> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.variational.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.variational.io/getting-started/core-contributors.md).

# Core Contributors

## Founders

Variational was co-founded by [Lucas Schuermann](https://lvs.io/) and [Edward Yu](https://quant.am/). Lucas and Edward met as engineering students and researchers at Columbia University before founding their own hedge fund (Qu Capital) in 2017. In 2019, Qu Capital was acquired by Digital Currency Group, and Lucas and Edward became the VP of Engineering and VP of Quant Trading (respectively) at Genesis Trading.

In 2021, after processing hundreds of billions in volume at Genesis (at the time one of the largest desks in crypto), Lucas and Edward left to start their own proprietary trading firm: Variational. After raising [$10M in funding](https://www.theblock.co/post/322653/arbitrum-crypto-protocol-variational-funding) to profitably run their trading strategies for a few years, and integrating with virtually every CEX and DEX in the space, Lucas and Edward decided to use Variational's trading profits to develop the Variational Protocol.

## Development and Quant Teams

The Variational development and quant teams consist of industry veterans with prior experience at Google, Meta, Virtu, IMC, Jane Street, and more. All members of the core technical team each have more than a decade each of experience in software engineering and/or quantitative research.