Tien Tzuo (born 1968) is a Taiwanese-American tech entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Zuora, and prior to that was chief strategy officer of Salesforce.
Early life and education
Tzuo was born in Taiwan, and when he was 3 years old his family moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.[2][3] His parents were psychology professors, and his father also worked as an importer-exporter and in real estate.[2]
Tzuo graduated from Hunter College High School in 1986, earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Cornell University, worked at Oracle Corporation in Manhattan for six years, and then earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Stanford University Graduate School Of Business.[4][5]
Salesforce
He worked for about a year at enterprise software company CrossWorlds.[5] In 1999, he was hired at cloud computing company Salesforce as its eleventh employee. He worked there for nine years and would become Salesforce's first chief marketing officer and then chief strategy officer.[6][7][8]
Zuora
In 2007, Tzuo left Salesforce to launch Zuora as its founding CEO.[5][6] The California-based enterprise software company creates and provides subscription management software to help other companies with their subscription-based services.[7][9][10] Within a few weeks of its initial public offering on April 12, 2018, Zuora was valued at over $2 billion, and Tzuo's 10% stake in the company was worth an estimated $193 million.[11][9]
Tzuo's book Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It, written with Gabe Weiser t, was published by Portfolio on June 5, 2018.[12]
References
- Tien Tzuo. Subscribed : why the subscription model will be your company's future - and what to do about it Penguin, 5 June 2018, retrieved 28 November 2018^
- Adam Bryant. Tien Tzuo of Zuora: 'Don't Expect Me to Manage You' New York Times, 6 January 2017, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Amy Feldman. Zuora's Tien Tzuo Had A Big Idea For Software To Drive The Subscription Economy -- He Almost Blew It Forbes, 4 November 2015, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Chanelle Bessette. 10 Questions: Tien Tzuo, founder and CEO, Zuora Fortune, 10 June 2014, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Bruce Rogers. Tien Tzuo's Zuora Set To Capitalize On Subscription Economy It Helped Build Forbes, 23 August 2016, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Eugene Kim. 11 super successful tech leaders who struggled when they first arrived in America Business Insider, 17 April 2015, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Deborah Gage. Zuora Raises $115 Million to Fuel Subscription Economy Wall Street Journal, 11 March 2015, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Ron Miller. Zuora Orders aims to drive subscription renewals and expansion TechCrunch, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Serena Lin. CEO of billion-dollar Zuora reveals a key management lesson he learned the hard way CNBC, 30 April 2018, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Divina Paredes. Doing business with Tien Tzuo of Zuora: CMO to CEO CIO, 3 August 2015, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Julie Bort. Zuora soars in its IPO, and the founder's stake is worth nearly $200 million — 5 years after the company hit rocky times Business Insider, 12 April 2018, retrieved 16 November 2018^
- Philip Delves Broughton. 'Subscribed' Review: For a Flat Monthly Fee Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2018, retrieved 16 November 2018^