Thai Tran

Present

I'm co-founder and CEO of a small startup in London called Lightbox.

Here is some news coverage of Lightbox:

• The Next Web: Lightbox's connected camera might be the best Android app yet
• Mashable: Slick Social-Camera Android App Syncs Wirelessly
• Gizmodo: Lightbox for Android: Android's Answer to Instagram, iCloud, and More
• WIRED: Shoot and Sync: Lightbox will keep your photos live on Facebook
• ReadWriteWeb: Lightbox, Gorgeous New Photo App Goes Android-First
• TechCrunch: Lightbox wants to be Android’s new camera app, raises $1.1 million from Valley players

Past

Index Ventures (2010)
•	From May to November 2010, I advised Index Ventures on potential seed investments and lead technical due diligence on larger venture investments including Etsy and Chartbeat. I also represented Index at Seedcamp which I highly recommend to first time entrepreneurs in Europe.
YouTube (2007-2010)
•	From October, 2007 to May, 2010 I was a Product Manager for YouTube. I was attracted to YouTube because, like Google in 2001, it was an extremely popular consumer destination but had not yet developed a business model. I helped turn YouTube into a business by establishing partnerships with the media industry and by building scalable video-specific monetization programs. I started at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, CA and then helped build the team in Google's office in Zurich, Switzerland. These are the major initiatives that I was responsible for: Full-length TV Shows on YouTube UK (note: this link only displays TV shows if you're located inside the UK) I spent almost a year commuting between Zurich and London to negotiate deals with the major UK television broadcasters. This included partnerships with Channel 4 and Channel Five to place their entire library of full-length UK television programmes on YouTube UK. The biggest achievement here was successfully running two negotiations in parallel: one with the broadcasters in the UK and one with the Google/YouTube executives in California. Representative news coverage: Oct 15, 2009: Guardian: YouTube signs landmark deal to screen Channel 4 shows Dec 3, 2009: Guardian: Channel Five signs YouTube deal YouTube Promoted Videos This is our performance based video advertising product ("AdWords for YouTube"). I founded this project, but Matt Liu and Jonathan Goldman deserve the credit for driving through all the internal Google roadblocks to launch this product. Representative news coverage: Nov 12, 2008: New York Times: YouTube to Sell Advertising on Pages of Search Results Oct 28, 2010: TechCrunch: Nearing Profitability, YouTube Hits 500 Million Promoted Video Views YouTube Partner Program This program enables independent video creators to earn a revenue share from the advertising shown in conjuction with their YouTube videos ("AdSense for YouTube"). We launched this program in Dec 2007, and today hundreds of YouTube users are earning six figure salaries entirely from their YouTube videos. Representative news coverage: Dec 10, 2008: New York Times: YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money YouTube Click-to-Buy This feature automatically identifies the song used within a YouTube video and provides a link to buy the song on iTunes, Amazon, and other music retailers. This helped YouTube obtain more reasonable licensing deals with the major music labels. Representative news coverage: Oct 7, 2008: New York Times: Google Puts Tunes From YouTube a Click Away
Google Maps (2004-2007)
•	From Sept 2004 to Sept 2007, I was a Product Manager at Google. I was first responsible for Local Search (now part of Google Univesal Search) and then also became responsible for Google Maps. Lars Rasmussen and Bret Taylor deserve the credit for conceiving Google Maps. I lead the product through its growth phase, transforming it from a US-only Google Labs demo into the world's leading platform for location based services.
Yahoo! (2000-2004)
•	At Yahoo!, I sucessfully integrated the VivaSmart team and technology into Yahoo! Shopping, and then went on to build a new content management system for Yahoo! Travel and launch the Yahoo! Search Shortcuts. The highlight of this experience was working with Pasha Sadri, who later went on to create Yahoo! Pipes and Polyvore.
VivaSmart (1999-2000)
•	I co-founded VivaSmart, Inc. with Amr Awadallah in 1999. We initially created a comparison shopping website for college students and later syndicated our e-commerce engine to customers such as Epinions.com.
•	Running this company was an emotional roller coaster and we experienced the dot com boom and bust first hand. After having raised a few hundred thousand dollars in angel funding, we ultimately decided to sell the company to Yahoo! in June 2000 for $9M, which was the best outcome for our employees and our investors at the time.