Silicon Valley's Top Investors Back 22-Year-Old Founder's AI Automation Vision

Jessica Wu, CEO of Sol, shares her journey from quant researcher to leading a Series A-backed startup that's redefining enterprise automation.

From Finance to Fulfillment: The Founder's Mindset

Jessica Wu began her career as the youngest quantitative researcher at a major hedge fund. While she valued the analytical rigor of finance, the corporate environment left her unfulfilled. "I would work 9-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and if I was called in on a weekend, I was miserable. It didn't feel like my own thing," she recalls.

Now, as founder and CEO of Sol, she works "every waking second, 7 days a week," but has never been happier. Her advice for those choosing between stable careers and startups is simple: "Do what makes you feel excited to go to work every single day and fulfilled in what you're doing."

Solving Enterprise Automation's Biggest Challenges

Sol is an agentic process automation platform that helps businesses automate critical operational workflows using AI. The company has demonstrated impressive traction:

• 5x revenue growth this year
• Execution volume doubling month-over-month
• Partnerships with Fortune 100, Amlaw 100, and major private companies in logistics and healthcare

The startup recently raised a Series A round led by A16Z (Andreessen Horowitz) following a seed round led by Sarah Guo at Conviction Partners.

The Making of a Resilient Founder

Wu attributes her resilience to her competitive background in piano and mathematics. "I think I'm good at taking risks and putting myself in places where I don't feel comfortable. Doing something even when you don't feel 100% ready builds character," she explains.

Her time at MIT reinforced this mindset. "It's the only place that's exactly as portrayed in movies - people building roller coasters on the front lawn while others train models in dorm basements." The environment taught her to "jump into everything as quickly as you can" and stay current with technological advancements.

The Finance Foundation: Thinking in Odds

Wu's finance background proved unexpectedly valuable. An adviser had recommended she spend time in finance because "it teaches you to be very objective - you should always calculate odds for things."

This statistical framework helps her make startup decisions more rationally. "You can map out decisions by asking: what are the odds this particular customer converts by this day? What are the trade-offs? It prevents decisions based solely on 'I really like this customer.'"

Identifying the Automation Gap

The idea for Sol emerged from firsthand experience with automation shortcomings. At her hedge fund, Wu encountered "manual work around interacting with really old brokerage software" that she tried to automate using existing RPA (Robotic Process Automation) tools.

"Even with a computer science background, it was really hard to build a simple browser or desktop automation," she notes. Her co-founder had a similar experience building hospital systems at MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital), where they encountered "brittle, hard-to-implement tooling."

The Y Combinator Crucible: Selling Before Building

Through Y Combinator, Wu learned the counterintuitive approach of "selling before building." YC encourages founders to "put up the most minimal fake version you can and try to sell it. The clearest way to know you're building something people want is if they'll pay for it."

This approach led to difficult but necessary decisions early on. "We had to turn down exciting early revenue opportunities to focus on building our core product. Saying no to huge names was difficult but necessary for alignment."

Customer Obsession: Beyond the Tool

Wu emphasizes that winning enterprise customers requires more than just superior technology. "You're asking companies that have been around for decades or centuries to trust you with their most critical operations. Being small and early means you must compensate through exceptional experience and responsiveness."

Sol maintains weekly calls with early design partners, incorporating feedback rapidly. "Listening is the most important thing you can do for customers. That's what makes people choose a startup over legacy incumbents."

The Startup Roller Coaster: Building Resilience

Wu describes startup building as "unimaginably difficult. You're constantly experiencing very high highs and very low lows, compressed into short timeframes." She's learned that "things eventually return to normal, provided you're building in the right market with the right people."

This perspective helps her team weather challenges like key personnel departures or champion customers leaving during sales processes.

The Mission: Freeing Humans from Tedious Work

Looking forward, Wu sees an enormous problem space with decades of work ahead. "There's a lot of work that people shouldn't have to do - manual and tedious tasks. If we can free people up, they can focus on fulfilling, creative, and strategic work. That's what we're trying to accomplish with Sol."