Lilly Chen co-founded FSH Technologies, a Philadelphia-based software company building tools for government administration tasks including school food services and public records management. Chen quit her job as an engineer at Facebook in January 2021 after the Capitol riot, then received her first investment from venture firm Contrary before she had fully formed her business idea.
FSH has raised $25 million in total funding, including a $20 million Series A that closed in about a week. Participants in the Series A included Lachy Groom, General Catalyst, Ramp, Scribble Ventures, Operator Partners, and Basis Set Ventures. Contrary led the seed round. Jason Chen, the Contrary investor who backed her initially, has since joined FSH as chief operating officer.
Chen's path to founding was unconventional. At 16, she was hospitalized repeatedly for Graves' disease and spent about two years as a ordained monk, including several months at a monastery in China. She later enrolled at Colorado College without a high school diploma, graduating in 2019 with degrees in mathematics and economics. She briefly played Dota 2 professionally and worked at Facebook building infrastructure for AI model training.
FSH generated less than $100,000 in revenue in its first year. The company has roughly eight or nine employees. FSH uses AI for optical character recognition, translation, and natural-language search, but treats AI as a tool within its software rather than relying on chatbots or AI agents to handle entire processes. One early area of focus has been K-12 food services administration, where the software coordinates meal planning, nutritional information, and reimbursement requirements.