Seattle entrepreneur carries on family success to a new level

Photo provided by Calvin Teng

Calvin Tang swims with the fishes. The co-founder of Newsvine.com has indulged his passion for scuba diving all around the world.

Entrepreneurship runs in the Tang family in Bellevue, and so do the uncommon personal qualities of patience and resilience.

When patriarch Gordon Tang arrived in the United States in 1949 as a 17-year-old from Taiwan, he had a “tremendously tough life for most of his time here until he was about 38,” according to his son, Calvin.

It was 1970 when Gordon finally started his own business in real estate development and property management

Gordon’s long-term patience paid off because his business became successful, owning, at one point, “a majority of the University District.”

As for Calvin, 30, after graduating from Seattle University in 2000, he spent six years traveling around the world and working on different business projects. He learned through working with his father to develop professional relationships and maintain them.

Choosing not to follow the typical professional career path of working for a big company right out of college, Calvin admits he felt behind where he and others closest to him felt he should have been at the age of 27.

Calvin is confident and articulate, qualities apparent from the combination of a good education with a savvy gained from both his father’s mentorship and his world travels.

He said, “I feel I carry forward wisdom in each thing I try.” So far, those things include working as a scuba diving correspondent for a travel magazine based in Southeast Asia and inventor of a door security device with his father in 1999. Six years later, they began producing it in China.

Bettina Carey, Calvin’s friend, said, “He has the intuition and gut instinct of an older, wiser man.”

“I always came back to the same idea of putting together a venture and taking the risk and seeking out that reward,” said Calvin. With business in his blood and patience of his own, he now enjoys a huge financial reward.

Two-and-a-half years ago, he co-founded Newsvine.com, a social news Web site. Newsvine is one of many sites involved in “community journalism,” creating a new way to distribute news. It encourages “highly engaged participation” among its 1 million unique visitors a month by having them contribute content, link to their favorite news of the day and submit comments.

On Oct. 5, MSNBC Interactive News, the publisher of msnbc.com, acquired the site from Calvin and co-founders Mike Davidson, Lance Anderson and Mark Budos for an undisclosed amount.

One of the biggest media companies in the world, MSNBC selected Newsvine to be its first acquisition in its 11-year history. Calvin and his co-founders will continue to run it from their corporate headquarters in Seattle, not from MSNBC’s office in Redmond.

“I am just absolutely thrilled at working at an organization like MSNBC … I’m looking forward to being able to push the boundaries of a space in the news media business that we created by putting forth our venture in Newsvine and taking it to the next level,” he said about MSNBC’s offer. The reaction from Newsvine’s users: Most were in favor, though some were “very unsure.”

As Newsvine’s chief operating officer, Calvin is in charge of such areas as business development, finance, accounting, legal and human resources. He also moderates its content, even meeting with some of Newsvine’s users in person, saying, “Relationships are something that I place a great value on.”

And he no longer feels behind other people his age.

James Tabafunda can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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