# Joseph Quan

> Joseph Quan is the founder and CEO of Knoetic, the people-analytics platform and CPOHQ community that bills itself as the AI 'Second Brain' for Chief People Officers. He started the company in March 2020 with 25 HR leaders trading notes through the COVID crisis, then turned that group into a 2,000+ member network and a software business backed by $54M+ from Accel, Menlo, EQT and 150+ angels including Adam Grant. A two-time founder, Wharton/Berkeley graduate and Inc. 30 Under 30 alum, he returned as CEO to build Knoetic's AI product suite.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Knoetic (CPOHQ + Knoetic AI)
- **Organizations:** Knoetic, CPOHQ, Twine Labs, Nike, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Studied econometrics, organizational behavior, marketing, The Wharton School / University of Pennsylvania, Studied English literature (Wharton/Berkeley dual program), University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Built Knoetic into a people-analytics platform and a 2,000+ member CPOHQ community of Chief People Officers, Raised $54M+ from Accel, Menlo Ventures, EQT Ventures and 150+ angel investors, Recruited 100+ Chief People Officers as investors in the Series A

## Career timeline

- **pre-2018** — Founding member of a Nike innovation team; guest lecturer at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business
- **2018** — Co-founded Twine Labs, accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2018 batch
- **2020** — Wound down Twine and, in March 2020, spun up a community of 25 Chief People Officers to navigate the COVID crisis - the seed of Knoetic and CPOHQ
- **2021** — Knoetic launches publicly with an $18M Series A; business grows ~400% during the year
- **2022** — Raised a $36M Series B led by EQT Ventures with Menlo Ventures and Accel, bringing total funding to $54M+
- **2025** — Returned to the CEO role to build Knoetic's new AI product suite during the 'AI supercycle'

## Achievements

- Built Knoetic into a people-analytics platform and a 2,000+ member CPOHQ community of Chief People Officers
- Raised $54M+ from Accel, Menlo Ventures, EQT Ventures and 150+ angel investors
- Recruited 100+ Chief People Officers as investors in the Series A
- Named to Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30
- Two-time founder (Twine Labs, Y Combinator W18; then Knoetic)
- Angel investor in his own right

## Latest updates

- **2025** — Returned as CEO to lead development of Knoetic's new AI product suite, framing the moment as the '2025 AI supercycle.'

## Links

- Website: https://knoetic.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephquan
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/josephkn0ws

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joseph-quan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11