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Joe Chin co-founded the company, originally known as Decidia, Inc., in early 2000 and served as its CEO until 2007. After leading Decidia through its initial growth as an enterprise business, he repositioned it as a paid search company in 2005 and rebranded it as Guidester, Inc. Since the rebrand, Chin has leveraged his 15 years of Internet and entrepreneurial experience to oversee Guidester's strategic direction and manage its day-to-day operations.
Prior to founding Guidester, Inc., Chin was the managing director of client services at Real Estate Online (REOL), an Internet company focused on the real estate industry. In this role he led REOL's client services division, which developed Internet and E-commerce applications for commercial real estate owners and developers. He doubled the division's revenues in a year, opened numerous high profile accounts and initiated the company's financing process, bringing in competing venture capitalists including Goldman Sachs which ultimately funded the company.
In 1998, Chin was an equity analyst for Laidlaw Global Securities, a securities brokerage, investment banking and asset management service. At Laidlaw, he was responsible for covering the Internet sector, producing industry and company-specific reports and making stock recommendations to mutual fund and hedge fund portfolio managers.
From 1995-1997, Chin co-founded and was president of Diadem Inc., a multi-player hardware game company. At Diadem, he designed and developed product, formed strategic partnerships with the top 10 game companies and distribution partners. The company was sold in 1997.
From 1993-1994 Chin was general manager of JEV International, a technology trading company. At JEV he managed all operations and oversaw the import and export of technology products between the United States, China and Russia.
From 1990-1993, Chin worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, the defense and aerospace giant founded by business magnate Howard Hughes in the 1930s. While at Hughes Chin called on his extensive engineering background and education to design and develop computer guidance and control systems for multi-million dollar satellites.
Chin earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University and a Masters of Science from the University of California Berkeley both in Engineering. His Master's Thesis, on the topic of welding in outer space, was published in The Welding Journal. | 