Bonjour, I'm Zelda.
Bonjour, I'm Zelda.
Born on the Mediterranean sea.
As a child, I made art, wrote stories about the great travels I’d undertake once I'd grown up, and I played soccer.
At 16, I dropped out of high school and moved to Paris to work on an Edtech startup. I then ran an entrepreneurship program for young builders, published a book teaching high agency to teens, convinced my best friend to drop out of high school and angel invested in his now billion-dollar company, and my grandma was interviewed in a 10-minute documentary about me by Le Nouvel Obs (top 3 biggest media in France).
In my early 20s, I travelled in over 20 countries and hosted events in more than 10 of them, I became a dancer in Berlin, apprenticed with a shaman in Mexico for one year, built a cutting edge entrepreneurship school in Senegal, and got my O1 visa to move to San Francisco.
I’m 25 years old as of 2026, and in the last year I started Nautilus, a foundation whose mission is to support exceptional young polymaths with their life’s work. I ran a three-month, fully-funded residency in San Francisco last summer with 12 young people from around the world. The house became a kind of modern Renaissance workshop, where brain organoids, paintings, humanoid robots, music, and other experiments were all being made under the same roof.
These days, I’m especially interested in how tech philanthropy will fund ambitious, optimistic art and culture. I’m starting to write about it on Twitter and Substack.
I also partner with companies on ambitious creative projects, building them end-to-end across storytelling, community, culture and experience.
Building a patronage program to power the next generation of creatives. Patrons include Danielle Strachman, Tyler Cowen, and many more successful VCs and entrepreneurs.
Supporting the VC firm for dropouts & Sci-fi builders with various tasks from events to scouting.
From product to talent selection and ops, I had fun creating experiences for young builders at the popup village Edge Esmeralda, gathering ~1300 people through the month-long event.
Built systems to run a school of two classes (3-6yo & teens), managed a team of 3 and teacher trained them despite language barrier, lived inside the school and designed the classrooms (Montessori inspired), and basically solved 1000 problems everyday.
A methodology book to help teens study as little as needed to get good grades (so that their parents leave them alone) and to focus better on passion projects, getting an internship in a startup… Sold in +4k libraries, invited to talk about it in Ivy League, high schools, and biggest national media.
From product to talent selection and ops, collaborated with the biggest startup accelerator in Europe to create Reverse. Students went on to raise 10s of millions with their companies. I was 17 years old.
The Renaissance patrons shaped history by funding artists and thinkers. Nautilus revives this model for the modern age, creating a three-month program where young talent receives patronage to dive deeply into their craft. Why this matters and how it fosters creativity is what I share in this article.
Last humanity's story arc was the invention of the internet. It granted us knowledge as a commodity. What we need next is creativity. Why & what will be the innovation needed to allow this paradigm shift are the questions I answer in my new essay.
With so many paths available, the pressure to choose the "right" one can be paralyzing. I explore how this abundance of choices affects us and what we can do to navigate it without losing our sense of direction and purpose.
My first ever published article, written as a teen, dives into the paradox of our education system. I argue that while schools are meant to prepare us for the future, they often fall short by focusing on conformity rather than creativity.
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