Though, many individuals venture into entrepreneurship, only a few make it to the top. Diane Keng is one such leader who is aspiring millions of entrepreneurs.
“Since, I was in high school, I always knew I would pursue my own company.”
Diane Keng ventured into entrepreneurship at an early age. By the time she was 18, Diane had already launched multiple businesses. She also was the state president for a national marketing organization that encourages innovation.
After graduating, Diane joined Apple as one of the youngest software engineers and then went on to lead the e-commerce team at Symantec. With the support of great mentors and her parents, Diane was confident to take risks and fight for positive changes in the world. Today, she is the Co-founder and CEO of one of the most disrupting tech enterprises—Breinify.
Plug and Play AI Platform
Breinify is an AI-driven plug-and-play personalization engine that predicts and acts on individuals dynamic interests. The platform cleverly combines data science and traditional machine learning techniques with a complex temporal foundation to empower brands to create powerful digital experiences in real-time for their consumers.
In 2021, Diane successfully raised a total of $11M in seed funding led by Gutbrain Ventures & PBJ Capital, with participation from Streamlined Ventures, CXO Fund, Startup Capital Ventures, Amino Capital, and Sterling Road. Furthermore, after the product launch, Diane and her team signed big retail customers like BevMo! as well as other global consumer goods conglomerates. The key distinguisher of Breinify is its proven approach to context-based individualized predictions. These predictions generate 51% year over year in online sales for retailers and 20x more for global consumer goods brands — though consumer enterprises are just the beginning for this innovative AI Company.
“Breinify is the highlight of my career so far. It encapsulates so many emotions for me and it has really shaped me as the leader I am today,” says Diane.
Learning is Essential
Diane’s leadership has evolved with time. From her early days at startups to working with renowned tech giants and now Breinify, these experiences have reshaped her leadership skills. She has gained momentum as an entrepreneur and knows how to adapt and prioritize. At Breinify she has experienced both the most challenges and successes. This allowed her to develop a personal relationship with each team member, to have a deep understanding of the work and to oversee the operations of a larger team where she managed everyone directly to the same degree.
As a leader, it is important to maintain the balance of being an advisory when needed and also trust the team to resolve the challenges independently. Not many can succeed at doing this. Over the years, Diane had to learn how to balance going deep with stepping back and trusting others to execute. She adds, “Learning to give this trust is essential.” Diane continues to be successful in building an ambitious and fast-paced team at Breinify.
Building the Camaraderie
Diane’s share of roles and responsibilities expand across departments. She focuses on market strategy, hiring astonishing Breiniacs, executing to drive revenue, and also financing. Diane stresses that the vital part of any organization is its people and it is important to hire and retain top talent. She adds, “One of the best features of Breinify is that we have a really diverse group of employees that are talented and driven.”
Like many companies, 2020 began with an in-person office environment. The team had achieved a closeness and camraderie with one another that translated into collaboration and shared knowledge. With the pandemic, Breinify’s culture had to adapt and tackle the shift to remote working.
Breinify is currently fully remote and many new protocols have been implemented for the team to work together, help each other and deepen relationships with each other as well as customers. “But also for new employees that join, we are focusing on building the camaraderie. It really becomes a game of balancing time and work to build our teams,” expressed Diane.
Welcoming AI Solutions
Diane is hopeful as vaccinations start to roll out as she and the team continues to level and promote an inspiring work culture.
With the pandemic, the importance of personalization for companies has been exposed and is becoming increasingly essential. From a market standpoint, Diane has observed that marketing budgets are leaning towards intelligent AI solutions. Acknowledging this trend, Breinify is building on its initial success and expanding quickly. Diane is laser-focused on democratizing data science. She believes strongly in equipping organizations with predictive capabilities that have the power to transform consumer experiences and business results.
Vital Advice
Quoting Darwin, Diane says, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
She concludes, “For me personally, I believe the best way to move the needle on democratizing data science through predictive personalization is to understand customers’ pain points and combine this with a powerful, scalable technology platform. The intersect of achieving these 2 things is what will drive transformation.”
Read full issue: The 10 Prominent CEO Leaders 2021
