<p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5fda381e1803a80018adfc9d-2400/Screen Shot 2020-12-16 at 11.37.02 AM.png" border="0" alt="danny zhang wish cofounder" data-mce-source="YouTube/Treasure Data" data-mce-caption="Wish cofounder Danny Zhang gives an interview to Treasure Data." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch'v=uuTvjLnjAts"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>Wish debuted as a public company on Wednesday <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wish-contextlogic-ipo-stock-offering-price-filing-trading-debut-nasdaq-2020-12-1029896216">raising</a> $1.1 billion to help it grow its ecommerce empire of low-cost goods found through pictures.</p><p>The public offering also put another billion dollars of worth into the pockets of its founders, executives, and key investors.</p><p>That includes Wish's second and lessor-known cofounder, Sheng "Danny" Zhang. Zhang is Wish's former chief technology officer who left the business in an amicable departure in February 2019, in order to "pursue other interests outside ecommerce," a Wish spokesperson told Business Insider.</p><p>Having left last year, not much about him is discussed in the <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1822250/000119312520298630/d82777ds1.htm">company's filing to go public</a>. He's mentioned only five times, mostly in the footnotes.</p><p>Still, he should benefit handsomely from the IPO.</p><p>Zhang's full potential stake is 2.67 million shares, <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1822250/000119312520298630/d82777ds1.htm">Wish has disclosed.</a> The company priced its initial shares at $24, although public-market investors were not keen to pay that price on the first day of trading. Despite the frothy IPO market experienced by <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/doordash-stock-price-ipo-public-trading-debut-nyse-dash-offering-2020-12-1029878632'utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest'utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest">DoorDash</a> and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/airbnb-stock-price-ipo-trading-debut-valuation-past-100-billion-2020-12-1029882956'utm_campaign=browser_notification&utm_source=desktop'utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest'utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest">Airbnb</a> earlier this month, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wish-stock-price-trading-debut-valuation-ipo-markets-valuation-2020-12-1029899448">Wish opened at $22.75</a> and dropped to as low as $20.53 in intraday trading, but mostly hovered at around $21.</p><p>At $21 Zhang's full potential stake is worth about $56 million. However, a majority of Zhang's shares are stock options, which means he has to buy them at a preferential price before he can sell them on the public markets. He only owns 135,535 shares outright, the filing revealed, which are worth about $2.8 million at $21/share. </p><p>Zhang did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.</p><p>Zhang, who is originally from China, met his cofounder, Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski, in a math and computer science class at the University of Waterloo, increasingly known as Canada's answer to Stanford, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2019/03/13/meet-the-billionaire-who-defied-amazon-and-built-wish-the-worlds-most-downloaded-e-commerce-app/'sh=7726673b70f5">Forbes reported</a>. They also played soccer together, with Forbes reporting that Zhang "was so good he had briefly considered turning pro."</p><p>Instead, Zhang went on to earn his master's in computer science, writing his thesis on cryptography, while Szulczewski went to work at Google. After graduation, Zhang got a job in search and advertising at Yahoo and stayed four years.</p><p>In 2011, Zhang was working at a relic of the dot-com eraYellowPages.comwhen he heard from his old friend.</p><p>Szulczewski had socked away enough money to quit Google and stay home writing code for a new venture, which was software that showed people ads based on their internet browsing, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2019/03/13/meet-the-billionaire-who-defied-amazon-and-built-wish-the-worlds-most-downloaded-e-commerce-app/'sh=7726673b70f5">Forbes reported</a>. He asked Zhang to join him.</p><p>The two pivoted the early company away from a mobile ad business to a virtual wish list, where people could "wish" for items that the company didn't actually sell, but were curated in an online collection. This early version of Wish clicked with users.</p><p>Today, Wish is as an online marketplace known for selling low-cost goods made in China and has become a popular online shopping destination for bargain hunters. It <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1822250/000119312520298630/d82777ds1.htm#rom82777_10">reported</a> a loss from operations of $120 million on $1.75 billion in revenue for the first nine months of this year, with revenue up 32% from the same period 2019.</p><p>For Zhang's part, "he remains a friend and supporter of Wish," the company told Business Insider.</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-doordash-fourth-cofounder-evan-moore-2020-12">Meet DoorDash's forgotten fourth cofounder, who's not even named in the food-delivery company's filing to go public</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-contextlogic-ipo-stock-offering-price-filing-trading-debut-nasdaq-2020-12#:~:text=Visit%20the%20Business%20Insider%20homepage%20for%20more%20stories.&text=Wish's%20IPO%20will%20raise%20as,the%20ticker%20symbol%20%22WISH.%22">Wish reportedly prices IPO at $24 per share, will raise $1.1 billion at a valuation of $17 billion</a></li></ul><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clearbanc-ceo-on-how-moving-to-canada-fast-tracked-his-tech-career-2020-12" >Andrew D'Souza left Silicon Valley to work at a company based in Toronto, Canada. He explains why crossing the border accelerated his career, and how others can emulate his success.</a></strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-wish-cofounder-danny-zhang-2020-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-do-your-own-taxes-for-the-very-first-time-2018-2">July 15 is Tax Dayhere's what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time</a></p>
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