I’ve been building technology companies for over two decades. But my journey begins far from the shiny headquarters and investment offices of Silicon Valley, in the fields of the Chinese countryside. My early life gave little indication of the journey of discovery that awaited me. It was simple, full of challenges—and perhaps counterintuitively, it planted the seeds of curiosity and boundary-pushing that drive me to this day.

My family and I lived by growing rice, corn, wheat and vegetables; meat was rationed by the government. Village life was straightforward but demanding and options were limited. There were two possible paths for the children. Do well academically and you can go to university; otherwise you would lead the same country life as so many generations before. The stark choice sharpened my focus and I developed an unshakable work ethic and hunger for discovery that has fueled my journey ever since.

Education became my way out. I endured the monotony of endless exams and back-to-back lessons and finally got a place at Sichuan University to study electrical engineering. I was later accepted to graduate school at Tsinghua University, often nicknamed the “MIT of China”. The experience was intense but gratifying – a world where talent and hard work converged.

College was my first glimpse of freedom, my first experience of the joy of friendship and discovery. It was there that I began to understand the transformative power of technology and to see learning not just as a means to escape one’s own poverty, but as a world of possibilities in itself.

Take the jump

And as it turns out, everything up until then was prologue. That’s because I made the big leap across the ocean to the United States after graduation.

At the University of Florida, I completed my Ph.D. in computer engineering—just as the dot-com bubble burst. After graduating from a tough job market, I moved to Texas to work at Verizon while pursuing my MBA at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. This period fundamentally changed my perspective on leadership. I have always approached team building with a technical mindset. I thought of people as replaceable parts of the system, resources to be optimized.

The MBA experience opened my eyes to the importance of understanding people as individuals with unique motivations and potential to unlock. This paradigm shift has become a cornerstone of my leadership style and has influenced how I work to enable teams to achieve their best work.

I moved to Minnesota from Texas. Its people are famously friendly, but the local culture is full of nuances that can be challenging for an expat like me to understand. Meetings could be minefields of cultural references that I didn’t understand. This experience deepened my empathy and gave me a new perspective that I still use today when motivating teams and trying to make sure everyone feels seen and heard.

In 2008 I moved to California and joined Google. For the first time since arriving in the US, I felt a deep sense of belonging. Silicon Valley’s culture of inclusivity and openness has allowed me to thrive as a unique individual; my peers encouraged me to think big and tackle challenges that others thought were impossible.

One of my proudest achievements was leading the development of Google Fi, a virtual mobile service provider that redefined the telecommunications industry. We dreamed of seamlessly switching between networks, automatically connecting to open WiFi with VPN enabled, and completely removing the complexity of international roaming for users. Experts said our vision was impossible, both technically and commercially. But with relentless focus, we succeeded. To this day, I am still a proud Google Fi user, and meeting others who use the service gives me a unique sense of joy and accomplishment.

However, not every project succeeded, and one of the most valuable lessons came from failure. With Google Offers, we scaled too quickly and built a large team before achieving product-market fit. Our core experience relied on mobile location accuracy, which wasn’t reliable enough on Android or iOS in 2013. It was a costly mistake, but it taught me the importance of timing and focus.

My time at Google was transformative. It wasn’t just a place where I built innovative projects – it was where I built the confidence to lead, learn from failures and share my vision with others.

Become a founder

I eventually left to co-found Leap.ai, a company focused on using machine learning to match people to jobs, which was acquired by Facebook. Co-founding a successful startup gave me confidence in my leadership and entrepreneurial skills, as well as the desire to do more.

After Facebook, I joined fintech company Earnin as CTO. Millions of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and Earnin has allowed users to access their paychecks without predatory fees. The company’s innovative model, which relied on voluntary tips, resonated deeply with me.

I also saw the limitations of traditional finance at Earnin. Despite the company’s success, it had difficulty accessing the debt instruments needed to expand its operations from traditional banks. This challenge planted a seed in my mind. I decided to work on the transformation of payment finance using blockchain technologies. This vision is based on fairness and efficiency, inspired both by my personal journey and my professional growth.

Looking Back, Pushing Forward

Blockchain represents more than just a technological breakthrough – it is a rethinking of value and ownership that in many ways connects the different threads of my journey. In traditional technologies, early adopters help refine algorithms and shape platforms, but rarely share in the wealth they create.

Web3 changes that, enabling communities to co-create and co-own the value they create. It’s not just a technological shift; it is an opportunity to build fairer systems. I knew my next step was to help develop these powerful innovations.

Today, on the final leg of my journey, I am committed to building technology that empowers individuals and redistributes opportunity in a way that truly reflects the value of community contributions. My journey from farmer to founder instilled the belief that technology is our best hope for a better future. I am working hard to ensure that future – for everyone.

Richard Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Huma Finance, the first PayFi network that provides global payment financing with instant access to liquidity anywhere, anytime.