Image Space Media Blog Connect to the billions of images on the Internet!

Interview with ISM Co-Founders Kevin Tung and Raymond Chan

Kevin Tung, Image Space Media's Chief Operating Officer, and Raymond Chan, the Chief Technology Officer, are long-time friends and ISM's co-founders. We caught up with them to chat about the vision behind Image Space Media, their favorite photographers, and AOL screennames.

First off, tell us a little bit about yourselves. How did you guys meet?

Ray: Do you want the funny story? Back when Kevin and I were seniors in high school, in the AOL days, everyone had AOL account. And Kevin was a cyber-stalker.

Kevin: That's not exactly true.

Ray: Senior year of high school, he started searching through AOL profiles to find incoming freshman at Columbia - the class of 2001. So, fast forward to the first week of school, I was sitting in John Jay cafeteria with a group of friends, and this guy walks up to us and says, "Hey! I'm wisepanda." That was his AOL screen name. Mine was asnchaos.

From there, we hit it off! It helps that Kevin is super laid-back. Fast-forward 10 years and we're working together at Image Space Media!

What were both of you doing before starting Image Space Media? Where did you get the inspiration to start this venture?

Ray: When I graduated I started in Global Engineering at Citigroup. We worked with software testing, software engineering... stuff like that.

I worked there for a few years and then was bit by the entrepreneurial bug. A classmate of mine from Bronx Science tipped me off to Inform Technologies, Inc. and I decided to jump ship and join Inform. I worked there for about two and a half years.

Kevin: After graduating, I started as an investment banker for Robertson Stephens - which is a firm with a tech focus. I moved to Banc of America Securities after the first tech bubble collapse.

While I was in banking, my wife's younger sister, who was in high school at the time, had the idea to start an educational products company... And that's where TILCO comes in.

Ray: SAT words on shower curtains.

Kevin: Yup. And that took off while I was finishing up banking. My wife's sister was featured on the Today Show and TILCO products are now sold through Target, Amazon, Overstock, Urban Outfitters, and more.

In conjunction with that, I started an two investment funds for Chinese contemporary art, around 2005. The idea behind it was to take advantage in the spike in the luxury market related to Chinese art. It was a great one time arbitrage opportunity and we yielded fantastic returns to our investors.

And then, in 2007, Ray and I first started emailing about the idea that would become Image Space Media.

Ray: Kevin was like, "Hey, I have this funky idea."

Kevin: By September 2008, we had a prototype ready and debuted at the TechCrunch conference in San Fransisco. That's where we met Jesse [Chenard, now Image Space Media's CEO].

What was your inspiration for Image Space Media? Why the focus on images?

Kevin: It was a combination of two things. First, I took inspiration from Asian publications and websites. They use a lot of images and mix a lot of commercial ads and product placements into their content. You can see the best evidence of that in certain Asian magazines.

Secondly, looking at websites in English, the image space appeared to me to be a huge chunk of real estate that hadn't been monetized.

Ray: We're also both huge photography fans. We both love Gregory Crewdson.

Also, one of the first publishers to sign up with Image Space Media was photographer Trey Ratcliffe's site Stuck in Customs. It's a fantastic travel photography blog.

What were your expectations? Did you have any?

Ray: I don't think we have a grand plan. I guess just try to make it a fun place to work. Also, of course, we'd like to be successful and have a large publisher base who share the same vision that image real estate is valuable.

Kevin: My standpoint is that I'd like to make us the owner of the image space. If we're the pioneers, we should take advantage of that position, especially in terms of collecting data from images. We can use the internet as a medium to extract data about internet users.

What is it like collaborating with a close friend?

Ray: It's been a pretty easy transition. Personality-wise we mix pretty well.

Are your wives BFFs now?

Ray: Kevin went to high school with my wife. Our weddings were within a month of one another!

Since you two founded Image Space Media in 2008, what have been the moments you've been most proud of?

Kevin: So, there have been three 'big wow' moments for us: First, when we had our first publishers signing up! Secondly, when we got Jesse on board.

Ray: Yeah, that was great. It was like, "Someone believes in us!"

Kevin: And third - when we hired super cool interns!

Editor's Note: Woooo super cool interns!

Ray: I get a kick out the fact that we started from scratch. Building it up and seeing the business evolve has been great. You know, bringing in the interns, marketing guy, developers, engineers, and getting everyone focused on the same path. As you grow, that's pretty important because unless everyone has the same vision, people start to stray.

Kevin: We do pride ourselves on open communication. We'll try to stay that way even as we grow. We'll have initiatives, like taking someone to lunch that you seldom talk to.

What's the size of the Image Space Media office?

Kevin: Let's see... We have 13 full time, four interns, and two consultants.

Alright, let's get down to the most important question: What are some of your favorite restaurants in New York?

Ray: My favorite contemporary American place is 11 Madison Park. My favorite Japanese place is Sugiyama, because I took Irene there for our first Valentine's Day. My favorite bumming-around-drinking place is Kenka on St. Marks Place. Lastly, my favorite place to get a lobster roll is Luke's Lobster on East 7th Street between 1st and Avenue A.

Kevin: I'm the Mayor of Village Yokocho on foursquare.

Editor's Note: The entire Image Space Media office is obsessed with foursquare

Thank you to Kevin and Ray for the awesome interview! Check back with our blog on Thursday for an interview with Jesse Chenard, our CEO!