Rich Tong has spent three decades at the forefront of every major tech wave, from the PC revolution to mobile, cloud, and now AI, helping shape how billions live and work.

At Microsoft, Rich helped turn Excel from a scrappy underdog into a global powerhouse and later steered flagship products like Windows NT, SQL Server, and Exchange, scaling enterprise revenues from $49M to $12.5B. His leadership influenced everything from product strategy to pricing models and go-to-market playbooks still studied today.

After Microsoft, Rich co-founded Ignition Partners and Qiming Venture Partners, two venture firms now managing over $11B with early bets on giants like DocuSign and Xiaomi. He’s guided companies acquired by Apple, Cisco, Tencent, and HP, always with the same formula: sharp product insight + customer obsession + business acumen.

More recently, he’s focused on deep AI, co-founding surround.io, a computer vision pioneer acquired by Xevo and later Lear Corporation, a major leap as cars evolve into intelligent machines. Today, he’s helping lead TNE.ai, building enterprise AI platforms powered by the latest in large language models.

With 27 patents, a Stanford engineering background, and a passion for mentoring the next wave of innovators, Rich brings rare insight into how technologies evolve, and how to ride the wave before it crests.