2024-2025. The period when Amy co-founded and built Taya with Elena Wagenmans, joined a16z Speedrun, and nearly destroyed herself in the process.
The Doubt Before It Started
On December 31, 2023, at 5am on New Year's Eve, Amy fired off LinkedIn Easy Apply applications to 15+ companies in a single hour: MHP/Porsche, Cognizant, IMAGINiT, Emeritus, LHH, CreatorCore, o9 Solutions, SHOPLINE, Synergis, and more. This was before committing to Taya full-time. She spent 5am on New Year's Eve panic-applying to jobs. Then she went back to the startup anyway.
On the same day, she submitted a RealSelf consultation request for Chase Lay MD, a plastic surgeon. The panic apply and the consultation request, both at the turn of 2024, suggest a person in crisis, casting around for change in every direction at once.
What She Gave Up
In late 2023, Amy had a full-time return offer from Apple at approximately $150,000 total comp. She also had a competing offer from Bilio, a Berkeley company. She chose neither. She co-founded Taya instead. Apple was the safety net she walked away from.
What Happened
Amy and Elena pivoted from Mobius (scrap metal) through AI CAD to an AI jewelry wearable. They joined a16z Speedrun together. Amy served as CTO and handled all technical work: electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software, product management, and go-to-market.
She used drugs to stay awake for days at a time. She paid herself approximately $6,500/month as a founder with no formal payroll. The company raised $5M during the Speedrun period, though the round was announced publicly in March 2026 after Amy had already left.
Amy's dad invested $40,000 in Taya.
Financial Reality
Amy paid herself approximately $6,500/month with no formal payroll. Founder pay at an early-stage startup is modest by design, but it was a fraction of what she would later earn at Vizcom. The $202,000 separation payout and the $250k Vizcom salary represented a dramatic financial upgrade. See Financial Timeline.
The Breaking Point
Amy left in November 2025, citing Elena's lack of care for her as a person and exhaustion from the workload. She negotiated a separation: approximately $200,000 total ($180,000 for share repurchase plus reimbursements and severance), retaining approximately 3% equity (125,258 shares, certificate CS-7).
On November 9, 2025, while negotiating her exit, Amy applied to Y Combinator with her brother George Zhou for a startup called Pretzel. She has never mentioned this.
What It Cost
- Physical health: drug use to stay awake, likely significant sleep deprivation
- Two years of her mid-twenties
- 10% equity sold back for $117,375
- Mental health damage that manifests as late-night comparison spirals months later
- The template in her head that says hard work should look like suffering
What She Got
- $200,000 payout
- Technical skills across hardware, software, and product
- A TechCrunch footnote
- The knowledge that having everything (CTO title, a16z stamp, building the whole product) still only made her feel "a little" cool
- A very clear picture of what a bad co-founder relationship looks like
In Amy's Words
From the March 8 diary: "The grind isn't ambition. It's a compulsion. Trading self-destruction for permission to feel worthy. I'm restless at Vizcom not because it's boring but because without the grind I have to sit with myself."