1. We redesigned the whole site, which now includes our membership benefits, package page, and membership store page. Please include your comments here about our new design.
2. We are very proud to announce that we have contracted Paul Thind as our social media consultant. Here is Paul's bio., which can also be found under Services' Consultants page:
Paul Thind is the Co-Founder and CEO of TRIGGERSPOT, INC., a digital entertainment consultancy and an Advisory Board member at Peanut Labs Media. Thind advises and works with a number of well-known companies in the Social Gaming, F2P/MMO, and virtual world space. Clients include: Kongregate, Gaia Online, IGG, RocketOn, InComm, Mego, and many more.
Previously, Thind was the COO of Outspark, an entertainment services company that published engaging online multiplayer games. During his tenure at Outspark, Thind doubled Outspark's run rate in less than 6 months and added many best practices around companies Key Performance Indicators, the Registration Funnel, and operational processes. Thind was also instrumental in helping the company raise its Series C round of funding of $8.3 Million USD.
Prior to Outspark, Thind was the US CEO and General Manager of North America of Sulake Corporation (HABBO.Com), a global teen virtual world community with offices and communities in 32 countries. Thind was responsible for launching the service and later the daily operations of Habbo's US and Canadian websites as well as identified, negotiated, and secured payment partnerships globally. During his time at Sulake, Thind grew Habbo’s North American user base from five (5) to twenty-five (25) Million. Thind was also instrumental in closing a number of Sulake's advertising deals, including Sulake’s largest globally (Target Corporation), and also brought almost 150 music artists to the virtual world, including Natasha Bedingfield, Avril Lavigne, Hawthorne Heights, P!NK, H.I.M., Lordi, Gorillaz, Jordan Sparks and more. With his music industry background, he was able to secure promotion partnerships with all four (4) major labels as well as a host of independent record labels and artist management companies. Moreover, he identified opportunities for the brand in the movie and TV industry working to forge successful large virtual campaigns with Paramount, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and many other large TV, Movie, and Sports properties. A pioneer in the prepaid space, Thind launched the first prepaid card for a virtual world through CVS in 2005. He went on to forge successful retail relationships in Sulake's merchandising and licensing division with Target Corporation, 7-Eleven, Rite-Aid, Circle K, Best Buy, and more. His belief in frictionless payment methods for virtual goods propelled Sulake to be a leader in payment gateway integration that directly connected to over 175 Payment aggregators globally.
Thind consulted at Veritasiti Corporation (CurrentAttractions.com) as the VP of Business Development where he formulated partnerships with all the major movie studios in an attempt to launch a competing ratings system parallel to the MPAA. Moreover, Thind held the role of Interim CEO at PBAMusic.com, a record label and online publishing business, as part of his consulting practice.
He was the founder and CEO of two full service Record Label and Publishing and Merchandising entities in the music industry. At NecropolisRecords.com, Thind established the brand and website as a leader in the metal/rock music space launching artists from all over the world. In 1999, Necropolis Records was recognized as the "Number One Extreme Metal Label in the US" by Billboard Magazine. He was also the executive producer of over 110 recordings and broke side projects by many successful artists in the Heavy Metal genre, such as Phil Anselmo's (PANTERA) Viking Crown, and Patrik Jensen's (THE HAUNTED) Witchery project, the former receiving a grammy nomination in Sweden. Thind also worked to license rock music into commercials with Nike (Skateboarding) and Polygram Records for inclusion into the Fine Line Features movie "Gummo". Thind was also an early pioneer in MP3 and led acquisition efforts to take music online legally, with eMusic, being responsible for many independent labels signing to the company as part of their online strategy.
Thind has 15 years of experience in the entertainment, internet, virtual world, and digital media space. He has a track record of senior posts at several successful organizations and is a brand builder and thought leader in his industry. He is routinely a keynote speaker at various conferences in the online/virtual goods space, such as the Virtual Goods Summit, GDC, and Gamer's Law, and has been interviewed in several publications due to his knowledge of the online gaming and music industries.
Thind holds an MBA from The Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing from The School of Business and Economics at California State University, Hayward. Presently, he lives in the Marina area of San Francisco, California.