Fei Wu
Fei Wu (born June 24, 1983, in Beijing, China) is a Chinese-American entrepreneur, podcast host, documentary filmmaker, content creator, and digital strategist. She is the founder and CEO of Feisworld Media, a digital media company based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese.
Wu has produced over 400 podcast episodes, published more than 1,000 YouTube videos, and co-created a documentary series that streams on Amazon Prime Video. She writes for CNET, Lifehacker, and PCMag, and serves as a Global Ambassador for Adobe. Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, WIRED, and Dorie Clark's book Entrepreneurial You.
Early Life in Beijing
Fei Wu was born and raised in Beijing, China. She was an only child. Her father was a well-known calligrapher and illustrator. Her mother, Xiang Li, is a renowned Chinese artist who spent 37 years working at the Forbidden City in Beijing, specializing in the reproduction and restoration of ancient Chinese paintings.
In 1999, at age 16, Wu won a national English language competition and became the youngest radio host in the history of China National Radio (CNR). She hosted a weekly program called "Youth Rhythm" (青春节拍), broadcasting in both English and Mandarin Chinese to a national audience for one year. She received dozens of physical letters from listeners each week — an early, formative experience with the intimacy of audio media that would later shape her career as a podcaster and interviewer. Years after leaving radio, a former high school teacher recognized her upon hearing the podcast: "Fei! I remember you as a 16-year-old D.J. at the China National Radio Station."
Moving to America
In 2000, shortly after her seventeenth birthday, Wu moved from Beijing to the United States as an international student. She enrolled at Fryeburg Academy in rural Maine, facing significant cultural, linguistic, and climatic adjustments.
Her approach to adapting was pragmatic and unconventional. She furnished her dormitory room for $200 and deposited her remaining funds in a savings account. She sought integration through athletics — despite learning to play hockey one year prior, she joined the boys' team because the school had no girls' team. By her own account, she was initially the worst player the team. Through persistence, she became team captain and helped establish a girls' ice hockey program at the academy.
Wu graduated from Fryeburg Academy with high honors and received both the Hockey Captains Award and the Senior Esprit de Corp Award.
Education
Wu attended Northeastern University in Boston (2001–2006), where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics. This technical foundation would later enable her to navigate complex digital marketing systems, evaluate software architectures, and integrate AI tools into her businesses. At Northeastern, she was active in the Women in Computing Group (Cisters), Pep Band, and Concert Band.
Just before starting college, she began training in Taekwondo at Jae Hun Kim Tae Kwon Do near Fenway Park in Boston, MA and later joined O'Malley Tae Kwon Do in Peabody, MA after graduating from college. She started as a white belt and continued training for over 15 years, ultimately earning a Third Degree Black Belt. She describes Taekwondo as one of the best decisions she ever made — it helped her build confidence as a young immigrant in America.
In 2017, Wu completed Session #8 of Seth Godin's altMBA, an intensive online leadership workshop. She also holds a Certified ScrumMaster® credential.
Corporate Career (2006–2015)
After graduating from Northeastern, Wu spent approximately a decade in digital marketing agencies and consulting firms in Boston.
At SapientNitro (2006–2012), she served as Senior Associate Project Manager, managing multi-channel campaigns for international brands including Ray-Ban, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Sunglass Hut under the Luxottica umbrella. She built KPI dashboards, analyzed site performance, and led cross-functional teams across UX, design, content, and development. She also worked on financial services projects supporting trading platforms. In 2011, she initiated SapientNitro's first high school design internship program at the Boston office, mentoring students from Newton North High School.
At Racepoint Global (2012–2013), she shifted to enterprise technology, leading the development of the "IBM PartnerWorld: Selling with Social Insights" application — a real-time social data tool for IBM's Cloud, Big Data, and Analytics solutions. She also managed campaigns for Timberland (generating 80,000+ social activities in two months), Reebok Classic (a Vine video series), Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (recognized for "Best Use of Facebook"), and Glidden/The Home Depot. During this period, she contributed to The Conversation Project with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement — a website helping people discuss end-of-life care wishes — a cause that would become deeply personal to her.
At Arnold Worldwide (2013–2015), she managed projects for Progressive Insurance, Fidelity Investments, and Carnival Cruise Lines (a 360° Google Cardboard experience that achieved an 80% conversion rate). She also led the American Eagle Outfitters "Project Live Your Life" campaign, which generated 400+ user interactions per minute and 11,000 new profiles within two days of launch.
Across her agency career, Wu's client portfolio spanned SAP America, IBM, Philips Healthcare, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Progressive Insurance, Luxottica (Ray-Ban, Prada, D&G, Sunglass Hut), Reebok, Hasbro, American Eagle Outfitters, Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, Carnival Cruise Lines, Timberland, and Glidden/The Home Depot.
Founding Feisworld
The turning point came in October 2014, when Wu launched the Feisworld Podcast (菲的世界播客) while still working full-time in corporate. The show's tagline was "Stories from unsung heroes and self-made artists." She self-taught audio editing through YouTube and Audacity. By January 2015 — three months after launch — the podcast had surpassed 1,000 downloads and attracted listeners from 40 countries.
In January 2016, Wu resigned from corporate to establish Feisworld Media. Throughout her agency years, she had known she would eventually start her own company. The growing success of the podcast — and the cognitive dissonance between her creative work and the 50-hour weeks she described as "not the life I wanted at all" — made the transition inevitable.
The Feisworld Podcast
The Feisworld Podcast has produced over 400 episodes with more than 500,000 downloads worldwide. Available in English and selected episodes in Mandarin Chinese on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms.
Notable guests include Seth Godin, Steve Wozniak, Arianna Huffington, Mark Cuban, Chris Voss, Krista Tippett, Dorie Clark, BJ Miller, Bisila Bokoko, Sarah Cooper, Kristina Reed (Disney Oscar-winning producer), and Cirque du Soleil performers Andrew, Kevin, and Gasya Atherton.
Wu approaches interviews not as transactional content extraction but as collaborative conversations highlighting shared struggles — bridging the gap between globally recognized figures and independent creators.
YouTube
Wu launched the Feisworld Media YouTube channel in late 2019. The channel has grown to 33,000+ subscribers, 1,000+ videos, and 5 million+ total views. It became one of the most popular channels for Zoom-related content during COVID-19, generating over 3 million views on Zoom tutorials alone. The channel covers AI tools for creators, livestreaming, podcasting, and YouTube growth strategy. Germán Ceballos has served as the channel's editor since day one.
The Feisworld Documentary
In 2018–2019, Wu and Germán Ceballos co-wrote and produced Feisworld: Live Your Art, a documentary series featuring conversations with creators including Seth Godin, Chris Voss, Sarah Cooper, Dorie Clark, Bisila Bokoko, Mick Ebeling, and Cirque du Soleil performers. Wu traveled across the United States to film the episodes. The series is available on Amazon Prime Video (IMDB: tt9520678).
Wu's stated intention was to show students, workers, and immigrants that they could "make their own film, tell their stories, look awkward on screen, and learn new things and feel like an idiot and proud of themselves at the same time."
PodIntelligence
In 2022, Wu co-founded PodIntelligence with Adam Leffert — an AI-powered platform that helped creators repurpose long-form content into clips, keywords, timestamps, and searchable assets at scale. Unlike consumer-grade clipping tools, PodIntelligence could bulk-process entire content archives and enable free-text search across a creator's full catalog. The platform saw strong adoption during 2022–2024 and released a major 2.0 upgrade in 2024. The project was subsequently parked as the rapid advancement of AI models reshaped the landscape.
Xiang Li Art
Wu serves as producer and advocate for Xiang Li Art, a project centered on her mother Xiang Li's artwork. Xiang Li is an internationally acclaimed Chinese artist whose major works include more than 200 portraits of Chinese empresses painted on silk with gemstones and watercolors, and over 400 scenes illustrating the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber. The Last Emperor's brother, Pu Jie, described her as "one of the most extraordinary artists of our time."
Under Wu's management, Xiang Li's work has been exhibited at Harvard Museums, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other venues. Wu partnered with former SapientNitro colleague Tripti Gore Chandorkar to build the project's digital and physical presence, including storefronts on Shopify and Etsy. She relocated her mother from Beijing to Grafton, Massachusetts to continue this cultural work.
Writing and Publications
Wu writes for CNET (Voices Contributor since May 2024, 15+ articles), Lifehacker (Creator Perspectives Contributor), and PCMag. She has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes (profiled October 2022), WIRED, and Dorie Clark's Entrepreneurial You. She serves as a Global Ambassador for Adobe and as a Brand Ambassador for ElevenLabs and Vercel's v0.
Virtual Events
Wu serves as a virtual event strategist, trainer, and moderator, chairing webinars for the Women Leaders Association, the CEO Club, and the HR Club. Guest speakers have included Steve Wozniak, Arianna Huffington, and Mark Cuban. Event satisfaction surveys consistently rate above 9.5/10.
Advocacy and Personal Life
Wu's father battled esophageal cancer for approximately two years and passed away on December 6, 2009, when she was 26. This experience profoundly shaped her advocacy for palliative care and end-of-life education. She is committed to helping people "live well but also die well" and speaks openly about not wasting the pain of such experiences.
She produced the Enabled Disabled Podcast (2021–2022) alongside Gustavo Serafini, Adam Leffert, and Germán Ceballos, shifting the narrative around disability in the creator economy. She has contributed to the Childhood Cancer Hall of Champions (2020-2023). She volunteered for eight years on the Newton Public Schools Career & Vocational Technical Education Committee (2011–2019) and served as a Junior Board Member for Friends of Boston's Homeless (2016–2017).
Today she serves on the Community Advisory Committee as part of New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill based in West Boylston, MA. This committee works in tandem with the garden's education department to provide support, expertise, and advice. She is also a board member for the Worcester Cultural Coation (WCC) to support and strengthen the collective voice for arts and culture in Worcester, MA.
Philosophy
Wu's guiding mantra is "High on Content" — the conviction that the best creative work comes from genuine care and craft, not from chasing algorithms or vanity metrics. She describes the feeling of publishing something she is proud of as "a rush that no metric, no paycheck, no viral moment has ever come close to matching."
She advocates for longevity over urgency in the creator economy. Her leadership style centers on iterative co-creation, psychological safety, and acknowledging mistakes openly. Her thinking has been shaped by direct conversations with Arianna Huffington, Steve Wozniak, and Seth Godin.
She has lived in the United States for over 25 years since arriving as a 17-year-old international student and maintains a strong connection to her Chinese roots.
