From Monk To Startups: One Founder’s Unusual Path To Building Government Software

Editor’s note: The following is the latest profile in a series of articles about startup founders from non-technical backgrounds who have launched successful venture-backed companies. Read the previous interviews in the series including with MagicSchool AI founder Adeel Khan here, Trunk Tools founder Sarah Buchner here, Tabs founder Ali Hussain here, Craft founder Ilya Levtov here, GC AI founder Cecilia Ziniti here, Incredible Health co-founder Iman Abuzeid here, and Hilt founder William “Will” Cielen here.

Lilly Chen was 16 years old and faced frequent hospitalizations for Graves’ disease when her mother proposed a radical change: moving to China to become monastics. Dissatisfied with the quality of care Chen received through Medicaid, her mother hoped a completely different environment might help.

Leaving high school behind, Chen spent roughly two years as a monk. After being ordained in the United States, she relocated to a monastery in China for several months. There, she practiced meditation, repeatedly read the same selection of books, and gradually regained her health to the point where she felt ready to resume her education.

She eventually entered Colorado College without a high school diploma, competed professionally in video games, and later worked as a software engineer at Facebook. When she chose to leave that position, she lacked a specific startup concept; her primary goal was simply to pursue meaningful work.

That search ultimately guided her to establish FSH (pronounced “fish”) Technologies. Based in Philadelphia, the company designs software tailored to some of the most overlooked government functions, such as overseeing school nutrition programs and managing public archives.

Following her brief tenure at a major tech corporation, Chen concluded that she wanted to address everyday challenges that complicate people’s lives, even if those solutions lacked glamour within the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

“What does it actually take to solve the really unsexy, boring stuff?” she recalls asking herself.

A different route to college

Before setting her sights on government technology, Chen’s immediate priority was recovering her health so she could return to school.

Life at the Chinese monastery involved meditation, consuming crops grown on the premises or provided by local villagers, and living entirely offline. She maintained her thyroid medication regimen, noting that her health stabilized significantly during this chapter.

She also spent considerable time reading. Lacking local bookstores, she continuously revisited the texts she brought with her, finding different corners of the monastery to read in peace.

Her deep connection to these books sparked a conversation with another monk, who inquired about her enjoyment of reading and her educational plans. The dialogue naturally shifted toward universities and why she was not currently enrolled.

When Chen mentioned her medical struggles, the monk pointed out that she appeared healthy. Upon reflection, she realized he was right.

Chen subsequently traveled back to the United States, educated herself through homeschooling, and gained admission to Colorado College despite lacking a high school diploma. She turned 20 during her freshman year and earned a dual degree in mathematics and economics in 2019.

During her undergraduate years, Chen spent a brief period playing Dota 2 professionally. She also competed against OpenAI’s gaming bots, providing an early exposure to artificial intelligence systems she would later support in her engineering career.

After starting her professional career with a job in Boston, she joined Facebook, where she helped build infrastructure dedicated to training AI models.

Leaving without a startup idea

On January 6, 2021, Chen participated in a remote company-wide meeting while simultaneously monitoring news broadcasts of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Disquieted by Facebook’s role in facilitating the coordination of violence, she began to question her future at the company.

“I realized that I couldn’t work for Big Tech anymore,” she recalls.

She resigned shortly thereafter.

To determine her next professional step, she revisited the introspective questions she encountered during her time as a monk: What brought her joy? What truly mattered? Where did her strengths lie?

Software engineering remained her most definitive capability; she only needed to decide where to apply it.

An introduction via Envision—a student-led accelerator supporting unconventional founders—connected her with Contrary, a venture capital firm that previously invested in companies like Ramp and Anduril Industries. Contrary provided Chen with her initial financial backing in 2021 before she had even finalized the business model for FSH.

Although she lacked a polished corporate pitch, Chen’s genuine articulation of her motivations and her dedication to solving a legitimate problem persuaded investors. That early funding provided the financial runway needed to experiment, she noted.

FSH formally assumed its current structure in 2024. Jason Chen, the Contrary investor who initially supported her venture, subsequently joined the organization as chief operating officer.

The company has secured $25 million in total capital, which includes a recent $20 million Series A round that Chen noted came together in roughly a week. Participants in this funding round included Lachy Groom, General Catalyst, Ramp, Scribble Ventures, Operator Partners, and Basis Set Ventures, with Contrary leading the initial seed round.

Finding the problem beneath the paperwork

Chen ultimately focused on government software because she believed it offered an opportunity to solve deeply impactful problems that typically failed to generate widespread excitement.

She pointed out that administrative delays involving permits, licenses, and grant applications often stem from issues deeper than outdated user interfaces. Information is frequently isolated across separate departments, and updating a website may require clearance from various stakeholders, including communications teams, policymakers, and IT personnel.

Deploying a superficial chatbot over such legacy systems, Chen contends, leaves the core structural problems unaddressed.

Her strategy for tackling public sector inefficiencies reflects a lesson learned years earlier at the monastery, where feeding koi fish was among her daily chores.

The head monk regularly asked her whether she considered herself to be a fish or the pond.

Initially, Chen struggled to grasp the meaning of the question. As the monk repeated it over time, she began to reflect deeply, eventually identifying with a specific fish that avoided conflicts, moved alongside the school, and occasionally explored independently.

The head monk’s reply was definitive: “You’re the pond, not the fish.”

Chen interpreted the interaction as a metaphor for looking beyond isolated components to comprehend how entire systems operate. When applied to government software, this meant investigating the underlying reasons behind fragmented data and sluggish workflows before determining what technology to implement.

An initial focus area for FSH has been K-12 school meal programs, where staff must manage nutritional requirements, meal schedules, and federal reimbursement compliance. Another focal point is records and archive management, addressing paper-based systems that still force citizens to visit physical government offices for documents.

FSH integrates AI capabilities for specific tasks such as optical character recognition, translation, and natural-language search. However, Chen emphasized that these functions serve as tools embedded within the software rather than relying on an autonomous agent or chatbot to manage complete workflows.

Securing government contracts has demanded considerable patience. FSH generated under $100,000 in revenue during its first year, illustrating the extended timeline required to win public sector deals. At the time of this interview, the company maintained a team of approximately eight or nine employees, with several additional job offers pending.

Thinking slowly, moving quickly

Chen’s background as a monk continues to shape her leadership style.

She expresses skepticism toward startup culture that frames sleeping in the office or maintaining grueling hours as a badge of honor or proof of dedication. Instead, Chen views such practices as performative, particularly when they undermine the rest essential for effective work.

Her core philosophy communicated to the team is simple: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

“We think slowly about a lot of things, and then we do things quickly,” she stated.

Chen stresses the importance of thoroughly understanding the individuals, bureaucratic departments, and procedures driving public services prior to attempting technological upgrades.

Reflecting on her journey, Chen attributes her achievements to encountering individuals willing to support a founder with an unconventional background—including the university that accepted her without a high school diploma and the investor who funded her before she had a concrete business plan.

“You definitely end up finding your own way if you just stick to being weird,” she said.

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?Frequently Asked Questions

01Who is Lilly Chen?

Lilly Chen is the founder and CEO of FSH Technologies, a Philadelphia-based software company building solutions for government administration, such as school food services and public records management. She is also a former Facebook software engineer and non-traditional startup founder.

02What is FSH Technologies?

FSH Technologies is a venture-backed software company that builds modern digital infrastructure for government agencies to help streamline unglamorous administrative tasks like managing public records and administering school meal programs.

03How much funding has FSH raised?

FSH has raised a total of $25 million in funding, including a $20 million Series A round backed by prominent investors such as General Catalyst, Contrary, Ramp, and Lachy Groom.

04What inspired Lilly Chen to build government software?

After working at Facebook, Chen wanted to pivot away from Big Tech and apply her programming skills to solve complex, everyday problems that genuinely impact people’s daily lives, leading her to focus on public sector inefficiencies.

Illustration: Dom Guzman