Draft:Guy Krief

Guy Krief
Born1977 (age 48–49)
Grenoble, France
EducationDEA in Social Psychology, Paris-Sorbonne University
Occupations
  • Entrepreneur
  • filmmaker
  • television presenter
Known for
  • Co-founder of Persado
  • Co-founder of Bryq
  • CEO of Upstream (2017–2020)
  • Unclickable (documentary)

Guy Krief (Greek: Γκι Κριέφ; born 1977, Grenoble, France) is a French-born entrepreneur, television presenter, and filmmaker based in Athens, Greece. He co-founded the AI marketing platform Persado and the talent intelligence company Bryq, and served as CEO of mobile technology company Upstream from 2017 to 2020.[1][2] He wrote and produced the investigative documentary Unclickable (2024) about digital advertising fraud.[3] Krief is president of La French Tech Athens and a partner at Big Pi Ventures, a Greek deep-technology venture capital fund.[4]

Early life and education

Krief was born in 1977 in Grenoble, France. He holds a master's degree (DEA) in Social Psychology from Université Paris-Sorbonne.[1][5]

Career

Television and radio (2005–2009)

Krief moved to Greece in the early 2000s and began a career in Greek media. From 2005 to 2009 he was a television host on MAD TV, the Greek music channel, where he co-hosted the daily music programme Mad Day Live for 88 episodes (2008–2009).[6] He also appeared as himself in 21 episodes of the comedy talk-show TV Tiglon (2006–2008). On MAD TV he created and hosted the comedy format Ninja TV, which combined humour with pop culture commentary; the show later became the basis for a live stand-up act staged in Athens venues.[7][8][9] In radio, Krief worked as a producer at Village FM 88.3 and subsequently served as programme director of Mad Radio 106.2 (2006–2007).[10][11] In 2017 he wrote and performed a stand-up comedy show titled Make Ninja Great Again at Six d.o.g.s in Athens, reprising his earlier television persona.[7][12][13]

Upstream (2004–2020)

Krief joined Upstream, a London-headquartered mobile technology company focused on emerging markets, in 2004 as Head of Campaign Management.[10] He rose through several executive roles before being appointed CEO in 2017.[14] During his tenure as CEO (2017–2020), the company expanded its Secure-D anti-fraud platform, which monitors mobile transactions and blocks malicious activity for mobile operators in more than 40 countries.[15]

Mobile security research

Under Krief's leadership, Upstream's Secure-D platform conducted a series of investigations into mobile ad fraud and pre-installed malware. In 2018–2019, Secure-D identified that a weather application pre-installed on Alcatel smartphones manufactured by TCL was collecting device identifiers, email addresses, and location data, transmitting them to servers in China. The application also generated invisible ad impressions, fake clicks, and attempted to subscribe users to premium services without consent. Upstream shared its findings with The Wall Street Journal, which published an investigation; Google subsequently removed the application from the Play Store.[15][16][17] A follow-up study documented 34 million further suspicious transactions in a six-month period.[18] A 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation into cheap smartphones in emerging markets cited Upstream as the security firm that had purchased and instrumented devices to document covert data exfiltration and subscription fraud by pre-installed firmware components.[19] In 2019, a Secure-D investigation into the file-sharing app 4shared identified 114 million suspicious mobile transactions across 17 countries. Krief, as Upstream CEO, provided on-the-record comments to TechCrunch, estimating that without intervention the fraudulent activity could have cost users up to $150 million.[20][21] In October 2019, Forbes reported on the ai.type virtual keyboard, which Secure-D found was conducting hidden ad impressions and purchasing premium content without user knowledge. Krief was quoted in the article.[22] Krief stepped down as CEO in 2020 and remains a member of Upstream's board of directors.[10]

Persado (2012–)

Krief co-founded Persado, a marketing technology company that uses artificial intelligence and computational linguistics to generate and optimise marketing language across channels. He served as SVP of Product and Innovation.[1][2] The company, co-founded with Alex Vratskides, has been listed on CNBC's Disruptor 50 ranking.[1]

Bryq (2016–)

In 2016, Krief co-founded Bryq, a talent intelligence platform that applies psychometric assessment and machine learning to hiring and internal mobility decisions.[1][2] He served as CEO from 2016 to 2017 and subsequently became a board member.[10]

Big Pi Ventures (2024–)

In 2024, Krief joined Big Pi Ventures, a Greek venture capital fund established in 2018 that invests in deep-technology start-ups, initially as a venture partner and then as a full partner.[23][24] Big Pi raised a €130 million growth fund aimed at scaling Greek technology companies internationally.[25]

Other investments and board roles

Krief has held board or advisory positions at Convert Group (e-commerce data analytics) and has made angel investments in several Athens-based ventures, including the Michelin-recognised restaurant Nolan.[1][2]

Unclickable (2024)

Main article: Unclickable

Unclickable is a feature-length investigative documentary directed by Babis Makridis, written and produced by Krief, and co-produced by Neda Film (Greece), Felony Productions (Cyprus), Building on Bond, and BuzzFeed Studios (United States).[3][26][27] The film documents an experiment in which Krief and a small team of developers, working from a basement office in the Athens suburb of Marousi, built an operational digital advertising fraud scheme over twelve weeks. Using fabricated news websites, botnets, and programmatic advertising networks, the team demonstrated how fraudulent traffic is monetised at scale through the existing digital advertising infrastructure.[3][28][29] The documentary intercuts the experiment with analysis of the role of Google and Facebook in online advertising and interviews with victims of ad fraud, including corporations such as Uber and small businesses. It argues that the structural incentives of major advertising platforms contribute to the scale of digital ad fraud.[28][30][31]

Reception

Unclickable had its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.[32] Variety covered the film's acquisition by international distributor Cat&Docs ahead of the premiere.[32] Cineuropa published a review noting the film's argument about the economic and democratic consequences of advertising fraud.[3] Modern Times Review contextualised the documentary within broader debates about antitrust action against major technology companies.[33] The film received a Greek theatrical release and is available on ERTFLIX, the streaming platform of Greek public broadcaster ERT.[31] It was selected for the Seattle International Film Festival.[34] At the 2024 Ermis Awards, the film received recognition in the White category.[35]

Greek–Ukrainian StartUp Gateway

In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Krief co-initiated the "Greek–Ukrainian StartUp Gateway" in partnership with the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and the non-governmental organisations HIGGS and SolidarityNow.[36][37] The programme temporarily relocates Ukrainian start-up founders and teams to Greece, providing housing, workspace, mentoring, and connections to Greek corporations and venture capital firms.[36][38]

La French Tech Athens

In 2023, Krief was appointed president of La French Tech Athens, an officially labelled French Tech community launched with support from the French Embassy in Greece and the French Ministry of Economy.[39][5] The community aims to strengthen ties between the French and Greek start-up ecosystems.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Guy Krief". Delphi Economic Forum IX. 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "Guy Krief (GR)". Athens Music Week.
  3. ^ a b c d "Review: Unclickable". Cineuropa.
  4. ^ Rolland, Sylvain (10 June 2025). "L'irrésistible ascension de la Grèce, la « start-up nation » qui monte en Europe". La Tribune.
  5. ^ a b "Interview | Guy Krief, le Président de la Communauté French Tech Athens sur l'écosystème start-up franco-grec". Grèce Hebdo.
  6. ^ "Τηλ. Καραβίας/Άρωμα MAD TV το Σάββατο στο Λαζαρέτο της Ιθάκης". Kefalonitis.
  7. ^ a b "Guy Krief". En Lefko 87.7.
  8. ^ "Ninja TV Laïb". Athinorama.
  9. ^ "Ο Ninja TV Guy Krief στην εκπομπή του Γιάννη Νενέ". Athens Voice.
  10. ^ a b c d Guy Krief, LinkedIn profile.
  11. ^ "Λογοκρισία στο MAD TV – Έκοψαν την εκπομπή του Guy Krief". xblog.gr.
  12. ^ "Guy Krief: Πού χάθηκες τόσα χρόνια;". Vice Greece.
  13. ^ "Guy Krief: Ο CEO που εγκατέλειψε τη stand-up και ασχολείται με digital marketing". LiFO.
  14. ^ "Upstream announces Guy Krief as new CEO". Upstream. 2017.
  15. ^ a b "Upstream's security platform, Secure-D, unveils Alcatel smartphones sold with a suspicious app from TCL". Upstream.
  16. ^ "Secure-D uncovers pre-installed suspicious application com.tct.weather on Alcatel Android smartphones manufactured by TCL". Upstream.
  17. ^ Purnell, Newley (January 2019). "Popular Weather App Collects Too Much User Data, Security Experts Say". The Wall Street Journal.
  18. ^ "Returning rogue weather app continues mobile ad fraud". Upstream. 2019.
  19. ^ Purnell, Newley (July 2018). "App Traps: How Cheap Smartphones Siphon User Data in Developing Countries". The Wall Street Journal.
  20. ^ Whittaker, Zack (July 2019). "File-storage app 4shared caught serving invisible ads and making purchases without consent". TechCrunch.
  21. ^ "Popular Android app uncovered as suspicious". Bizcommunity.
  22. ^ O'Flaherty, Kate (October 2019). "New Google Android Threat: Malicious App Installed By 40 Million Play Store Users". Forbes.
  23. ^ "Guy Krief – Partner at Big Pi Ventures". The Org.
  24. ^ "Funding Deep-Tech Startups: An Interview with Guy Krief, Partner at Big Pi Ventures". LinkedIn Pulse.
  25. ^ "Big Pi Ventures raises €130M growth fund for Greek tech". The Recursive.
  26. ^ "Unclickable". Neda Film.
  27. ^ "Unclickable – An Ad Fraud Operation (2024 Trailer)". YouTube. 2024.
  28. ^ a b "Unclickable". Cineuropa.
  29. ^ "Unclickable: Στο ίντερνετ πιάνεις τον ληστή να κλέβει και σου λέει "θα στα επιστρέψω"". News247.
  30. ^ "Ο Μπάμπης Μακρίδης και ο Γκι Κριέφ σκέφτονται πλέον τα likes που κάνουν στο social media". Flix.gr.
  31. ^ a b "Ψηφιακή διαφημιστική απάτη: Η άγνωστη παραοικονομία των 100 δισ. δολαρίων". Ta Nea. 22 February 2025.
  32. ^ a b "'Unclickable,' About Murky World of Digital Ad Fraud, Acquired by Cat&Docs Ahead of Thessaloniki Documentary Fest World Premiere". Variety.
  33. ^ "TECH: The bot economy". Modern Times Review.
  34. ^ Lillig, Jim (2025). "New documentary Unclickable exposes ad fraud". LinkedIn.
  35. ^ "Ermis Awards 2024 – White". Ermis Awards.
  36. ^ a b "Host program for Ukrainian startups in Greece". OT.gr. 20 December 2022.
  37. ^ "Δελτίο Τύπου Προγράμματος "Greek–Ukrainian Startup Gateway"". HIGGS.
  38. ^ "Η Ελλάδα υποδέχεται ουκρανικές startups – Το καινοτόμο πρόγραμμα με τη σφραγίδα του ΣΕΒ". Naftemporiki.
  39. ^ a b "Lancement de la French Tech Athens". French Embassy in Greece.

Guy Krief at IMDb Unclickable at IMDb La French Tech Athens Secure-D anti-fraud platform


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