TNT.
It doesn’t stand for Turner Network Television.
It’s not an acronym for trinitrotoluene, aka dynamite.
It doesn’t even bizarrely refer to the 1973 blaxsploitation flick Superfly TNT (the TNT there standing for “’tain’t nothin’ to it” … which would actually be TNTI … but, hey, we always forgo proper spelling and grammar when it comes to the beloved blaxsploitation genre).
Nope. In this context, TNT is our own acronym for two of our favorite online entrepreneurs, Ting ’n’ Tran. That is, Danny Ting and Anh Tran, the young co-founders of WantedList.com, otherwise known as the Netflix of porn. The pair of 30-something gents came up with the idea for the now hugely successful, coast-to-coast porn-DVD rental company — currently with a library of 27,000 titles (wow! … now that’s a lotta’ porn!) — back in 2001, when they were both working as business consultants for the all-but-dissolved accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
And as I now sit and speak with the two relatively young entrepreneurs (Danny and Anh started their business when they were 26 and 24, respectively) in their modestly sized West Coast headquarters in Van Nuys (they also have a warehouse in New Jersey to better cater to East Coast patrons), I’m fully aware of the legend behind these two party animals. Indeed, their reputations most certainly precede them: That is, their penchant for working hard — and playing even harder.
Or are they still the wild ’n’ crazy guys they used to be?
“Three years ago, we were pretty well known for throwing some of the bigger parties in the industry,” recalls 32-year-old Anh (pronounced “on”) from behind his office desk. Wearing a slightly formal shirt and slacks, the Vietnamese American also sports a thick mane of disheveled black hair, looking like a businessman who has just arrived from one of those wilder parties he’s now describing. But it’s four in the afternoon and Anh, also the company’s CFO, has definitely put in a full day’s work, multi-tasking as he speaks with me. That is, Anh gives me his full attention when answering questions, but he also blasts off an e-mail here and there on his laptop as I occasionally turn and speak to his partner, Danny, sitting in one of the guest chairs in Anh’s office.
“It was a lot of fun,” Anh continues. “We used to believe in bringing porn back to porn and did, indeed; we threw some pretty crazy parties at our homes and in certain night clubs.”
But let’s face it, a highly successful company like WantedList.com just doesn’t stay on the map if it’s run by a pair of goodtime boys who party 24/7, right?
But, then again, why not enjoy the fruits of your labor? Especially while you’re still relatively young.
Danny Ting, WantedList.com’s CEO, originally came out to the Golden State from his native Garden State after getting his undergraduate degree in industrial management and information systems. Why migrate to California? To “live the life,” as they say. And he’s surely been living it — with no regrets.
“I don’t have a steady girlfriend; I’m still in the dating mode. And I still hang out with girls in the industry,” the laidback Taiwanese American casually yet unabashedly states, comfortably sitting back in the guest chair. Wearing a T-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap, Danny looks more like he’s dressed for Saturday sports rather than weekday business. But, like his partner Tran, Ting has also put in a grueling workday.
“I’m thirty … four?” he says with comic uncertainty, before cracking up. “I think I just turned 34. I mean, it gets kind of muddled after you hit 30 because you just don’t care anymore. But, no, I haven’t met that nice girl to settle down with. I’m into girls, cars, and motorcycles. One of my buddies used to wrench for Ford Racing, and the other weekend he had his car out in Buttonwillow [about an hour north of L.A.], and we had a great time, brought a couple of girls up there, a couple six packs and just hung out and partied.”
Anh’s current story is somewhat different than Danny’s.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Anh majored in public policy and Asian American studies (“Both subjects really relate to our business, right?” he notes with entertaining self-deprecation) and, after hooking up with Ting, also began leading a pretty crazy life in terms of mixing porn business with pleasure.
Until recently.
“I’ve been seeing a nice girl for a while, so I’m settling down,” he says with a warm, cheerful, satisfied smile. “She’s a civilian-type of woman, so my lifestyle in this business has changed. I used to party with the porn girls. That doesn’t really happen as much anymore — by choice. Nowadays I’ve settled into a relationship and I’m happy. I’m honestly happy. I partied a lot and had a lot of fun, and we did a lot of business through it all. But now I go home and hang out with my girlfriend. We also recently took up rock climbing: It’s rock climbing inside a gym, though …. I’m kind of a wuss,” he jokingly admits. “I also like going to nice restaurants and enjoying good wines with my girlfriend. It’s much more of a relaxed lifestyle these days.”
It’s Ting and Tran’s self-professed geek factor that, no doubt, makes them all the more charming to their ladies. Yes, Danny and Anh are successful businessmen. And, yes, they’re professionally aggressive when need be. But when you speak with Ting and Tran, you immediately realize that they’re far from arrogant and conceited. Yes, they deal in the rather colorful, extremely animated, sometimes highly shallow world of hardcore pornography. But they’re far from insecure about not having the Malibu muscles, the Tinseltown tan, or the superstar hairline, even though both gents are far from dorky looking and are in relatively good physical shape.
“We’re both good with numbers,” Anh states with a tad bit of (understandable) pride, his seeming immodesty immediately tempered with more self-deprecation: “We’re both geeks in that way. I actually think Danny took more calculus that I did.”
“But I can’t do any calculus anymore,” Ting states with boisterous laughter. “I don’t know how to do it anymore. I mean, once you take calculus, you never use it again — unless that’s the industry that you’re in.”
“Derivative modeling and stuff like that,” adds Tran.
“Regression modeling,” Ting retorts, “not derivative modeling. But that’s like statistics and econometrics.”
“But once you get to very big numbers in warehouse processing, then it comes in handy.”
“Probably,” Danny laughs.
Both Ting and Tran (whatever it is they’re talking about!) agree to pleasantly disagree — and are highly entertaining to watch in conversation. To say the least.
And, other than the obvious goal of making money, both entrepreneurs are still working toward the same major objective: Namely, keeping their customers all across the nation happy — and keeping their customers, period! — by remaining technologically new, fresh, and contemporary.
“As long as we’re around,” Tran points out, “we want to be able to evolve our brand to create different types of business-to-consumer-based products. In 2001, it might have been DVD rentals through the mail. But in 2009, it’s VOD alongside DVD rentals through the mail. And in 2012 —”
“It might be something else,” interjects Ting. “The vehicle changes, but the company is still here, and we’re still servicing the same customer base.”
“Exactly,” adds Tran. “We’re an entertainment delivery service that simply evolves over time. And, keep in mind, we’re definitely not a huge company. It’s a medium-sized business where we, the owners, are very hands-on with just about everything that we do. We’re not fat cats who can sit back and allow the wheels to turn. We have to be cranking the wheel itself — especially nowadays in this recession, which, of course, makes you tighten your belt. But it also makes you become all the more innovative.”
Other than WantedList.com, Ting and Tran have other ideas bubbling in their separate creative minds. Danny, for instance, is toying with the idea of some day branching out into green technologies within the automotive industry, while Anh would like to get more into venture-based work, investing in start-up companies.
What’s this? Ting ’n’ Tran have got an outrageously successful DVD-rental/VOD company like WantedList.com and they don’t wanna’ make porn their full-time careers for life?
“Probably not,” remarks Danny, “because that’s really not our personality.”
“It’s true,” elaborates Anh. “I think both of us are entrepreneurs at heart and — as far as start-up companies are concerned — it’s really interesting hearing business plans from young people who are gung-ho about an idea, and maybe being a part of that opportunity, and perhaps helping found the next Google.”
“I’m still young people,” Danny reminds Anh, before breaking out in his customary laugh. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Tran smiles but follows through with his idea. “And, hey, there’s no reason why the next Google has to come from the Silicon Valley. It can come from Southern California. MySpace came from Southern California and it started it all.”
Their personal lifestyles far from parallel with one another, the partying Ting and the relatively settled-down Tran are still close friends who see eye-to-eye in terms of the ups and downs related to WantedList.com — and the business world in general.
“We’re reinvesting money and making enough profit to have hobbies like cars and nice restaurants,” Tran says. “We’re drawing decent salaries, sure. But we’re not a pair of Richard Bransons, either. In the last few years, there have been good moves and bad moves, and you just learn from them. I mean, we’ll soon be moving from Van Nuys to a new location in Chatsworth — and that’s a good move. In Van Nuys you’ve got Evil Angel and Digital Playground, sure. But the heart of the industry is still in Chatsworth … in the jungle … in the heart of it all.
“For Danny and myself, the biggest pro of this business is definitely running own company, because we’re masters of our own destinies. That to us is everything. Of course, the biggest con in running your own company is … running your own company! The buck stops here. Sure, as business partners we reap all the glory — but when things go wrong, we reap all the blame, too.”
This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe
