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Su Zhu
Milestone (age 25)
In 2012 at about age 24–25 he co-founded Three Arrows Capital (3AC) in San Francisco with Kyle Davies, raising ~$1M seed by borrowing from their parents.
Born April 1987 in China; moved to the US at age 6. Graduated Phillips Academy Andover (~2005/2006) and Columbia University summa cum laude in mathematics. Worked as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse, Flow Traders, and briefly Deutsche Bank before co-founding 3AC with childhood friend Davies in 2012.
Think your path resembles Su Zhu's?Compare the visible ingredients, then see exactly where the comparison stops working.
Am I the next Su Zhu? →Starting point
Born April 1987 in China; moved to the United States at age 6 and later attended Phillips Academy Andover and Columbia University.
Current position (2025)
Former 3AC co-founder after 2022 fund collapse; later OPNX/crypto ventures; served prison time in Singapore (2023) for non-cooperation with liquidators.
How this path compounded
01 Starting advantages
9/24 starting-position score
Strongest documented signals: Family financial platform, Elite institution pipeline, Exceptional peer / cofounder.
Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.
Cohort percentile: 84
02 Built or converted leverage
15/25 multiplying-capacity score
Strongest observed levers:Complementary team, Domain proximity, Prior reps.
Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Cohort percentile: 82
03 Compounding trajectory
5 documented steps
The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.
Milestone at age 25
04 Observed career standing
T3 · Domain-recognized
Notable and widely recognized within the domain. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Su Zhu's worth or future potential.
Question four · where did the leverage come from?
Su Zhu's leverage provenance
Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.
Complementary team2/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Exceptional peer / cofounder (2/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)
Domain proximity2/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Direct domain exposure (2/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)
Prior reps2/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Elite institution pipeline (2/2)
Scarce skill depth2/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Elite institution pipeline (2/2)
Elite ecosystem network2/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Elite institution pipeline (2/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Exceptional peer / cofounder (2/2)
Structural wave / timing2/3
Externalmedium confidence
A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.
Frontier geography (1/2)
Concentration intensity2/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Family financial platform (2/2)
Capital safety1/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
Family financial platform (2/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)
This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Su Zhu's outcome attributable to any origin.
Luck is not a leftover score.Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.
Within Founders / operators, Su Zhu's starting-advantage total is at the 84th percentile. Separately, their built or converted leverage total is at the 82th percentile. Other T3 profiles average 7.0 / 24 starting advantage and 11.7 / 25 leverage. Similar scores appear in other tiers, so these figures describe positioning—not a cause.
Trajectory
- 2010 · age 23
Graduated Columbia University summa cum laude in mathematics
Phillips Academy.
- 2012 · age 25
Co-founded Three Arrows Capital in San Francisco
Kyle Davies using ~$1M parent-borrowed seed.
- 2013 · age 26
Re-registered 3AC in Singapore
Early focus on emerging-market FX derivatives arbitrage.
- 2022 · age 35
3AC failed margin calls and entered liquidation amid crypto crash
Peak AUM had been estimated ~$10B.
- 2023 · age 36
Arrested at Singapore Changi Airport and imprisoned for failing to
Cooperate with liquidators.
Primary leverage engine
Elite education + trading domain proximity
Product / domain insight
Secondary engine
Network / capital (parent seed + partner Davies)
Built/converted leverage
15 / 25
evidence: High
Built or converted leverage
Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Started serious reps before 20
0/1
Elite ecosystem network
2/3
Structural wave / timing
2/3
Concentration intensity
2/3
Starting-advantage scores (0–2 each)
Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."
Family financial platform
2/2
Parent / family domain
0/2
Inherited audience / network
0/2
Elite institution pipeline
2/2
Dedicated mentor / coach
0/2
Exceptional peer / cofounder
2/2
Direct domain exposure
2/2
Prodigy / innate ability
0/2
Adversity / constraint catalyst
0/2
Family context
Immigrated from China to the US as a child; with Davies borrowed roughly $1M from parents to seed 3AC—evidence of family financial platform at founding.
Parent / family domain
Not documented as a trading/finance family apprenticeship; parental capital seed is the clearest family advantage.
Archetype & tags
Elite performance pipelinePhillips AndoverColumbia mathparent seed capitalcofounder DaviesFX/derivatives trading seat
Evidence summary
Wikipedia and New York Magazine document April 1987 birth, Andover/Columbia path, Wall Street trading seats, and 2012 3AC founding with parent-borrowed seed. Fund later peaked near ~$10B AUM before 2022 collapse and Zhu’s 2023 Singapore arrest. Family domain coaching is not documented beyond capital; partner Davies is a durable complementary cofounder from prep school.
advantage confidence: High · source count: 4 · audit: not_independently_audited · status: subagent_researched_beta
Sources
Related — same primary engine