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Brian Wong
Born (1991-04-14) April 14, 1991 (age 33)
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO of Kiip

Brian Wong (born April 14, 1991) is a Canadian internet entrepreneur. In 2010, Wong co-founded Kiip, a mobile app rewards platform that lets brands and companies give real-world rewards for in-game achievements.

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.[1][2] He received his high school diploma at the age of 14 after twice skipping two grades.[3] Wong received a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of British Columbia 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 for the business development of Digg, leading the development and release of the Digg Android Mobile App. He was retrenched 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 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] Currently, Kiip is active on more than 400 apps on 30 million devices, and sends 100 million moments of achievement-based rewards notices to consumers monthly through its network.[9][14][15][16][17] By mid-2012, Kiip had raised more than $15 million of venture capital from companies like Relay Ventures, Hummer Winblad, True Ventures, Verizon Ventures, CrossLink Capital, and others.[18][19][20] Kiip has offices in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tokyo and London.[21] The company has 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 Secret, Vitamin Water and others.[22][23][24]

Reception

In 2010, Wong became one of the youngest company leaders to ever receive funding from a venture capital firm.[9][25] He has spoken at several popular conferences, including TEDx and SXSW.[26][27] In addition, Wong and Kiip have been profiled in such global publications as Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Inc. Magazine.[9][22][28][29][30] Wong was on the cover of the September 2014 issue of Entrepreneur as one of the young millionaires changing the world.[31]

Awards

  • Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list at the age of 20.[32]
  • Named one of "The Top 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch" by Mashable.[33]
  • Recognized among AdAge’s Creativity Top 50 in 2011.[34][35]
  • Named to Business Insider’s Top 25 under 25 in Silicon Valley and 18 Most Important People in Mobile Advertising .[36][37]
  • One of Canada's Top 20 Under 20.[38]

References

  1. ^ Brian Wong | Sauder School of Business at UBC, Vancouver, Canada
  2. ^ Entrepreneur Spotlight: Brian Wong | |
  3. ^ a b Rose, Kevin. Foundation 05 // Brian Wong. Foundation. April 2011.
  4. ^ a b Building the World’s First Mobile Rewards Network: Brian Wong, 20-Year-Old Founder of Kiip. Sramana Mitra. April 5, 2012.
  5. ^ Newman, Kira. 20-Year-old Entrepreneur Brian Wong: “Try to change shit up”. TechCocktail. March 13, 2012.
  6. ^ Van Grove, Jennifer. Followformation: Quickly Follow Dozens of Categorized Twitter Users. Mashable. July 14, 2009.
  7. ^ Shaw, Gillian. Entrepreneur at 18: Followformation.com founder Brian Wong. The Vancouver Sun. April 12, 2010.
  8. ^ http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Alumni/~/media/4B7659214A594A42AC9A7F65CE37B5B8.ashx
  9. ^ a b c d McMahan, Ty. Betting Venture Capital On An Unproven 19-Year-Old. Wall Street Journal. August 6, 2010.
  10. ^ Newman, Kira. Brian Wong to Young Entrepreneurs: “Assume no one gives a shit about you”. Tech Cocktail. April 18, 2012.
  11. ^ a b 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. Tech Crunch’. October 27, 2010.
  14. ^ Edwards, Jim. This 21-year-old May Have Cracked the Future of Mobile Advertising. Business Insider. May 21, 2012.
  15. ^ UBC grad raises $11M to expand mobile rewards company Kiip. Vancouver Sun. July 18, 2012.
  16. ^ Roush, Wade. Kiip Keeps $4M. Xconomy. April 6, 2011.
  17. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. Kiip, The Mobile Ad Rewards Network, Rumored To Raise Another $8-10M To Conquer Games And Beyond. TechCrunch’. June 21, 2012.
  18. ^ Geron, Tomio. Kiip Raises $11 Million To Expand Real-World Rewards To Mobile Apps. Forbes. July 16, 2012.
  19. ^ Thomas, Owen. Kiip Raises $11 Million To Erase Advertisers' Frowns. Business Insider. July 17, 2012.
  20. ^ Ha, Anthony. Couldn't make the 30 million-plus changeMobile Rewards Network Kiip Raises $11M Led By Relay Ventures, Plans Its Own ‘Kiipsake’ App. TechCrunch. July 17, 2012.
  21. ^ Grant, Rebecca. Kiip raises $11M to reward users for everyday life. VentureBeat. July 17, 2012.
  22. ^ a b Holiday, Ryan. Online Advertisings Greatest Missed Opportunity? Kiip.Me Founder Brian Wong Answers. Forbes. April 25, 2012.
  23. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia. Kiip: A Win-Win for App Developers and Advertisers. Entrepreneur. March 9, 2012.
  24. ^ Kim, Ryan. Rewards provider Kiip grabs $11M to go after consumers. GigaOM. July 17, 2012.
  25. ^ Arrington, Michael. True Ventures Invests In 19 Year Old Entrepreneur Brian Wong. Tech Crunch’. August 3, 2010.
  26. ^ "TEDxYouth@Castilleja - BRIAN WONG". Dec 10, 2010. YouTube.
  27. ^ "Brian Wong - Kiip CEO & Founder at SXSW 2012". March 12, 2012. YouTube.
  28. ^ Vega, Tanzina (December 23, 2011). "Using Prizes to Reach Video Game Players on Their Phones". New York Times.
  29. ^ "Brian Wong, founder of Kiip.me". Inc. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  30. ^ Takahashi, Dean. Kiip expands beyond games to rewarding fitness “moments”. Venture Beat. March 22, 2012.
  31. ^ Ankeny, Jason (August 20, 2014). "Young Millionaires: How These Entrepreneurs Under 30 Are Changing the World". No. September 2014.
  32. ^ Woyke, Elizabeth. Forbes 30 Under 30. Forbes. December 19, 2011.
  33. ^ Par, Ben. 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch. Mashable. November 26, 2010.
  34. ^ Patel, Kunur. The Creativity 50 2011. AdvertisingAge. June 05, 2011.
  35. ^ Patel, Kunur. Creativivty 50 2011: Brian Wong. CreativityOnline. June 05, 2011.
  36. ^ Dickinson, Boonsri. The 25 Hot Silicon Valley Startups You Need to Watch. BusinessInsider. March 28, 2012.
  37. ^ Meet The 18 Most Important People In Mobile Advertising. Business Insider.
  38. ^ Canada's Top 20 Under 20. Digital Journal.

Articles

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