A tech CEO who faced mockery over a viral Twitter thread about what she 'actually' does in a day suggested the backlash has helped her business

• Yehong Zhu posted a Twitter thread about what she does as a tech CEO in a day.
• She faced mockery from people who said her days didn't sound like they entailed much work.

The CEO of a tech company has responded after her viral Twitter thread describing what she does on a day-to-day basis led to mockery as people suggested her workload was minimal.

Yehong Zhu, a former Forbes reporter and the founder and CEO of Zette Media, which aims to provide access to paywalled articles, has suggested the thread was intentionally provocative, saying that it was "optimized for virality."

Her original thread, posted October 12, began, "As a venture-backed founder, I frequently get asked what I actually do on a day-to-day basis. In case you were wondering, here's a day in the life of a startup founder in Silicon Valley."

She went on to describe how she picked design mock-ups for her website, ordered new sets of business cards, and is developing a strategy to become a TikTok influencer.

It received more than 200 replies, and more than 350 quote-tweets, many of which seemed unimpressed by what they interpreted as a light workload, considering she'd received $1.7 million in venture capitalist funding for her company, according to Forbes.

Several quote-tweets said that Zhu's daily schedule appeared to involve "15 mins of work stretched out over a day," while some tweets told her to "get a real job." Others criticized her for putting "zero effort" into her work and life, and also for "creating nothing of value."

On October 17, Zhu responded to the criticism, and appeared to suggest the thread was part of a marketing strategy.

She said, "I've been thinking a lot about marketing lately, and I realized I've been underutilizing Twitter. So I thought, why not write a tweet thread to help with growth?"

Zhu said the thread was deliberately written in "a lighthearted way" and "played into founder stereotypes." She also said it was "optimized for virality."

She wrote, "I became a lightning rod for people angry at their jobs, their bosses, and capitalism itself. At first, my feelings were hurt, and I thought about deleting my tweets. Then I wondered – is there such thing as bad publicity?"

Zhu said that the thread "got people talking" and that many are now aware of what Zette Media is. She said the company has grown its waitlist by double digits, without spending anything on marketing. (Insider was unable to verify this claim.)

"You know how much money it would have cost to get 1 million impressions on Twitter in paid advertising? The hate-driven distribution was amazing and exceeded my expectations," Zhu added.

Several comments underneath Zhu's follow-up thread praised her for using this form of "viral marketing," while others said they were "impressed" by Zhu's resilience.

Quote-tweets of Zhu's thread said that it was "hilarious" and called the entire thing "a work of art."

Zhu's company Zette was founded in July 2020 as a subscription service that would allow users to access articles that would typically be behind a paywall, according to Forbes.

Zhu did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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