Victor Koo
The Power of Contemplative Practices: A Tech Entrepreneur's Journey of Scaling Inwards
Victor Koo is a familiar face in China’s tech industry. In the 90s, he was president of Sohu, China’s second-largest search engine. Subsequently, he founded YouKu, China’s largest online video platform with 500 million monthly users (commonly called the "YouTube of China" and later sold to Alibaba).
Surprisingly, his journey of scaling began to turn inwards at a tech conference in Sun Valley in 2016, when a networking conversation with a young entrepreneur soon turned towards meditation. Upon hearing that Victor had always wanted to try it, the young entrepreneur let go of the opportunity to network with others, instead guiding Victor to an hour-long meditation.
That was the first hour of meditation in Victor’s life, a seed that he continues to cultivate through a daily practice now spanning several years. That and other experiences along his meditation journey, also decidedly altered the course of Victor's work in the world, shifting it towards inner-purpose-driven service and investing. He founded Tianren Culture, a social platform in China that aims to encourage and enable contemplative practices and healthy lifestyles – especially those with roots in spiritual and natural wisdom and non-dualistic philosophies. He continues to serve as Chairman of Heyi (company that incubated Youku) with it's focus now on disruptive innovation and social impact investments in areas such as health, genome, and new protein.
Read Full Bio »
