Kathy Qian

Entrepreneurship

I build analytics platforms in civictech, fintech, and their intersection. I'm most interested in problem spaces where automation and no-code solutions can catalyze existing data-driven processes.

Co-Founder

Code for Democracy is a civic technology lab that fights hidden influence in US politics by building tools that automate the analysis of open data. Our search, visualization, and alerting platform makes it easy for journalists, researchers, and open government advocates to investigate relationships between campaign contributions, political narratives, and legislative outcomes. Code for Democracy started as a volunteer-driven meetup in NYC, SF, DC, and Boston in 2017 and gained its nonprofit status in 2019.

Founder

Tickermachine is a proprietary algorithmic trading firm specializing in cryptocurrencies, forex, and ETFs. We use low-frequency long-only strategies based on technical analysis and behavioral economics principles.

• Artificial Intelligence Quantitative Funds and DIY Funds

Data Science for Good

From fighting for civil liberties to working with the largest impact investor in the world, I believe we can leverage data to create structural and systemic change that unlocks opportunity for all people.

Data Scientist & Policing Reform Expert

The ACLU engages in litigation to defend the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. I supported the econometrics expert for Collins v. Milwaukee, a Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment case challenging the stop-and-frisk practices of the city’s police department, and sifted through the city’s data, ran statistical models, created data-driven reforms, and managed the economic consulting firm. Our 119-page report was crucial in negotiating the resulting $3.4M settlement and 5-year consent decree. As part of the agreement, Milwaukee will move towards evidence-based and bias-free policing with the help of an independent monitor.

• Stop-and-Frisk Settlement in Milwaukee Lawsuit Is a Wakeup Call

Data Scientist & Innovation Policy Consultant

The World Bank seeks to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity by committing $50B+ in loans, grants, equity investments, and guarantees to developing countries every year. I led a team of data scientists in the Innovation Labs and the FCI, T&C, and ICT global practices tackling a $400M+ multi-region policy portfolio aimed at cultivating communities of entrepreneurs and creating sustainable growth through innovation. Our approach utilized geospatial and multi-entity dynamic graph data and combined techniques from natural language processing, network analysis, and computational social science in order to inform $150M+ in operational components.

• Are Accelerators the Secret to Building Truly Great Startup Hubs?

Strategy Consulting

I started my career at an enterprise software startup backed by Accel-KKR and Goldman Sachs, where we productized traditional strategy consulting engagements through software-as-a-service tools.

Business Consultant

APT is a predictive analytics company that works with Fortune 1000 companies to design and analyze employee, transaction, customer, and store-level initiatives by combining the best of strategy consulting, experimental economics, and enterprise software. I worked with 11 organizations across 6+ industries, generating $100M+ in insights. I also co-led Penn recruiting and chaired the company-wide roundtable for consultants. APT was acquired by MasterCard for $600M in 2015.

• What Does Ballston Firm Have that Drew $600 Million from MasterCard?

Education

University of Pennsylvania