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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20 VC FF 018: Brian Wong, Founder @ Kiip on Raising $30m in VC Funding by 24

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2015

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joining us in the hotseat today is a young man who is insanely smart, he skipped 4 grades in school and graduated University at just 17, at which point he moved to the states on his own and within months was working alongside tech legends Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson at Digg. However, it was not long before he started his own company Kiip, a category-creating mobile rewards network that is redefining mobile advertising through an innovative platform that leverages "moments of achievement" in games and apps to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers. If you have not guessed it by now, shame on you, it is of course, the incredible Brian Wong, one of the youngest people to ever raise VC funding receiving investment from the likes of Hummer Winblad, previous guest at Transmedia Capital Chris Redlitz (Episode 26), True Ventures and many more.

For the chance to win Brad Feld’s amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do is head on over to ProductHunt’s new podcast section and upvote this episode of The Twenty Minute VC if you enjoyed it, by clicking here!

A huge thank you to our sponsors for today's show, LawTrades, the marketplace that connects startups & VCs to awesome attorneys to get their legal work done at the best price!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Brian start his career? What is the Brain Wong origin snapshot?

2.) What was it about Fred Wilson that made Brian most wanting to talk to him above all other VCs when he made the move to NY?

3.) What was it like working with amazing founders like Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson? What were Brian's biggest takeaways from the experience?

4.) As a 19 year old, how difficult was it raising capital for your startup? Has it become harder raising further rounds from seed to series A to growth rounds?

5.) How have Brian's board of directors helped or hindered along the Kiip journey? How do experienced executives respond to working with such a young CEO and does age make it difficult to retain top talent?

6.) With the evolution of technology and progression of time, how are Kiip addressing the growing competitive market and how are you navigating Kiip into new social media channels?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Brian's Fave Book: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Brian Fave Blog: Inside.com by Jason Calacanis

Brian's Fave Productivity Tool: Evernote, Box

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brian on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings.

0:03.5

Now, today is one of the most exciting pre-interview introductions, probably that I've ever done,

0:09.5

as I'm welcoming a guest that I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for as a fellow young entrepreneur.

0:15.9

Joining us in the hot seat today is a young man who is insanely smart.

0:20.3

He skipped four grades in school and graduated university

0:23.6

at just 18, at which point he moved to the States on his own and within months was working

0:29.6

alongside tech legends Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson at Dig, where he launched their Android mobile app.

0:35.6

However, it was not long before he started his own company, Keep,

0:39.4

a category creating mobile rewards network that is redefining mobile advertising

0:44.2

through an innovative platform that leverages moments of achievement in games and apps

0:49.3

to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers.

0:53.4

If you have not guessed it by now, shame on you.

0:56.2

It is, of course, the incredible Brian Wong. Brian is probably one of the youngest people ever to raise

1:02.0

VC funding, receiving investment from the likes of Hummer Wimbled, previous guest at Transmedia

1:07.4

Capital, Chris Redlitz, who was episode 26, and True Ventures, and many, many more.

1:12.9

And I'd like to say a huge thank you to Paige Craig, one of Brian's investors, for introducing

1:18.1

us to Brian today. Without his intro, this interview could not have happened. But before we delve

1:23.2

into the show today, I would love to talk about law trades. They help startups and VCs get their

1:28.9

legal work done through providing a marketplace of really awesome attorneys with strong domain

1:34.6

experience with startups. And when I say startups, I don't mean any startups. These are startups

1:40.4

from top accelerators like YC, tech stars, 500 startups, and startups can use it for

1:47.7

anything ranging from incorporation, to protecting your IP, to all of the fundraising process.

...

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