Ken Zi Wang

Ken Zi Wang

Programming since 12, computer science major, Masters and Doctorate at Columbia, started ecommerce business at 18 (yearly revenue 100k) and sold, ran a social news startup (buzzreport) and exited.

Website: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=131576934&trk=tab_pro
Palo Alto, California, United States
Member since August 21, 2012
Quote
Hacker, entrepreneur, lover of building things that matter Quote_down
  • About
Education
Columbia University in the city of New York
I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to change the world.

My favorite startups:

Quora, Github, Facebook

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Most frustrating: working with larger, slower corporations which in turn slow you down

Most rewarding: working with the best of the best, the people that understand you and work 80 hour week with you to achieve the same vision

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Giving up too early, along with not listening / listening too much to others' feedbacks

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

1. Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself. This requires you to know yourself's strength and weakness
2. Be optimistic but at the same time rational, be humble enough to let others say what they think of your product
3. Stay focused and build things. Don't start getting to the market too early yet not too late.

Full bio

Programming since 12, computer science undergrad major, Masters and Doctorate at Columbia, started profitable ecommerce business at 18 (yearly revenue 100k) and successfully existed, built a course file sharing site for students in grad school, served as president/VP of four student organizations, ran startups in social news (buzzreport) and social visualization (fanbulous). Passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, lifelong learning, traveling and sports. Role in the company includes architecting the product, bridging the technical and business ends, as well as managing the team.