CEO / cofounder of Heyday (hey.co)
Product and General Management at Zynga.
CEO of Serious Business (early social games pioneer).
Like it says on the tin. I've raised over $12M as CEO over the course of my career from VCs.
For our last round of funding, we received 8 term sheets from most of the tier 1 VCs, using an unobvious and unintuitive strategy that you haven't heard before.
Siqi is a great manager who is passionate, knowledgeable and really good at motivating people around him. He is my interviewer in Zynga, and he is one of the best and talented lead I've been worked with in my professional Career. I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from Siqi, and I'm always amazed by his comprehensive knowledge in social gaming, products, analysis and business... Siqi is a truly superstar in the team. His outstanding leadership, skills and personality has been continuously giving confidence to every team member that we can delivery great products by working with him. I really wish I can get a chance to work with Siqi again!
I am thankful that I have had the fortunate opportunity to learn from and work with the likes of a superstar like Siqi. Siqi is a man of many admirable skills and traits.
He is a patient mentor and guide. He was always happy to walk me through his methods and processes. It is safe to say that any product management skills I have today I owe to the foundation given to me by Siqi.
He is an analytical wizard. Siqi is one of only two people I've ever met that can read data like it is plugged directly into his brain. On countless occasions, Siqi would look at some seemingly unconnected data and pick out the connecting threads and develop actionable insights in a flash. It was like working with a guy who could see through the fabric that ties the world together. I swear he uses magic.
He is a visionary entrepreneur. Even to this day, years later, I remember the talks we would share on our occasional walks home from work. Siqi sees the world for what it is, but more importantly, for where it is going. He stays ahead, keenly in touch with how the business is shifting and how he needs to push it to new frontiers. He is not afraid to tackle the untested. He eats fear-paralyzed executives for lunch.
There are only a handful of people that I can say have truly changed the trajectory of my professional career. I am truly blessed that fate saw fit to cross my path with someone as awesome as Siqi Chen.
Siqi dropped into China and quickly whipped a 50-person team into shape, producing a ton of innovations, with high quality, and high morale. In addition to be a product whiz, he has amazing org/culture sensitivity and able to lead a large and diverse group across cultural gaps. Anyone who gets to invest/participate in Siqi's next venture should consider them very very lucky...
Siqi is incredibly bright, low-key and driven. An unusual but excellent combination.
He has proven chops as an entrepeneur and has shown great ability to adapt and provide value at a rapidly growing company in a very new space.
Siqi has also shown the ability to hire and develop great folks, both at his own company and at Zynga.
Easily one of the best product people I've ever worked with. A creative thinker with superb intuition (and the numbers to back it up), Siqi has the rare ability to see many moves ahead -- and has the courage take decisive action towards his vision.
He's also extraordinarily well-rounded -- he understands the nature of business relationships, product design, engineering and team management & leadership, as well as the culture of metrics -- and all at an extremely high level.
As I said, one of the best I've worked with. I can't wait to learn what he's up to next.
When I first started making Social Games, I came across a video of Siqi explaining virality, growth curves and his success with his early FB game "Friends for Sale". It helped me learn the business and gave me a leg up on other game makers who were making social games.
A year later, Zynga acquired his company, Serious Business, and I was fortunate to work with him! We worked together on Treasure Isle and then again on CityVille.
He's super smart and I enjoyed working with him. Not only was he a pro at metrics and analysis, he was one of the few people in the product group who groked game design principles. He's got great leadership skills and someone I would work with again in the future.
If you get a chance to work with him, I would say "run, don't walk".
I've had the chance to work with Siqi in Zynga China. Siqi is the critical force behind launching our first social game in Tencent platform. Siqi is one of the most outstanding young leader and talent I've worked with. He has a deep understanding in social gaming, game mechanics and all the details in how to make a successful game. He has an excellent balance between business, product and engineering, and is the type of leaders who motivate the team and simply make great things happen. He is also very pleasant to work with. I'll miss him as a colleague as well as a friend. Good luck Siqi!
Siqi is the most talented guy I've ever worked with. He built up a very effective & passionate team in Zynga Beijing studio in past year and his leadership are widely recognized by everyone who worked with him. He always setup both long-term and short-term strategy for the team very clearly and wisely. And he contributed the most important innovate ideas to improve the product dramatically. He's a great and kind person as both colleague and friend. People trust him very much and would like to talk with him about everything without concerns.
Siqi was an excellent roommate and board game player, excelling especially at the game of "Taboo." While he rarely suffered defeat, his humility and good gamesmanship in accepting the consequences are both fondly remembered and well-documented by photographic evidence.
Siqi has a huge asset to our organization. He drove us to improve our processes and practices, and consistently went above and beyond what was asked of him. His coding efforts led to a more robust and reliable architecture that live on today. He is also very passionate about technology and the "Internet" industry as a whole.
Siqi is passionate about everything he does -- and about everything you do, too. He's an excellent leader, always focused on improving himself, product, process, and those around him.
