United StatesSteven Zhao
Founded Blue Tea Games in San Francisco in 2003, later relocating to Hong Kong where he bootstrapped the studio to fifty employees. The studio achieved critical acclaim for the Dark Parables series of hidden object games, distributed through Big Fish Games. Blue Tea pivoted from desktop to mobile gaming, eventually abandoning casual games entirely. Started Sandbox VR in 2016 after recognizing from his mobile gaming experience to "never build for the current, always build for the future." Invested his entire nest egg from a decade building Blue Tea Games — about $500,000 in life savings — when early VR funding fell through. Famously scheduled investor meetings back-to-back in the same waiting room as a "FOMO strategy" during Sandbox VR's Series A, closing $68 million in five days.