# Core contributors Hyperliquid Labs is a core contributor supporting the growth of Hyperliquid, led by [Jeff](https://twitter.com/chameleon_jeff) and iliensinc, who are classmates from Harvard. Other members of the team are from Caltech and MIT and previously worked at Airtable, Citadel, Hudson River Trading, and Nuro. The team used to do proprietary market making in crypto in 2020 and expanded into defi in the summer of 2022. Existing platforms were plagued with issues, such as poor market design, bad tech, and clunky UX. It was easy to make money trading on these protocols, but disappointing to see how far behind defi was compared to its centralized counterparts. The team set out to build a product that could solve these issues and provide users with a seamless trading experience. Designing a performant decentralized L1 with an order book DEX built-in requires an intimate understanding of quantitative trading, cutting-edge blockchain technology, and clean UX, which the team is well-positioned to deliver. The team actively engages with and listens to the community; you are welcome to join the [Discord server](https://discord.gg/hyperliquid) to ask questions and share feedback. Lastly, Hyperliquid Labs is self-funded and has not taken any external capital, which allows the team to focus on building a product they believe in without external pressure. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/about-hyperliquid/core-contributors.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.