Delgado who is on a mission to transform Latin America using the power of education and entrepreneurship.

Disrupt ™ Magazine
151 Calle San Francisco
Suite 200
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00901

Opinions expressed by Disrupt Contributors are their own. Disrupt Magazine invites voices from many diverse walks of life to share their perspectives on our contributor platform. We are big believers in freedom of speech and while we do enforce our community guidelines, we do not actively censor stories on our platform because we want to give our contributors the freedom to express their opinions. Articles are not commissioned by our editorial team, and opinions expressed by our community contributors do not reflect the opinions of Disrupt or its employees.
We are committed to fighting the spread of misinformation online so if you feel an article on our platform goes against our community guidelines or contains false information, we do encourage you to report it. We need your help to fight the spread of misinformation. For more information please visit our Contributor Guidelines available here.


Disrupt ™ is the voice of latino entrepreneurs around the world. We are part of a movement to increase diversity in the technology industry and we are focused on using entrepreneurship to grow new economies in underserved communities both here in Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America. We enable millennials to become what they want to become in life by learning new skills and leveraging the power of the digital economy. We are living proof that all you need to succeed in this new economy is a landing page and a dream. Disrupt tells the stories of the world top entrepreneurs, developers, creators, and digital marketers and help empower them to teach others the skills they used to grow their careers, chase their passions and create financial freedom for themselves, their families, and their lives, all while living out their true purpose. We recognize the fact that most young people are opting to skip college in exchange for entrepreneurship and real-life experience. Disrupt Magazine was designed to give the world a taste of that.