Trip Adler got into tech because his father, a Stanford neurosurgeon, was frustrated with how slow medical journals were to publish research, and that experience led him to start Scribd and later Created by Humans, both built around connecting creators with new technology rather than fighting it. He studied biophysics instead of computer science, has always focused on the long tail of publishing instead of chasing viral hits, and his newer work tries to turn AI's use of content into something based on consent, credit, and compensation—a path that started, in a small but memorable way, with him busking outside Scribd's office for the company's first $17 in revenue.