KEVIN CHUNG
Who is he?
A business building ninja and "one of the most creative negotiators in tech"*, Kev has spent the past decade growing organizations at two iconic companies (Dropbox, Google) by delivering innovative product experiences and partnerships that have reached over 1 billion people around the world. He's been interviewed by Engadget, TechTarget, and other technology publications, and frequently advises companies across a broad spectrum of industries on developing successful business and partnership strategies.
*source: a prominent Silicon Valley exec :)
bio
Hi, I’m Kev! Born and raised in Oakland, California, Town Business is the place I'm putting down roots with my wife, son and two dachshunds. I'm often described as a laid back, but take-charge, individual that will infuse humor into any situation. These contrasting characteristics may results in me binge watching Netflix for hours on a Saturday and then suddenly jump into an intense 3-hour design session on building an ADU. I'm a person of habit, but I'll occasionally break routine to embark on a uniquely chaotic endeavor to learn something new. At the moment, I’m remaining highly optimistic about the Golden State Warriors, being enlightened through the practice of Krav Maga and Yoga, and trying to keep up with the expansive Marvel and Star Wars universes.
My grandfather William was the first-generation Chung in America by way of 重庆市 and 台北市 in 1969. One of his very first moves was opening up a Tai Chi studio in Berkeley. My dad joined him soon after, and together with my mom, they settled to run a series of neighborhood restaurants.
I was raised in a Mandarin speaking household, enjoyed home-cooked Chinese food, attended Saturday language school and watched every Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Jet Li action sequence. At the same time, my outside environment was heavily Western influenced. My parents' restaurants served mostly American food, I hung posters of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Chris Mullin on my walls, listened religiously to 2pac, enjoyed a good burger + shake and never missed going to see a Harrison Ford movie. I was your quintessential ABC.
I had a very diverse educational experience: Oakland public schools, a prestigious prep high school, community colleges and eventually UC Berkeley. After graduating, I tried a bunch of different jobs from line cook, manager at Hertz rent-a-car, running a marketing company catered to dog owners and business consultant. After a half dozen failed attempts to make into the tech scenes at companies like YouTube, Twitter, Zynga and Facebook, I finally got an offer to join Google. It was unlike any other job or company I had worked at before. The place oozed with innovation and creativity, on top of the ridiculous perks like free food, company swag, and onsite massages.
After a few years of enduring a long commute from Berkeley to Mountain View everyday, I decided to take another leap to a smaller start-up in San Francisco. Joining Dropbox was like boarding a rocketship. And I was passenger #273. The energy and excitement was inescapable. During my first week, my colleagues were flying to Barcelona on Monday for Mobile World Congress, and landing in Tahoe by Thursday for the company ski trip. While the perks rivaled and exceeded most tech companies, there was a healthy amount of paranoia and fear that Google, Microsoft or Apple could take us out at any time. Our motto was the product “just worked” and our mentality was to “just figure stuff out”.
Over the next 6 years, I witnessed the company grow 10x, expand from our San Francisco HQ to 12 offices worldwide, become a $1B+ annual revenue business, experience the excitement of an IPO, and then the roller coaster of being a public company. Best of all, I was fortunate to partner with exceptional leaders running some of the largest and most influential companies in the world.
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