Eric Diep is Toronto-born founder of Manifold (a16z crypto, Initialized Capital) and A Thinking Ape Entertainment (YC, Naval, Bill Lee, Jim Young), and startup angel in technology, consumer, and crypto. Eric is co-author of the first US patent for systems and methods to support real-time chat on mobile devices. Eric studied math at University of Waterloo before dropping out for Y Combinator in 2007 where he met his lifelong co-founders. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.