Brian Wong

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]

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]

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.