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Comment by nickpinkston | Hacker News Reader

I got to meet Brian recently on a trip out to SF, and he's a great guy - very straight forward and self-aware. He's already done this cross-country speaking tour and been quite involved in the scene. I'll be interested to see them progress.

I feel like the only thing keeping other kids from doing this earlier is knowing that they actually can. This shit should be on MTV or Nick Network by now... ;-)

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So what is this guy's story? I always have to question young success stories like this, because so often they seem to be the result not so much of some kid in high school striking out on his own as a kid with the benefit and resources of either a wealthy family footing the initial bill to get things rolling or a connected family. The problem with some "show" about this stuff is that it would probably overlook the fact that a lot of the success stories you've heard of came not from single parent families where mom is a fry-cook and you live in a tiny apartment in the ghetto, but where mom is a successful business woman and dad works at some big technology firm that gives you all the advice and assistance you need and offers plenty of resources and connections to use for your project and get it off the ground.

I would find a story about a kid who did it all on his own against plenty of odds fascinating. A story of a kid who had an idea and went to his dad who said "let me call Jim at the office and he'll walk you through the VC process and get you off the ground"...? Not so much.

I just sat down with him once, so I've got lots of facts but no chronology:

- I think he had some personal projects that had some success - Then he was "discovered" somehow and then went on to speaking and TV - He's from Vancouver and moved to SF to work with Digg in Business Development and then got caught in their lay-offs - He then decided to raise money and start this company.

I think he comes from an upper middle class family of Hong Kong / Taiwan origin. Even if he was from a wealthy family - he's not thrown away these advantages like so many of them have. All of these stories are perfect-storms anyway - even the poorest of them use their luck, it's just harder. This ability to use luck and hustle, the mental game, is the essence of success IMHO. We need to teach our kids these things and give them access to the people that will show them the way.

Brian did it all himself. While I do not know the wealth of his parents, they have played almost no role in Kiip, other than being his cheerleaders. I have only met his father once, as his parents still live up in Canada.

I know this because I am a co-founder of Kiip.

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