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Brian Wong

Brian Wong
Brian Wong c. 2012
Born	(1991-04-14) April 14, 1991 (age 33)
Occupation(s)	Founder and former CEO of Kiip
Brian Wong introducing himself recorded April 2015

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[edit]

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[edit]

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]

Recognitions[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brian Wong.

• Kiip press page with profile of Wong
• "Why Kiip thinks wearables could supercharge virtual achievements advertising", Hot Topics, 2014
• Duncan, Katherine (August 20, 2014). "Turning time into currency at age 23". Entrepreneur. Retrieved August 19, 2021.