025: Kik – The Billion-Dollar Crypto Unicorn with Ted Livingston

Ted Livingston is the CEO and Founder of Kik Interactive – creators of Kik – a messaging app that connects the world through chat.

After working at Blackberry, his boss encouraged him to start his own company, which he did in 2009.

That company (Kik) has since grown to 15 million monthly users, a  billion-dollar valuation, $120 million dollars in venture funding, and an uber-successful $100 million-dollar ICO.

In this episode, Ted and I discuss:

• His journey from Blackberry, to Kik, to Kin – which is the new cryptocurrency that powers the Kik messaging platform
• How back in 2010 Kik went from 0 to 1 million users in only 15 days
• The power of incentives in a decentralized network –and–
• Why Ted believes Bitcoin is fundamentally flawed, and how Kin addresses those flaws, to the point of maybe one day replacing Bitcoin as the world's top cryptocurrency