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William Zhou on the TechWaterloo stage

William Zhou

Co-founder, Chalk

EdtechWaterlooOn TechWaterloo stages since 2016

William Zhou co-founded Chalk in Waterloo in 2012 and ran it as CEO until PowerSchool acquired it in 2022. Chalk built lesson-planning and curriculum software for K-12 teachers, reaching hundreds of thousands of them. He sold an earlier internet business at 18, during his first year of computer science at the University of Waterloo.

On the TechWaterloo stage ×1

TECHWATERLOO9:58

William Zhou of Chalk presents Beyond the Rainbow: The Picture Every Startup Paints

TechWaterloo · November 2016
Watch on YouTube ↗

First seen on the TechWaterloo stage in 2016. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about William ↗

In their words

society glorify success and dismisses failures and they do this on a very grand scale this is exactly the reason why by the way we talk about our successes when's the last thing you heard a talk about oh gee that failed or what didn't work at our starter right those are the things i love to hear and those are the thing we ought to be talking about

TechWaterloo, Nov 2016 · watch at 05:23 ↗
A few quotes can’t cover everything William said on the TechWaterloo stage. 1,600+ talks are searchable.Ask about William ↗

Around the web ×1

Article
This 20-Something Has 500,000 Teachers On His PlatformForbes
2020

Quick answers

What is William Zhou known for?

Co-founding Chalk, the Waterloo company behind Planboard and other lesson-planning tools for K-12 teachers, and running it as CEO from 2012 until its sale. Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list.

What happened to Chalk?

PowerSchool acquired Chalk.com Education Inc. in 2022 for US$13.5 million, including $10.4 million cash and $3.1 million contingent on performance. Chalk.com now redirects to PowerSchool's curriculum and instruction product pages.

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Maintained by TechTO · facts sourced and dated · last reviewed Aug 4, 2026