HEI, HI, HELLO

At the Baltic Sea on a hike through Keila

My name is Kevin Zheng Lu, although many of my friends call me KLU, a nickname that caught on in high school. I grew up on the outskirts of Dallas in an immigrant Buddhist household, where from a young age I became fascinated by our complex relationship with nature and humanity. Although money was hard to come by, my family was rich in different aspects: hand-picked garden produce, potluck community dinners, and stand-by flights that took us around the world.

I knew that I wanted to one day go beyond my small town to explore how to create transformative impact on the lives we lead and the land we live on. This guided me to Los Angeles, where I graduated from USC Annenberg as a Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab Scholar, focusing on emerging new media for social innovation. Since then, I’ve led brand marketing for Alltruists (YC W21) and Designer Fund, built communities and global programs for young founders, and shaped content design for Salesforce’s sustainability software. I also consult with early-stage ventures like Carba and the Talent Mobility Fund on how to better tell their story.

In 2024, I was named a Fulbright Scholar to Estonia and spent a year at the Tallinn University of Technology researching the nation’s climate tech ecosystem and Baltic innovation development. I’ve showcased my findings at Latitude59 and was invited by the Estonian Ministry of Climate to advise clean tech working groups.

I believe that technology and storytelling, done with deep stewardship, have the power to heal our natural world. Some other things I’m currently thinking about:

  • Inspiring more compassionate individuals to align their talents with their intention and purpose

  • The power of narrative and resonant writing cultures that cultivate taste, identity, and unity

  • Shifting design from being human-centered to becoming nature-centered, where ecology and technology can work in harmony

  • Community spaces of gathering that revolve around thematic aesthetics, goals, and culinary profiles

  • The value of interfaith spirituality in how we understand our past, present, and future selves

I now lead commercial initiatives as the right-hand partner to the founders at Residual, where we are building the pathway for industrial-scale carbon projects.

You can reach me at hello@kevinzlu.com. I’d love to sit down for tea, somewhere, someday.