Former Facebook Engineer And Ex-Monk Builds Software For Local Government

Lilly Chen spent about two years as a monk while managing a serious illness. She later became a Facebook engineer. Now she runs FSH Technologies, a Philadelphia startup that builds software for local government. The company has raised $25 million in total, including a $20 million Series A, according to Crunchbase News.

What the company does

FSH (pronounced "fish") targets the unglamorous side of government. Its software is aimed at tasks such as running school food services and managing public records. The company aims to use artificial intelligence to improve these processes. Chen has said she wanted to work on what she called "really unsexy, boring stuff" that affects daily life.

Why government work is slow

Chen says the delays go deeper than a clunky website. Permits, licenses and grant applications can stall because information sits in separate departments. Even a simple website update may need sign-off from policymakers, communications staff and an IT team.

Her view is that adding a chatbot on top of that tangle leaves most of the problem in place. The fix, in her telling, has to reach the underlying process.

An unusual path

At 16, Chen had been hospitalized repeatedly for Graves' disease, a thyroid condition. Her mother, frustrated with the care available through Medicaid, suggested they become monks. Chen left high school, was ordained in the United States and spent several months at a monastery in China. She kept taking thyroid medication, and her health became more manageable.

She later entered Colorado College without a high school diploma and graduated in 2019 with a double major in mathematics and economics. She briefly played the video game Dota 2 professionally, then worked at Facebook building systems used to train AI models. She left after Jan. 6, 2021, saying she could no longer work for Big Tech.

The money

Contrary, a venture firm, wrote Chen her first check in 2021, before she had settled on a business idea. Contrary also led the seed round. FSH took its current shape in 2024. The Contrary investor who first backed her, Jason Chen, is now the company's chief operating officer.

Chen said the Series A came together in about a week. Investors included Lachy Groom, General Catalyst, Ramp, Scribble Ventures, Operator Partners and Basis Set Ventures.

What is not known yet

The material does not say which schools or local governments use FSH, what the software costs, or how much faster it makes any process. Government change is also slow by nature. Residents should not expect quick differences at the permit counter or the school cafeteria.