Hey, I’m Wesley! 👋🏻

I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Aragon, the world's most popular AI photography studio. We use AI to generate photos of people that are indistinguishable from real photos, eliminating the need for in-person photoshoots.

We have 1.8M+ users, including Fortune 500 companies and our products have generated 30M+ photos for people.

We’re backed by Neo, Sequoia (Scout), and the founders of billion-dollar companies. We're profitable and grew to $1M in annual run rate (ARR) within four months of launching and $10M+ ARR in under two years.

I've been featured in The Information (on the front page), Business Insider, The Washington Post, Amazon, Big Think, Indie Hackers, as well as on the My First Million, The Product Market Fit Show, and NeuralZen Venture podcasts.

We're known for how lean and efficient we are (more revenue per employee than Microsoft and Salesforce) and for how fast we've grown. See the Lean AI Leaderboard.

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

Outside of work, I'm a health fanatic and like to dabble in endurance sports.

🏔️ I've climbed over a dozen mountains. Here are a few notable experiences (click to expand):
    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. 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 three 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, 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 two plates (225 lbs / 102 kg).

Fun facts:

  • I've moved around a lot growing up. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Oregon, Taiwan, Shanghai, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nevada.
  • When I was 16, I spent a summer at a military camp in Kentucky. It shut down shortly after I left due to safety 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 also played on six sports teams–four varsity and two 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

Last major update: 07-15-2025