Asim Zaidi

About Asim Zaidi

Asim Zaidi has been a software engineer at some of the biggest tech companies on the planet and has played an instrumental role in helping many early-stage companies take their ideas to market. He's passionate about building products that users love but he's even more passionate about helping those who need help.

Growing up, if you looked at my circumstances, you would probably think I wouldn't achieve much in this life. But I'm thankful for Navaid Abidi for being the most incredible mentor to me at such a young age. I was doing Khan Academy in the 5th grade. In high school, I almost always carried an iPad & headphones in a classroom as I was one of the first students enrolled in the HarvardX EdXCS50 course taught by David J. Malan. I landed a job at Chick-fil-A Restaurants in the 9th grade and while I loved the free sandwiches, I worked there for ~ 2 weeks and then quit to intern at MouseHouseApp out of the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago.The rest of high school, I knew I was a technologist at heart. I was there when 1871 was still new to Chicago, I remember taking train rides by myself into the city on a weekday to attend a random networking event just to try to learn something new.

I began studying Computer Science a the University of Illinois at Chicago. My freshmen year I found myself helping senior students with their capstone projects and flying through the coursework. I didn't feel like I was learning the skills needed to build products that users love. So I took a a leap of faith and transferred to Y Combinator backed, Make School Product College based out of San Francisco.

I started Techmade, an agency with my friends where we built software solutions for influencers and businesses during our free time. From there, I landed myself a role back home in Chicago at an early stage company, Livly. Together, we expanded across the nation and raised own of the largest seed rounds in the Midwest at the time. I learned what it takes to push product effectively at a tech company, what engineering culture was, and so much more.

From there, I took my talents to go work for some of the largest companies in the world.

Now I'm building jail.app in my free time.