S.Y. (Seung Yoon) Lee is the CEO and Founder of Story Protocol. Story Protocol allows creatives to build narrative universes from the bottom up. Stories are the base layer of all forms of entertainment, and web3 principles will power the next generation of hit franchises with stories as their foundation. Story’s mission is to unleash an entirely new way to create, govern, and license IP on blockchain, ultimately forming an ecosystem of “story legos” that can be remixed and composed. A16z led the $30M round in the company with participation from Endeavor, Roham (Founder of Dappers Labs), and others.

He was previously the CEO and Founder of mobile storytelling platform Radish, backed by Softbank, UTA, and Bertelsmann. The platform was acquired for $440M in 2021 by South Korean tech giant Kakao.

He subsequently served as Kakao’s Global Strategy Officer in charge of its investment and M & A activities globally.

Lee also actively invests and advises web3 companies as a Venture Partner at Hashed, South Korea’s largest blockchain fund. The fund was the first check in many web3 metaverse companies like Axie Infinity and Sandbox and also advises Korean tech and entertainment giants like Kakao, Naver, HYBE, and others on their crypto strategies.

Lee is an Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leader and Trilateral Commission’s David Rockefeller Fellow. He was an inaugural member of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2016 and was subsequently named as one of its All Star alumni.

Lee was elected as the first Asian President of the Oxford Union, world’s famous debating society whose former presidents include many heads of state. During his term, he hosted world-class speakers including fellow South Korea rapper PSY, Senator John McCain, and President Martii Ahtisaari. He also launched the Union’s own Youtube Channel that features its key debates and speaker events.