A little about me

Ben Zhang – Marketing Analyst
My name is Ben. I was born in Los Angeles, and lived in Taiwan from 5th to 8th grade because of my dad’s job, then I came back to LA for high school. Right now I’m double majoring in Economics and Cognitive Science at UCLA. I’m really into music – I play piano and guitar. I also like movies, video games, going to the gym, and grilling. Finally I can’t forget to mention I have 3 cats (their names are Tokyo, Hamilton, and Greybeard)


Why I joined UpdateAI
I had just taken an introduction to linguistics class at school and I was looking for internships – to be honest, they all seemed kind of uninteresting.
I found UpdateAI on LinkedIn and it was a combination of business and linguistics, so it was perfect for my majors. Usually, it takes companies a little while to get back to applicants, but UpdateAI responded right away. Josh got back to me personally on LinkedIn, and it was cool that he seemed to want to really know his employees. The idea of UpdateAI really sounded interesting to me. Josh’s profile also showed that had a successful business background and would be good to learn from, so I was happy to join the team.
I was an intern to start, but at the end of the summer internship I could work part-time into the school year and after a few months of doing that, Josh kept me on as a permanent employee.
What I do at UpdateAI

As an intern, I started sitting in pilot meetings, taking notes, concierging and helping annotate data. As a part-time employee, I switched into my “marketing analyst” role. Now, I help run the newsletter and publish articles. I also help Josh set up a lot of webinars and manage social media (like the company Linkedin/Twitter) as well as help with a bit of sales.
Why I'm so excited about UpdateAI
We have a unique product. Everyone needs a notetaker, whether they admit it or not. As someone who has been in leadership roles in college organizations, I know for a fact that a number of student organizations at UCLA (which have executive boards run by up to 20 – 30 students and member bases in the triple digits) would love something like UpdateAI. Aside from CS, any instance where someone has calls, UpdateAI would be useful.
Which core company value I align with the most

“It’s about the people.” I think that you can make all the money you want or be super successful, but if there is nobody to share your experience with, then it’s not worth it. While we’re working to scale this startup, it’s nice to build relationships with our team and the people we’ve worked with.