The traditional image of a CEO can be hard to break, a middle age white man in a suit that earns millions and lives in a mansion. But despite this image being in the collective imaginary for decades, it has been a long time since it has matched reality, and every year we get new more down to earth CEOs who defy standards and show us that there is a different way of looking at being at the top. One of the most realistic examples of this is Kian Katanforoosh, CEO of Workera, who, despite his insane success, still shares an apartment.
Workera is now that company that boasts Series B status with $55.5 million in backing from investors such as New Enterprise Associates, AI Fund, Owl Ventures, and Accenture. Since its founding six years ago, the company has focused on helping organizations evaluate and strengthen workforce capabilities, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, software engineering, and data science. To date, the platform has verified over 5 million individual skills through more than half a million assessments across 25 countries. Its client roster features major names, including the U.S. Air Force, Samsung, Accenture, Siemens Energy, and Belcorp and its CEO has managed to remain down to earth despite its success.
At 31 years old, Katanforoosh clid of Iranian parents that emigrated to France still lives the average Silicon Valley worker life. It is no surprise that he found his success in the tech meca, and his resume is quite impressive. Aside from founding Workera, he has worked as an adjunct lecturer of computer science at Stanford University since 2019 where he teaches deep learning, a course he co-created with DeepLearning.AI founder and AI genious Andrew Ng. Additionally, he has also developed a deep learning specialization on Coursera, which is wildly popular.
His accolades are many, and include being recognized with Stanford’s highest teaching award and being ranked in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Education list in 2020 and 2021, but as he tells Fortune “I want to help people achieve their fullest potential and accelerate progress through technology.”
How a successful CEO remains humble and down to earth
While his work ethic and philosophy might remind you of the typical CEO or Silicon Vally investor bro stereotype, after all his quote “Long-term thinking, where you go all-in on one area and let it compound, is what worked best for me. That’s how you get to the top 1%, or even the top 0.01%, if you truly excel” is anything but chill, he seems to have taken the old adage “it is lonely at the top” to heart.
Despite all his success he considers his best investment figuring out how to sleep better, which he achieved thanks to his purchase of an Oura ring in order to dial in how he could make worthwhile improvements. He could afford to buy his own mansion, potentially somewhere remote and isolated, since he mostly works from home and can do remote work from anywhere, but choses to live in a high rise in downtown San Francisco with many of his friends occupying the same building in order to stave off loneliness and continue creating a sense of community.
Because of his work ethic and philosophy, he takes two to three years of vacation per year, and tries to enjoy his free time with his girlfriend and friends, ensuring that he keeps his feet firmly planted on the ground. His down to earth demeanor and lifestyle prove that you can be successful and make a lot of money and still be connected to the world in a meaningful way, valuing relationships a lot more that luxury and contributing to the community in ways that make an impact, like his decision to continue teaching the new generation of tech geniuses.