Brian Wong
Brian Wong c. 2012
Born (1991-04-14) April 14, 1991
Occupation(s)Founder and former CEO of Kiip

Brian Wong (born April 14, 1991) is a Canadian Internet entrepreneur. In 2010, Wong co-founded Kiip (pronounced "keep"), a company offering a mobile app rewards platform through which computer game players would receive real-world rewards from brands and companies for in-game achievements.

He was replaced as Kiip CEO in March 2019 after being indicted for sexual assault.[1]

Early life and education

Wong was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, to parents of Hong Kong descent. His father was an accountant and his mother was a nurse.[2] He received his high school diploma at the age of 14, after twice skipping two grades at the University Transition Program at the University of British Columbia (UBC).[3] Wong received a bachelor's degree from UBC at the age of 18.[4] While at university, Wong launched his first company, FollowFormation, which Mashable called "the easiest way to follow the top Twitterers by subject matter or topic."[5][6][7] One of his most recent ventures, Kiip, made him one of the youngest internet entrepreneurs to raise venture capital.[8]

In 2010, Wong worked in business development for the news aggregator Digg, leading the development and release of the Digg Android Mobile App. Soon after a joining and after a disastrous redesign, Digg had a round of corporate layoffs. Wong was let go after five months, an experience that eventually led to him opening his own business.[9]

Kiip

Wong received the initial inspiration for Kiip on an airplane at age 19 as he observed his fellow passengers interacting with their iPads.[10][11] He noticed that many passengers were playing games, and felt that the games' advertisements took up screen space without adding any real value.[11] Because he perceived that games are a "holy grail of achievement", Wong wanted to leverage key moments of achievement—such as level ups and high scores—with a targeted, relevant rewards program that enabled brands to reach consumers when they were most engaged.[3][4][12]

In July 2010, Wong teamed with his fellow former Digg employees Courtney Guertin and their mutual friend Amadeus Demarzi to found Kiip.[13] As of 2017, Kiip was sending achievement-based rewards such as coupons to 100 million consumers per month,[14] and had raised more than $32 million of venture capital from various sources, including Relay Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, True Ventures, Verizon Ventures, and Crosslink Capital.[15] Kiip has offices in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tokyo and London.[16] The company established strategic partnerships with more than 40 major brands, including 1-800-Flowers, Amazon.com, American Apparel, Best Buy, Carl's Jr., Disney, Dr. Pepper, GNC, KY Jelly, Pepsi, Playboy, Popchips, Sephora, Victoria's Secret, and Vitamin Water.[17][18][19] Kiip was on track to do more than $20 million in revenue in 2017.[20]

In March 2019, after Wong was accused of sexual assault, Kiip replaced Wong as CEO.[21] His removal came after an indefinite leave of absence, with Kiip CRO Bill Alena serving as interim CEO in his stead.[22]

Recognitions

In 2010, Wong became one of the youngest company leaders to ever receive funding from a venture capital firm.[9][23] He was called a self-made millionaire by the time he was 20 years old.[24] By 2012 he had spoken at several popular conferences, including TEDx and South by Southwest.[25][26] Wong and Kiip were profiled in such global publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Inc. Magazine,[9][17][27][28][29] and he was on the cover of the September 2014 issue of Entrepreneur as one of the young millionaires changing the world.[30] Wong was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social/Mobile list in 2011.[31]

Publications

Wong is the author of The Cheat Code: Going Off Script to Get More, Go Faster, and Shortcut Your Way to Success, a book that is "aimed at helping young people just starting their careers".[32] It was published in September 2016.[33]

References

  1. ↑ Schiff, Allison (18 March 2019). "Kiip Brings On New Chief In Wake Of Sexual Assault Charges Against Former CEO Brian Wong". AdExchanger. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  2. ↑ "Entrepreneur Spotlight: Brian Wong". Grasshopper. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Rose, Kevin (April 2011). "Foundation 05 // Brian Wong". Foundation.
  4. 1 2 Building the World's First Mobile Rewards Network: Brian Wong, 20-Year-Old Founder of Kiip. Sramana Mitra. April 5, 2012.
  5. ↑ Newman, Kira (March 13, 2012). "20-Year-old Entrepreneur Brian Wong: 'Try to change shit up'". TechCocktail. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
  6. ↑ Van Grove, Jennifer (July 14, 2009). "Followformation: Quickly Follow Dozens of Categorized Twitter Users". Mashable.
  7. ↑ Shaw, Gillian. Entrepreneur at 18: Followformation.com founder Brian Wong Archived July 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. The Vancouver Sun. April 12, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-13. Retrieved 2012-11-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. 1 2 3 McMahan, Ty. Betting Venture Capital On An Unproven 19-Year-Old. Wall Street Journal. August 6, 2010.
  10. ↑ Newman, Kira (April 18, 2012). "Brian Wong to Young Entrepreneurs: 'Assume no one gives a shit about you'". Tech Cocktail. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
  11. 1 2 Tsotsi, Alexia. Kiip’s Brian Wong On Taking Risks As Young Entrepreneur. TechCrunch. April 12, 2011.
  12. ↑ Kim, Ryan. Kiip Pushes Real Rewards, Not Ads on Mobile Gamers. GigaOM. April 11, 2011.
  13. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia. "19 Year Old Kiip Founder Closes 300K Angel Round For Mobile In-Game Ad Startup". TechCrunch. October 27, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Game On: Lunch with Brian Wong, co-founder of online rewards platform Kiip". BCBusiness. February 27, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  15. ↑ Dickey Megan Rose. Kiip, a Mobile Rewards Startup, Raises $12 Million in Series C. TechCrunch. July 19, 2016.
  16. ↑ Grant, Rebecca. Kiip raises $11M to reward users for everyday life. VentureBeat. July 17, 2012.
  17. 1 2 Holiday, Ryan. Online Advertisings Greatest Missed Opportunity? Kiip.Me Founder Brian Wong Answers. Forbes. April 25, 2012.
  18. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia. Kiip: A Win-Win for App Developers and Advertisers. Entrepreneur. March 9, 2012.
  19. ↑ Kim, Ryan. Rewards provider Kiip grabs $11M to go after consumers. GigaOM. July 17, 2012.
  20. ↑ Clifford, Catherine (May 16, 2017). "How to find your superpower, according to a 26-year-old CEO and self-made millionaire". CNBC. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  21. ↑ Swant, Marty (2019-03-20). "Kiip Replaces CEO Brian Wong After Sexual Assault Indictment". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  22. ↑ Schiff, Allison (18 March 2019). "Kiip Brings On New Chief In Wake Of Sexual Assault Charges Against Former CEO Brian Wong". AdExchanger. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  23. ↑ Arrington, Michael. True Ventures Invests In 19 Year Old Entrepreneur Brian Wong. TechCrunch. August 3, 2010.
  24. ↑ "26-year-old self-made millionaire: This is the one thing that people don't understand about what it takes to be successful". CNBC Make It. July 10, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  25. ↑ "TEDxYouth@Castilleja - BRIAN WONG". Dec 10, 2010. YouTube.
  26. ↑ "Brian Wong - Kiip CEO & Founder at SXSW 2012". March 12, 2012. YouTube.
  27. ↑ Vega, Tanzina (December 23, 2011). "Using Prizes to Reach Video Game Players on Their Phones". The New York Times.
  28. ↑ "Brian Wong, founder of Kiip.me". Inc. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  29. ↑ Takahashi, Dean. Kiip expands beyond games to rewarding fitness “moments”. Venture Beat. March 22, 2012.
  30. ↑ Ankeny, Jason (August 20, 2014). "Young Millionaires: How These Entrepreneurs Under 30 Are Changing the World". No. September 2014.
  31. ↑ "30 Under 30: Social/Mobile". Forbes. December 19, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  32. ↑ "26-year-old CEO shares his No. 1 trick for getting noticed by the world's top companies". CNBC. June 19, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  33. ↑ "A 25-year-old CEO shares 9 career secrets every young person should know". CNBC. September 23, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
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