Victor Ho

Victor Ho (Chinese: 何 翔) is a Taiwanese-American businessman, who was the co-founder and CEO of FiveStars, a customer loyalty network for small and medium businesses.[1]

Early life and career

Ho grew up in Southern California. His parents are immigrants from Taiwan. His father is an engineer and his mother an artist, both of whom met while working at Rockwell Automation.[2]

In high school, he scored a 1600 on his SATs. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with three degrees triple-majoring in Industrial Engineering, Rhetoric, and Business Administration.

After graduating from college, Ho started his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Next, he worked as a top consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York, where he helped multiple Fortune 500 companies build and manage their loyalty and customer retention programs.[3]

Whilst at McKinsey, Ho interviewed for jobs at private equity firms. One day, while stuck at San Francisco airport from a flight delay, the idea of creating a company based on improving customer loyalty for local merchants occurred to him. He called prospective employers and told them he had changed his mind.[4] In December 2010 Ho launched FiveStars with Matt Doka, whom he knew from working at McKinsey. In July, 2011 the company launched its product, a universal customer loyalty card called FiveStars and found early success. They proceeded to raise $16 million in venture financing to grow the company. By August 2013, Five Stars employed 100 people and has in excess of a million cardholders. To date, the company has raised $105M in funding from top tier investors like HarbourVest, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, DCM, and Y-Combinator.[5]

He is Christian by faith.[6]

gollark: I don't care that much about performance, but haskell is hardly *fast*.
gollark: Ah, go and its wonders.
gollark: Well, in that case, it compiles to machine code and is slow!
gollark: What *does* it compile to?
gollark: Hmm, I seem to be mixed up, then.

References
  1. "Why FiveStars Moved From Silicon Valley to San Francisco". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  2. "Victor Ho of FiveStars: Take Management Advice From Interns". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  3. "Customer loyalty startup FiveStars pulls in $26 million in new funding". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  4. "Bringing Customer Loyalty Programs to Local Merchants". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  5. "Smart shopping startup FiveStars turned down VC money and almost died - now it's worth hundreds of millions". Business Insider. 2016-01-22. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  6. "Victor Ho, Co-founder and CEO of FiveStars Following Gods Guidance - Finding God in Silicon Valley". 21 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
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