Brian Wong on how a teenager raises VC funds

Faith Merino · January 29, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1674

He's the youngest CEO ever to raise venture capital, and in this interview, Brian Wong explains how

He skipped four grades as a child, graduated college at the age of 18, and became the youngest CEO ever to raise venture capital. How did he do it?  Brian Wong sums it up succinctly: He's Asian. He references the recent WSJ article by Amy Chua, "Why Chinese mothers are superior," by way of explanation as to how one should go about trying to create a child prodigy. 

Canadian-born Wong actually started designing when he was eleven and was off like a rocket from there, skipping grades and graduating early, but he noted that his parents didn't want him to, fearing for his emotional and social health. But when I grilled him on what his parents did to make him the young phenomenon he became, he revealed that there is no patented, top secret recipe--just love and a solid home life. 

Curiously, we got onto the topic of growing up and leaving home and Brian mentioned that in Singapore, where he spent six months on an exchange trip, it's common for people to live with their parents until they're thirty (ugh), which opened his eyes to the strangeness of his own situation. But eventually, he left home for the simple fact that he needed to be where his talents would be best served, so he left Canada and moved to sunny California. 

His age, he believes, was less of a hindrance than an enabler. The business community is taking greater notice of young people and he believes that that helped him along his path to Kiip. These days, he doesn't have any one entrepreneurial role model, but believes that different paths work for different people.

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Kiip

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Kiip lets premium brands provide rewards to casual mobile gamers for in-game achievements. Their platform is designed for in-game engagement via a universal game moment: the achievement moment. Catch the user while they are the most engaged, happy, and attentive. They're the first solution to help premium brands reach the exploding casual mobile gaming market using real estate in meaningful moments. Currently the network reaches just over 20 million smartphone players worldwide.

A bit more here: http://bit.ly/kiipwelcome

 

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Brian Wong

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