Will Au

Building out the Yield Layer at Solstice (a DeFi-based yield bearing stablecoin company)... solstice.finance solsticestaking.io solstice-labs.ch

Managed the global engineering team (30+) at First Digital (a CeFi-based stablecoin issuer). $4.3B USD peak market cap (stablecoin: FDUSD). Worked on our all-new AI Agentic DeFi-based platform called Finance District (www.fd.xyz) - comprising of stablecoin-based payments in an AI agentic programmable and composable ecosystem (featuring AI smart wallets, borrowing/lending, AI intent-based trades, swaps and investing, and autonomous payment infrastructure). Completely pivoted entire engineering group to utilize AI-first software development approach (now 95%+ of new production code is AI-generated) - with 10x to 100x increased output across the board. Drove ongoing integrations with HFT market makers for our stablecoin operations, scaling on-chain liquidity across chains beyond $50M+ TVL. Got knee deep into DeFi liquidity and alpha strategies.

Turnt Gaming (based out of Seattle, USA) developed Taunt Battleworld, the UFC of the metaverse (think NFT-based warriors) and the world's first engage and earn fighting game. I was there to set the tech tone (i.e. - hire up tech team members globally, set ops engineering processes, personally hands-on with Typescript/nodeJS/Prisma/Ts.ED framework/Postgres, plus web3 blockchain integration via Polygon/Alchemy for NFT asset management, and advised the CTO on all tech matters).

I'm a value-added Limited Partner to family offices, venture capital funds, and early-stage tech startups. LP in various venture capital funds, including but not limited to: - VC Fund A (Silicon Valley): $50M early-stage fund - VC Fund B (Asia): $120M early-stage fund - VC Fund C (USA): $20M emerging manager early-stage fund - VC Fund D (USA): $150M early-stage fund - Amongst others. Early direct angel investor in high-growth startups, including: - GRIN (CRM for social influencers, scaled from $20M to $1B valuation in 2.5 years) - Getaround (P2P car sharing) Strategic Advisory for Startups Advising tech startups on pitch decks, fund raising, technology stack selection, product strategy, OpEx/budgeting, technical team composition, and hands-on experience in product development and engineering leadership.

Iron Coat was a software company specializing in the Microsoft SharePoint market, providing enterprise software solutions for document and records management. Our products and services served as add-ons to the SharePoint platform and were used by Fortune 500 companies and major government departments. Technology & Product Leadership (CTO Role): - Architected and led the development of Iron Coat’s suite of third-party Microsoft SharePoint products, spanning from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013. - Built and managed a 20-person engineering team, driving product innovation and technical execution. - Hands-on coding with .NET framework (up to version 3.5). Business & Sales Strategy (CEO Role): - Played a hands-on role in technical sales engineering for SharePoint-based enterprise solutions. - Bootstrapped the company from $0 to $millions in revenues, zero venture funding. - Managed a cross-functional team of over 30+ employees, spanning offices in Canada, USA (Silicon Valley), and India.

In my brief hiatus from tech, I worked in a mid-market boutique investment bank specializing in M&A advisory, debt, and equity financing across key industries, including manufacturing and oil & gas. Engaged in client-facing interactions with CEOs, CFOs, and senior executives, pitching sell-side M&A, debt, and equity financing opportunities. Developed company valuations and financial models, including fully integrated cash flow projections, debt and interest schedules, revolver modeling, and sensitivity analysis.

Cre8Object was a Microsoft-focused technology services firm specializing (via .NET Framework 1.0 and 2.0) in delivering innovative solutions to early-stage companies and established enterprises. Scaled the company from $0 to over $1M+ in revenue with a team of 15 employees. Worked with VC and angel-funded Silicon Valley startups and other clients, including Roblox (IPO: RBLX) - contributed to their early .NET codebase and database designs, and Fusetalk (acquired).

Software developer. Did a lot of web (so-called n-tier) and desktop programming stuff back in the good ol' days (think ASP 2.0/3.0 spaghetti code, .NET, WinForms, PHP with Oracle/MySQL/SQL Server). Companies I worked for included QNX (acquired by Blackberry) and Atsana Semiconductor.

At age 16, where my professional journey began, I balanced school and full-time work while serving as a web programmer in Nortel's Microelectronics department.