Hey 👋🏻,

I’m Wesley–tech entrepreneur, mountaineer, and Ironman Triathlon finisher. Here's a bit about me.

Work

I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Aragon. We use AI to generate hyperrealistic photos of people, eliminating the need for in-person photoshoots.

We have over 1.2 million users, including Fortune 500 companies and our products have generated over 25 million photos for people.

We’re funded by Neo, Sequoia Scout, and the founders of billion-dollar companies. However, we've never needed to use any of the money that we've raised as we’ve been able to build a capital-efficient business. Using our profits, we grew to $1M in annual run rate (ARR) within 4 months of launching and $10M ARR in 2 years.

For my company, I've been featured in The Information (front page), Business Insider, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, NBC News, Amazon, and Big Think, as well as on the My First Million and NeuralZen Venture podcasts.

Prior to starting my company, I worked at 2 early-stage Y Combinator-backed startups, was a software engineer at Microsoft, and an AI researcher at the University of Michigan.

Hobbies

I aim to balance work and health by running, lifting, and cooking. When time allows, I also enjoy seeing what my body and mind are capable of with activities like mountaineering and completing an Ironman.

🏔️ I've climbed over a dozen mountains. Here are a few notable experiences:

Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft / 5,895 m)

In January 2025, I organized 3 friends to climb the tallest mountain in Africa. It took us 5 days to summit and 2 days to descend. One of us was unable to summit due to altitude sickness which caused debilitating headaches, diarrhea, nausea, and extreme fatigue among us. At that extreme elevation, only ~50% of the oxygen at sea level was available to us.

Early in the climb, I got severe food poisoning, and at one point, even water made me have explosive diarrhea. Despite that, I still had to hike through blistering sun, rain, sleet, stinging hail, and snow. Summit day started at 10 p.m., and we ended up hiking 17 hours that day. This was the most physical suffering I've ever endured–even more than my Ironman.

Mt. Whitney (14,505 ft / 4,421 m)

In 2019, I organized 3 friends to climb the tallest mountain in the contiguous US. We started the climb at 2 am, and it took us 17 hours to summit and descend. People usually split this climb into two days. We ran out of water near the summit, so one of us had to drink piss to survive (we filtered it).

Mt. Fuji (12,389 ft / 3,776 m)

In 2015, I organized 3 friends to "bullet climb" the tallest mountain in Japan, which means to summit and descend in a single push without staying overnight on the mountain. It took us 14 hours total. It’s now forbidden to bullet climb Mt. Fuji because too many people have been injured from attempting it. My friends stopped hiking after this experience because of how challenging it was.

I've wanted to climb the Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each continent, including Mt. Everest) ever since I was a kid. I’ve conquered one so far and have six more to go.

🚴🏻 In 2021, I trained for and completed an Ironman Triathlon–a 140.6-mile (226 km) endurance race consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon, all done back-to-back. The race took place in Cozumel, Mexico, where it was 80°F (27°C) with 100% humidity.

Right after I crossed the finish line, I collapsed from hyponatremia and had to be carried away on a stretcher. For the first time in my life, I was scared that I had irreversibly fucked up my body–my entire body was cramping, including my face, and I couldn't even open my fists. The race took me 15 hours to finish and it was the hardest physical thing I've ever done.

💪🏻 I've also trained to do a muscle-up, land a standing backflip, and bench press 2 plates (225 lbs / 102 kg).

Fun facts

• I was born in the San Francisco Bay Area but didn’t grow up there. I moved back 4 years ago and am proud to call it my home.
• Growing up, I lived in 3 countries and changed schools 7 times.
• In high school, I voluntarily spent a summer being hazed at a military school in Kentucky. I wanted to go for the experience (and it was a great one). It shut down shortly after I left due to safety concern complaints from parents.
• I nearly failed high school with a 1.9 GPA (C- average) because I was playing League of Legends competitively (I made it to semi-pro on the Chinese server). I was also busy competing on 6 sports teams–4 varsity and 2 JV.
• I've visited 25 countries and 6 continents.
• I have a cameo in a Netflix documentary called Don't Die.

If you’d like to chat, you can reach me at my first name at my company url. You can also find me on X (Twitter) and LinkedIn, where I'm somewhat active.

Thanks for reading,

Wesley Tian