From Buddhist monk at 16 to Meta engineer : How 30-year-old Lilly Chen built a $25 million startup to challenge Accenture

Lilly Chen’s journey from becoming a Buddhist monk at 16 to working as a software engineer at Meta eventually led her to an unlikely career as a startup founder. During the pandemic, Chen and three childhood friends built a project at a hackathon, and in 2021 turned it into FSH Technologies, formerly Contenda, according to a report by The Business Insider.

The company has since grown into a government technology startup that competes with established consulting firms such as Accenture for contracts.

FSH Technologies has now raised $25 million in total funding. Its latest $20 million Series A was led by Lachy Groom, an early investor in companies including Figma, Notion, Ramp and Lattice.

The company had earlier raised a $5 million seed round led by Contrary and Acrew, with General Catalyst, Scribble and Basis Set Ventures also participating.

From high school dropout to Buddhist monk

Chen left high school at 16 after being diagnosed with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder. Her family was on public health insurance, and she said she did not have good access to preventive healthcare.

Her mother had always been spiritual and eventually suggested that they become monks. Chen was ordained in America before moving with her mother to a Buddhist monastery in rural China.

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"I got ordained in America, and eventually my mom and I moved to a Buddhist monastery in rural China," Chen told the publication.

Chen was a monk for about two years altogether, including about six months at the monastery in China. Life there was simple. The monks woke up at 3 a.m. to meditate, grew food, cleaned, fetched water and handled other chores. There was no electricity.

The monastery also attracted people who travelled there to talk about their problems. Chen said monks did not necessarily offer solutions, but instead listened to what people had to say.

"I was a teenager spending every day listening to people talk about their problems. I think that was the most important thing I learned from being a monk: How to listen to other people," she said.

The monk who encouraged her to go to college

Chen also spent much of her time reading. The head monk eventually noticed this and asked whether she liked learning.

When Chen told him that one of the things she missed most about America was having access to public libraries, he encouraged her to return to the US and pursue higher education.

"He said, 'I heard that's what university is for.' He told me to go back to America, go to college, meet people my own age, and figure out what I found interesting," Chen said.

Returning to the US was not easy. Chen did not have a high school diploma and did not know how to navigate the college admissions process.

Her initial plan was to get a GED, attend community college and eventually transfer. But a chance encounter at a college fair changed that plan.

Chen went to a college fair at her public library looking for her local community college. She saw a table marked "CC" and stopped there, thinking it meant community college. It was actually Colorado College, a small liberal arts school.

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After hearing about her unconventional path, a woman at the table asked Chen to take the ACT and email her the score.

Chen scored 36, the highest possible score.

The woman encouraged her to apply early decision to Colorado College. When Chen asked whether she could apply without a high school diploma, she was told to submit her test score and write about her experience in her personal essay.

Chen was accepted.

From self-taught coder to Meta

At college, Chen taught herself how to code. After graduating, she became a software engineer at Meta.

However, she quickly grew tired of the job and founded FSH Technologies a year later.

The company's approach to government technology is still influenced by something Chen learned at the monastery.

One of her chores there was taking care of a koi pond. The monk who had encouraged her to go to college would tell her, "Be the pond, not the fish."

The lesson, Chen said, was about looking at the wider system instead of focusing on one isolated problem.

"That is how I think about government technology. Software is one fish. There are also procurement rules, existing processes, change management, and people's resistance to change. At FSH, we try to solve the whole problem end-to-end," she said.

Taking on Accenture

FSH Technologies builds software for cities, school districts and state agencies. Its focus is on replacing slow and outdated government technology systems.

The company also competes with large consulting firms for government contracts, with Accenture emerging as one of its most frequent competitors.

"We frequently encounter firms like Accenture in government contract bidding, and we have beaten them. Accenture is probably the competitor we see most often. After awards are made, clients will sometimes tell us which other vendors they were considering," Chen said.

Chen said FSH's business model is different from that of traditional consulting companies. The company does not charge billable consulting hours and does not have separate salespeople or consultants.

"One of the biggest differences is our incentives. We don't charge billable consulting hours, and we don't have salespeople or consultants. Everyone at FSH is a builder," she said.

Despite competing successfully against larger firms, Chen said she understands why government agencies continue to choose established names such as Accenture.

"I understand why governments still choose established firms like Accenture. The public sector is risk-averse, and there is comfort in hiring a familiar name," she said.

FSH's strategy is to build that trust through successful projects, Chen said.

"My hope is that if we keep delivering successfully, the results will become hard to ignore," she said.