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Thomas Marban

Everyone thinks they are interesting

Since 1998 I’ve launched, sold and failed multiple tech & media businesses with hands-on work in technology, design and strategy. I'm a Webby Award honoree for enabling real world activities online.

  • Back in the 90's, I co-founded Celum (Buyout)
  • Co-founded the very first Android Twitter app Twidroyd (Acquired by Idealab)
  • Launched the most popular Web 2.0 news aggregator Popurls (Acquired by Idealab)
  • Created a read-it-later service before Instapaper was a thing (Undisclosed acquisition)
  • Created a real-time news search engine (Undisclosed acquisition)
  • Worked with Kevin Kelly on the CoolTools relaunch
  • Launched Upstract, successor of Popurls
  • Joined the founding team of three Idealab companies
  • Founded BizToc and raised a series A from Mark Cuban
  • In-between, I failed with several blogging platforms, a social marketplace, monetizing a newsletter, a sports nutrition business, selling a single T-Shirt, a fashion deal aggregator or a corporate PR tool; along with many other embarrassing ideas.

I’m located in Austria but also spend a significant amount of time in Japan.