Brian Wong of Kiip.Me: .Me’s Unofficial Wunderkind Is Speaking at WebFest.Me
Brian Wong of Kiip is no ordinary 21-year-old. As the founder and CEO of Kiip.Me, he has raised over $4.4 million in funding from Hummer Winblad and True Ventures, followed by $11 million in a second round, led by Canadian VC Relay Ventures. It comes as no surprise that he is said to be redefining the advertising industry.
Impressed? Well, you’re in for a double treat: Brian will be a keynote speaker at this year’s WebFest.ME conference, which will be held in Budva, Montenegro on September 20 and 21. We had the pleasure of talking to Brian beforehand, and give you an exclusive interview with this impressive young entrepreneur.
Read the excerpts below, and watch the YouTube clip for complete audio:
Brian, after all you’ve done, what would you say is your biggest accomplishment and where would being one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 rank on that list?
[laughs] I think lists are lists, execution is everything and I think we’ve done a great job just bringing this concept to reality. One of our biggest accomplishments is definitely thinking through this thing that was a figment of our imagination, which was “what if we could reward everyday lives and bring big brands into existing games”? I think the other big accomplishment that we made is really building something that has redefined how a very traditional industry, which is advertising, thinks about the flow of reaching someone in the first place.
Do you think the investors got sold on that idea of Kiip, or do you think it was more your larger than life personality, which I’m sure that everyone that ever met you can attest to?
I think with every company, as it grows and the different stages that it goes through, there’s different levels of importance attached to both of those things you just mentioned. At the beginning, I’ve noticed, with every early stage of an investor that’s even remotely good, your philosophy is always to invest in people – some of them say that ideas fail but people don’t. […] Now, of course, once it’s a fully operational running company, you have different skill sets that are very much important, and I think it all comes from the team and people you assemble around the idea.
So speaking of your team, what’s your team like at Kiip and how did you chose them – did you pick them out or did they end up coming to you, how did that go?
In early days of our company, it was all from referrals and people who knew someone who heard about our team and we got to meet them, and it was a very organic and gradual process. I think over time, there was a need to be a lot more formal in the hiring process and have a lot more structure to ensure that the way you’re growing your team is in the best way possible.
I remember the story that you told me of your early years, was it at Digg, where they had your picture on the fridge that said “Do not serve him alcohol, he’s not of age”. What would you say are some of the biggest advantages and disadvantages of being so young in the business, and are there any similar anecdotes to the beer one?
I think you will have naturally a lot of advantages that are skewed even more so in your favor when you’re in an area of the world like Silicon Valley, where it’s accepted and expected in many ways that really crazy, audacious entrepreneurs are younger. And I think the age has allowed me to be considerably underestimated by a lot of people, but at the same time, have the ability to have an excuse to be, in some ways, reckless. You kind of have this license to be incredibly audacious, which is a huge advantage. Another thing you’re also able to do when you’re younger is that you have this license to constantly learn. Most of the time, when you’re younger, you’re allowed to ask a lot of questions, you’re allowed to be nosy, you’re allowed to get into people’s faces.
The disadvantages can honestly be turned into your advantages. […] And if someone can’t take you seriously because of how you look, [that person] isn’t someone I want to do business with, because if they are going to continue to judge me because of something that is completely and entirely unrelated to my merit, then that’s a warning sign in and of itself.
We’ve all seen your interview with Kevin Rose, and a question I’ve gotten from everyone was where do you get that confidence from?
The pressure is usually externally laid on, and I like to think that I’m still right in the beginning stages of everything. Confidence is important because, in the way that I have conceived and built this company, people need to know that we have resolve and passion, so it’s very important. Where I learned this from, I think, is because I had to speak out for myself most of my life, and I was younger in most situations I was in – I skipped 4 grades in elementary school and high school together, and I was always with people who were older than me. So I think it was almost like a defense complex.
But to answer your question of whether or not I can come up with another equally great idea, I don’t think it’s about good ideas or whether or not you can hit it out of the park again, if you’re able to take all the lessons you’ve managed to learn and apply them the second time around, you’re succeeding. […] If there’s anything we’ve learned as an industry, it’s that the ideas are a dime a dozen, and it’s really about how you build them and who’s around them that’s difficult to replace.
To finish off, where do you see yourself in 10 years, do you see yourself as a serial entrepreneur or dedicated to that one idea? What do you think is the future of Kiip?
I’m building Kiip to be an incredibly long term company, so who knows where I’ll be in 10 years. But I think that Kiip will always be, at least for now, how I see the growth and how this concept can apply to every walk of life and almost every industry, is that we’ve seen that potential.
The video of Brian:
[youtube width=”425″ height=”416″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EB4BQDIfwY[/youtube]
Needless to say, we love the fact that Brian has chosen .ME for both his company’s website (kiip.me) and his personal page (brianwong.me). We’re also excited to see what he has in store for us in the future, and how Kiip will be changing the way we think about both gaming, and advertising. Join us at WebFest.ME and hear Brian live!
