Bio

Gene Soo is Cofounder of What You Building (WyB), a Hong Kong community for tech builders, from first-time tinkerers to seasoned founders. By day, he is Head of Ecosystem at a Hong Kong transport operator. Gene builds AI agents himself, including WyB's first AI "staff member", and uses them to run real community operations. That hands-on experience shapes his view of AI's role in the climate transition: the value comes from deploying it where it clearly drains effort, time or resources, not from using it everywhere. He favours working pilots over presentations, testing what AI genuinely delivers, and what it costs, before scaling. Earlier, Gene brought Citymapper to Hong Kong as General Manager, helping more people get around the city on public transport, and co-founded StartupsHK, helping shape the city's startup ecosystem. He holds a BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Columbia University.