• Edward Tian co-founded GPTZero in college, building it into a success before selling to Superhuman.
• He said he thinks that creating 'artificial scarcity' for the product contributed to its success.
• He said he'd major in the humanities, not computer science, if he went to college today.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Edward Tian, the 26-year-old cofounder of GPTZero, who's based in New York. His words have been edited for length and clarity.

I was never planning to go down the founder path straight out of college. I had a visual investigations fellowship lined up for after graduation and was ready to start a journalism career.

My cofounder Alex and I went to high school together. When ChatGPT came out, he was pursuing his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Toronto, and I was in my senior year at Princeton. Over winter break, we built an AI detection tool and put it online. The success was almost overnight.

Three years later, we sold our company, GPTZero, to Superhuman, and have stayed on board to work with the team. Superhuman is a very pro-AI company, and I think it was an unexpected move for us as an AI detection company to join them.

We didn't build GPTZero to say there should be no AI on the internet. I think that's the biggest misunderstanding about why we started our company, but my feelings on AI have changed.

I had a different job lined up for after graduation

I studied computer science at Princeton and worked with a professor at the Princeton Natural Language Processing Lab on AI research. I also worked on a few other startup projects in school, but I was always hoping to work in journalism.

While in college, I became very involved in the open-source investigation community. I ended up working on open-source investigative projects with the BBC and Bellingcat, and had a visual investigations fellowship at The New York Times lined up after graduation, which I was excited about but ultimately didn't take.

After ChatGPT came out, I was inspired to investigate where and when AI was being used online. It took about a week over winter break to build the first version of our AI detection tool, and it was released in January 2023.

We created artificial scarcity to help grow the business

My cofounder Alex and I posted on social media to market the tool so people could try it, but we didn't view it as a business right away. However, it blew up online pretty quickly. After seeing the success, we wanted to double down on the opportunity and turn it into a legitimate site.

One piece of advice I have for founders is that using a waitlist is really helpful for generating hype and excitement. We put the first version of GPTZero on a waitlist because it had reached capacity. So I think that artificial scarcity was also very helpful in the success.

We had a lucky combination of very talented engineers and some traction and buzz, so we started reaching out to VCs. Many of our early VC partners went to my alma mater, and kind of all knew each other. Jack Altman is also an investor, and I remember we had a call where I was in my dorm room, and he was like, "Oh, I recognize that dorm room too."

For founders raising funding for the first time, my advice is not to optimize for the flashiest name or the biggest brand because you think it will attract future talent. Go for where there's familiarity and trust; trust is the most important thing when working with an investor.

We raised around $3.5 million in our first funding round. I stayed at Princeton to finish my senior year and graduate, and we kept growing the business. My cofounder Alex left his Ph.D. program to focus on the business.

It was bittersweet to sell the company

When Shishir, the new CEO of Superhuman, joined in 2025, we spoke with him about his broader platform vision for a suite of products. He thought we could be part of the authenticity suite he wanted to create.

It was bittersweet to think about giving up something that we started from scratch and put so much energy and care into. At the same time, it was a lot easier because the team stayed on. I'm now a director of product at Superhuman.

For company acquisitions, a lot of folks think the three most important things for a great fit are product match, people fit, and economic sense. We had similar people philosophies, and the deal made sense financially. Then, product-wise, we realized we're definitely not against AI use anywhere in education. We just want to make sure there's some authenticity and truth with that usage.

Over the next few years, we're going to take our shot at building a startup within a larger company. I've seen a lot of startup founders go to larger companies and start their moonshots from within.

The bigger mission we have is to take steps to ensure people are being respectful of the person who's on the receiving end of AI generations and productivity now. We want it to be that we're reaping the benefits of AI without making other people deal with more work.

I wouldn't major in computer science anymore

When we first started GPTZero, I think I was actually more pro-AI than I am now. I believe people should know when something is AI-generated, but I wasn't saying not to outsource anything at all.

In the past year, though, I've started to see an over-reliance on AI among people who finished university after ChatGPT was launched, especially with writing. If I went back to college right now, I wouldn't major in computer science. I'd probably major in journalism and get a minor in computer science. I'd get a humanities degree because those are the important skills now.

I've started to see a friction point at work when people can't write or edit, and everything they send reads like AI. Part of what I'm doing now at Superhuman is working on responsible AI usage policies and guidance.

People are allowed to use these tools however they see fit. At the same time, I feel a profound sadness for the internet at large. It's important to make sure we still have human-written content online.

Do you have a story to share about working on a tiny team? If so, please reach out to the reporter at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Michael Boyle, the 55-year-old managing director of HP Greater Asia, based in Singapore. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been at HP for more than a decade, but I'm a musician first.

I've been in rock bands for most of my life in every country I've moved to, and formed bands across different HP offices. I've moved across Singapore, Barcelona, and Sydney for different roles in the company. I'm now the managing director for Greater Asia.

I joke that I wanted to be an international rock star, which didn't quite happen, but I got to play music internationally, which is still fun.

My days are long, starting early at 6 a.m., and often ending as late as 11 p.m. Music, workouts, and curbs on phone time get me through busy days.

I'm generally an early riser, getting up at around 6 a.m.

I'm Australian, so coffee — a flat white specifically — is a very important morning ritual for me.

Typically, I'll get in a workout after that. It'll either be running, which I find the fastest and easiest, or a swim.

The first thing I don't do when I wake up is look at my phone; I avoid it for the first 10 minutes of the day to help me wake up naturally and practice gratitude.

In terms of general phone use throughout the workday, I try to use it in 10-minute bursts to get through news and that sort of thing. I'm not someone who will spend hours flicking around on the phone. I see it as a tool to get work done, jot things down, and as another interface for AI.

I do a burst of work for an hour at home

I like to get a sense of what's ahead in the day before I head into the office. I do this so I can free up my time for when I'm in the office, because I want to be fully present and part of the team.

I head to the office around 8 a.m.

Around 8 a.m., I head into the office. If I'm feeling it, I run to work. I convert documents into podcasts and listen to them while running.

As a busy executive, I often have days when I'm not at my desk, so I use AI to summarize documents, stay ahead on my emails, and manage my daily agenda. AI is helping me remove clutter, so I have time to think.

Recently, I was working on an initiative in the company, for which I needed to give a pitch. I narrated my presentation and pitch to ChatGPT first, and it gave me feedback on where I was going off track, where I was staying on track, what the key punchline was, and suggestions for keeping the group engaged.

It trained me and gave me real-time feedback. Whereas in the past, I would've done that in a vacuum. I'd be in a hotel room, talking to a wall and thinking, "I hope this goes OK."

There are so many ways this tool can help us become better leaders, make time to think, and, hopefully, be more effective.

I leave the office at 6 p.m.

Daily exercise is non-negotiable for me; I find it's the best way to stay fresh and happy. I'm a 10,000-step person, often running back home from the office to get my steps in.

When I get home from the office, I don't look at my phone or anything for a while. That's blocked out for family.

As a family, we're very big on no device use at the dinner table. I'm happy to say that my twin daughters can go out to dinner and leave their phones at home, which is pretty rare for 21-year-olds. We've taught them a few good things.

At about 9 p.m. I have to fire up again for late meetings

The company is based in the US, so I often have meetings late into the night because of the time difference.

If I need to stay up late at night for international meetings, the best way is to pick up the guitar — it wakes me up again. It's my hack for when I don't want to drink coffee.

I just have to make sure I don't keep playing during my meetings.

At around 11 p.m., my batteries run out

I'm not very productive after that, so that's the end of my day.

At home, I'll play guitar and drums for at least an hour or two every weekend. That's when I allow myself to unplug and put my brain into neutral.