Hiring Gen Z and bookworms: How DeepSeek’s CEO stands out from Silicon Valley

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek’s rapid rise has been credited to CEO Liang Wenfeng’s unconventional leadership and focus on Gen Z talent, departing from Silicon Valley norms, according to a Fortune report.

Liang founded the company in 2023, prioritising creativity over experience. DeepSeek has since climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts, surpassing even AI giant OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the US.

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Less than two years from its founding, the company is now estimated to be worth $1 billion.

The 40-year-old Liang loves to hire young people and bookworms, often humanities graduates. He has been open about hiring literary buffs onto the engineering teams to help refine the company’s AI models.

Work experience is also not at the top of the priority list.

“If you are pursuing short-term goals, it is right to find people with ready experience,” the report quoted Liang as having said in a 2023 interview with Chinese media outlet 36Kr. “But if you look at the long-term, experience is not that important. Basic skills, creativity, and passion are much more important.”

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This is because he felt “having done a similar job before doesn’t mean you can do this job.”

He added that younger and more inexperienced workers are more innovative than seasoned AI experts who get bogged down by their own knowledge, the report read.

“When doing something, experienced people will tell you without hesitation that you should do it one way,” he said. “But inexperienced people will repeatedly explore and think seriously about how to do it, and then find a solution that suits the current actual situation.”

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Liang is also quite different when compared to other tech leaders. While the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Benioff have a huge online presence, often using social media to craft a public persona, Liang rarely speaks with the press and keeps a low profile, only using social media to promote DeepSeek.