Perry Chen
Perry Chen (born July 15, 1976, in New York City) is an American entrepreneur best known as the principal founder of Kickstarter, the online crowdfunding platform for creative projects. He conceived Kickstarter in 2001 and launched it in 2009 with co-founders Charles Adler and Yancey Strickler.
Chen grew up on Roosevelt Island and attended Hunter College High School in New York and Tulane University in New Orleans. He co-founded the Southfirst gallery in Brooklyn in 2001 and has held various fellowships and roles, including TED Fellow (2010), a residency at Laboratorio para la Ciudad in Mexico City (2014), and a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab (2016). In 2017 he joined the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and American Democracy.
Time magazine named him a Pioneer on its 2013 Time 100 list. He stepped down as Kickstarter's CEO in 2014, passing the role to co-founder Yancey Strickler, and returned as CEO in 2017, serving until March 2019; he continues as chairman of Kickstarter's board. In December 2014 he exhibited "Computers in Crisis" at the New Museum’s First Look program, which included the Y2K+15 event at the museum.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:04 (CET).