Brian Wong | |
|---|---|
 Brian Wong c. 2012 | |
| Born | 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]
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]
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] [ needs update ]
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]
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]
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]
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Kiip was a mobile advertising network. It was co-founded by Brian Wong, Courtney Guertin, and Amadeus Demarzi in 2010. Instead of digital rewards, Kiip provided consumers with tangible rewards, like a bottle of water for every eight miles run by a user. Kiip's rewards platforms was designed for in-app engagement.
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