Mobile technology incubator Hatch Labs is announcing two new additions — Ad.ly founder Sean Rad (pictured) and former Apple employee Alan Tran.
Describing itself as a “technology sandbox,” Hatch Labs was announced last year as a joint venture between IAC and Xtreme Labs. It has already launched several startups, including app monetization service Blu Trumpet.
The incubator says Rad will be founding a new company. He will oversee a team in Los Angeles that’s “responsible for developing and commercializing a new product based on location.”
His previous startup, Ad.ly, connected advertisers with celebrities, who they could pay for endorsements on Twitter — apparently it has worked with more than 1,000 celebrities (most famously Charlie Sheen) and 150 brands. A Hatch Labs spokesperson tells me Rad left Ad.ly six months ago “to get back on the ground floor and start exploring new projects.”
“[Hatch Labs CEO] Dinesh [Moorjani] and the team at Hatch have assembled an attractive operating model and structure that gives gifted engineers and entrepreneurs a chance to build and improve new business concepts, without the added burden of bootstrapping the company or the added pressure from investors for a quick flip,” Rad says in the press release. “I give a ton of credit to the team for finding an alternative model to funding and resources that supports sustainable, positive cash flow businesses over the long term.”
Tran, meanwhile, is joining Hatch Labs as senior visual designer. He’ll be working with the senior interactive designer Juyoung Ryu to help all of the incubator’s startups with their designs. While at Apple, Tran worked on the interface designs for iOS, OSX, and Apple TV.