Simon Tian

Simon Tian (born February 24, 1994) is a Canadian businessman, inventor, entrepreneur and investor.[1][2] He is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Neptune,[3][4] co-founder and CEO of Fonus,[5] and co-founder of Globle. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Tian dropped out of pre-university college at the age of 17 to start Neptune,[6] and, as of late 2017, has raised around $7 million from private investors as well as a total of more than $2 million from crowdfunding sources alone.[7][8] Tian is a 2015 Thiel Fellow, having been awarded $100,000 by PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel through the Thiel Foundation,[9][10][11][12] and was named one of the top 30 Quebecers under 30 by Les Affaires in 2014.[13]

Simon Tian
Tian as a guest speaker at the Wearable Technology Show in London, 2014
Born (1994-02-24) February 24, 1994
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Alma materMarianopolis College (attended)
OccupationCEO of Fonus, Neptune, and Globle
Net worth$58 million (March 2020)
Awards

Early life

Tian was born to Chinese Canadian parents in Montreal, Quebec, in 1994. He was raised in Brossard, Quebec,[3] a suburb of Montreal, and attended secondary school at Jean de la Mennais College, a French-speaking school in La Prairie, Quebec.[14] Tian is fluent in English, French, and Mandarin. Tian is also a classically-trained pianist, having won first place in piano performance at the Canadian Music Competition in 2008 at age 13.[15]

Career

Tian started Neptune, a wearable technology company, in January 2013, while he was 17 and still studying at Marianopolis College, in Westmount, Quebec. Before building a prototype or incorporating the company, Tian posted some conceptual drawings of a smartwatch, the Neptune Pine, on the internet and issued a press release announcing the product's launch. He received more than 20,000 orders for the device in a few weeks.[16] Following the interest in his conceptual drawings, Tian dropped out of school and travelled to China to meet with manufacturers to have the device developed. In November 2013, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the product's development.[16][17] Within 27 hours, the campaign surpassed its funding goal of $100,000, and went on to raise more than $800,000 in 30 days.[18]

The Pine was prominently featured in the 2017 film The Fate of the Furious, the CBS TV series Extant produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Halle Berry, as well as the music video for the song Smartphones by Trey Songz. The device received mixed reviews from the press, with many criticizing its large size and functionality.[19][20][21]

In November 2015, Tian was invited by the Mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre to attend the 2015 Montreal Trade Mission to China as one of the city's representatives.[22]

In November of 2019, Tian announced the launch of Fonus.[23] Fonus claims to be a global mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), offering data and phone service through the standard GSM network for a fixed fee.[24]

Controversies

Tian raised US$1.15 million dollars for the Neptune Suite (a suite of products including a smart watch and tablet) in 2015, estimating the products would be ready for shipping in April 2016.[25] However, by December 2019, Tian still had not shipped the product to the company's backers, leading ZDNet to claim the company had "jilted" backers.[26] Tian claims that the project ultimately needed more money in order to be realized, and that the money he had raised was not sufficient to complete development of the product.[27]

More recently, the legitimacy of Tian's latest project, Fonus, has also been called into question. After a Canadian entrepreneur and software developer, Darryl Wright, expressed doubts about his purchase of the Fonus SIM card and requested a refund, Tian declined, stating "Nah, you're not getting it. [...]", writing several profane statements to the customer.[28] In December 2019, it was reported that Fonus had misled its customers about a business relationship with Telus, a leading telecommunications provider in Canada. Telus issued a statement saying they had "no known relationship" with the company and that they had requested Fonus to remove their name from the Fonus website.[29]

On January 21, 2020, Tian tweeted to media outlets National Post, MobileSyrup, and iPhoneinCanada saying, "If you guys keep painting us [Fonus] in bad light, especially after we've shown proof of our service working, I will bring all of you to court. All three (3) of you. One (1) more negative article and that's it. I'm calling it."[30]

References
  1. Bogart, Nicole. "Canadian entrepreneur wants to replace your smartphone with smartwatch 'hub'". Global News.
  2. "Neptune's Duo will put your whole world on your wrist". VentureBeat.
  3. "Once you have this smartwatch, you may throw out your smartphone". CBC.
  4. "This 19-year-old Montreal teen has raised over $200,000 on Kickstarter for his Neptune Pine smartwatch". Financial Post.
  5. "Fonus claims to be the world's first global carrier". MobileSyrup. 2019-11-21. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  6. "How a Canadian whiz kid plans to upend the smartphone market". Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  7. Alois, J. D. (2013-12-22). "Neptune Pine SmartWatch Crowdfunds Over $800,000 on Kickstarter". Crowdfund Insider. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  8. Czikk, Joseph (2015-05-28). "Neptune Pine's story a testament to 'just do it' mentality". Montreal in Technology. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  9. "Billionaire Peter Thiel is giving these 20 kids $100,000 to drop out of college and start companies". Business Insider.
  10. "Montreal whiz kid to be paid $100,000 to quit school". CTV Montreal.
  11. "$100K to drop out of school: 4 Canadian students win fellowship". CBC.
  12. "Four young Canadians ditch school for $100K fellowships | Toronto Star". Toronto Star.
  13. "Top 30 des jeunes de 30 ans et moins en TI". www.lesaffaires.com (in French). Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  14. "Eventful: EWeek Keynote Speaker: Fireside Chat with Simon Tian, Founder of Neptune". Eventful. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  15. "Canadian Music Competition 2008 / Results / Detailed Results / Piano - Canadian Music Competition". www.cmcnational.com. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  16. "How a Canadian whiz kid plans to upend the smartphone market". The Globe and Mail.
  17. "Teen Dropout Gets $200,000 In Crowdfunding For This Invention". The Huffington Post.
  18. "Neptune Pine SmartWatch Crowdfunds Over $800,000 on Kickstarter". Crowdfund Insider. 2013-12-22.
  19. "Yes, we really had to wear this in public to review it for you". Digital Trends.
  20. Aguilar, Mario. "The Joy and Misery of Life With a Grotesquely Large "Smartwatch"". Gizmodo.
  21. "Behold: a wristband that replaces your phone with a dumber phone". Engadget. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  22. "Liste des Participants à la Mission Chine" (PDF). Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. October 2015.
  23. "The World's First Global Carrier | Fonus". The World's First Global Carrier | Fonus. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  24. "Introducing Fonus - The World's First Global Carrier". PRWeb.
  25. "Neptune Suite - One Hub, Infinite Possibilities". Indiegogo.
  26. Rubin, Ross (2019-02-07). "Crowdfunding projects that left backers jilted at the altar". ZDNet.
  27. "Eine Million US$ kam für diesen Computer der Zukunft zusammen – weshalb es ihn trotzdem nie geben wird". Aargauer Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  28. Wright, Darryl (2019-11-30). "My Exchange with the "CEO" of Fonus Inc". Medium. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  29. Ng, Gary. "Telus Says It Has "No Known Relationship with Fonus". iPhone in Canada.
  30. "Simon Tian (@_SimonTian) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
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