Ted Livingston is a creature of routine.

Every morning, while his wife is still asleep, he folds his 6-foot-2 frame into the tub for an hour-long soak. If he’s travelling (there are stretches when he flies to Silicon Valley once a week), his hotel room must have an ensuite bath. He does nothing in there but think, and maybe read articles on his iPhone. The 28-year-old also likes to walk, which he does, often—with potential new hires, colleagues, journalists, investors, by himself. He has several winding, well-paced routes he takes through the leafy, ’70s-era suburban Waterloo neighbourhood where Kik Inc.’s headquarters hide behind a strip-mall massage parlour and an accountant’s office. With venture capitalist Fred Wilson—co-founder of Union Square Ventures and early backer of Kickstarter, Tumblr and Twitter—Livingston paced New York’s High Line so they could get to know one another.