Linus Liang

Linus Liang is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help the 20 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer.[1] Liang also co-founded CLZ Concepts[2] and was an early employee of Zynga.

Linus Liang
Born
Berkeley, California
Alma materUC Berkeley (BA)
Stanford University (MS)
OccupationCo-founder at Embrace
Websitewww.linusliang.com

Previously, Liang served as the Chief Operations Officer of Embrace Innovations, which has a mission to design and bring to market healthcare technologies for the developing world, starting with the infant warmer. The Embrace infant warmer costs about 1% of a traditional incubator,[3] and is currently being distributed across clinics in India, with pilots being conducted in 10 countries. The Embrace infant warmer is estimated to have helped over 50,000 babies to date.

Liang also served as the first Chief Operations Officer of Embrace, the non-profit arm of the organization, before stepping into the COO role for Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise that was spun off in 2012.[4]

Early life and education

Liang was born in Berkeley, California and raised in Saratoga, California. He attended Saratoga High School and graduated in 1999.

Liang holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer science (CS) from the University of California, Berkeley, where he transferred after first having attended De Anza College. He worked at Microsoft as a Program Manager for two years, and then attended Stanford University to further his CS studies, earning a Master of Science degree.[5]

Career

CLZ Concepts

In 2007, Liang dropped out of Stanford to start a Facebook Application game company called CLZ Concepts with two fellow students.[6] The games grew to having over 20 million users and CLZ Concepts was acquired shortly afterwards by Zynga.[7]

Embrace

Later, while finishing his degree at Stanford, Liang and a few other fellow graduate students were assigned a class project to create a low-cost infant incubator that could be used in rural areas.[1][8][9] In 2008, they co-founded Embrace, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to bring their project to life.[10][11] In January 2012, Embrace moved into a hybrid structure.[12] The non-profit entity, Embrace, donates infant warmers to the neediest areas through NGO partners, and provides educational programs on newborn health alongside the distribution of warmers. The for-profit social enterprise, Embrace Innovations, sells the warmers to paying entities, including governments and private clinics, all focusing on emerging markets. Embrace believes that this type of "hybrid" structure allows it to most effectively achieve its mission: to supply its infant warmers to every baby in need.[13] Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise, raised its Series A round of financing in 2012 from Vinod Khosla's Impact Fund and Capricorn Investment Group.

Embrace Innovations' vision is to develop a line of disruptive healthcare technologies to reduce infant mortality in developing countries.

In 2013, Liang and the other co-founders of Embrace, Jane Chen, Nag Murty, and Rahul Panicker were awarded the prestigious Economist Innovation Award, under the category of Social and Economic Innovation.[14] In the same year, the organization was also recognized as Schwab Social Entrepreneurs of the Year by the World Economic Forum.[15]

References
  1. Abrar, Peerzada (20 July 2012). "Lessons from 50 startups: Stanford grads' Embrace Innovations build low-cost warmer to save young Indian lives". The Economic Times. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  2. Gonzalez, Nick (25 July 2008). "OpenThread: First OpenSocial Developer Event by SocialMedia.com". OpenSocial API Blog. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  3. Bagchi, Shrabonti (19 September 2011). "Saving little Lives". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-13. Retrieved 2014-03-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Lee, Ellen (12 November 2010). "Embrace may keep babies warm - and alive". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  6. "Sit Down With CLZ Concepts (Bought By Zynga)". SocialMedia Blog. 10 June 2008. Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  7. Schonfeld, Erick (14 February 2008). "Game On: Zynga and SGN Battle For Social Gaming Developers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  8. Lee, Ellen (12 November 2010). "Embrace may keep babies warm and alive". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  9. Sibley, Lisa (17 April 2008). "Stanford startup's $25 'sleeping bag' could save newborns". Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  10. Dooley, Sean (17 December 2010). "Embrace Infant Warmer Could Save Thousands". ABC News. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  11. "Saving Babies" (Flash). CNN. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  12. Chen, Jane. "Should Your Business Be Nonprofit or For-Profit?". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  13. Abudheen, Sainul K. "Infant warmers maker Embrace raises funding from Khosla Impact, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, others". VCCircle. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  14. "Innovation awards: And the winners are…". The Economist. 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2014-04-14.
  15. "Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Announces Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2013 | World Economic Forum - Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Announces Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2013". Weforum.org. 2013-02-15. Archived from the original on 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-04-14.
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