Nationality Chinese Canadian Role Serial entrepreneur | Name Michael Cheng Occupation Entrepreneur Residence Vancouver, Canada | |
 | ||
Alma mater Simon Fraser University | ||
Education Simon Fraser University | ||
Michael Cheng is a Canadian entrepreneur. Cheng co-founded Sniply, Beta Collective, Covr, Needle HR, WittyCookie, TEDxSFU, and 12 other ventures.
Contents
Early life and education
Cheng was born an only child in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia at the age of 7. While in high school Cheng started a business called Auto Quick Trade. Cheng studied Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and was "offered a lecturer’s position, teaching digital design" during his freshman year.
Career
In 2009, Cheng co-founded International Student Connection, an international student agency that was named "Best New Student Business of the Year".
In 2011, Cheng launched TEDxSFU, an annual TEDx event at Simon Fraser University which featured John Furlong (CEO), Jim Chu and Ryan Holmes. The event was named "one of the greatest TEDx events of 2012” at TEDActive 2013 in Long Beach, California. That year, Cheng also co-founded WittyCookie which offers website creation and maintenance to small businesses. As of 2013, WittyCookie employed 40 people and serviced more than 600 clients.
In 2012, Cheng was selected by the Surrey Board of Trade as one of the "Top 25 Under 25" entrepreneurs. He was also given the "SFU Entrepreneur of the Year" award and the "Surrey Business Excellence Award".
In 2013, Cheng co-founded Needle HR, an Internet marketplace for web designers and other creative services. The company featured 120,000 designers and 2,500,000 design projects. Cheng received "The Satchu Prize" and "Outstanding Venture Award" from educational organization, The Next 36 and spoke at Canada’s First Thiel Fellowship Event in Toronto. That year Cheng received the "Coast Capital Venture Prize" from Venture Connection and was selected by Maclean's Magazine as one of the "Future Leaders of Canada". He was also selected by 24 Hours (newspaper) as one of "Top 24 Under 24".
In 2014, Cheng co-founded Covr, a music discovery platform, and was selected by BCBusiness as one of "Top 30 Under 30". That year, Cheng also co-founded Sniply, an online marketing tool, as well as Beta Collective, the first Coworking space in Surrey, British Columbia.