Shared chapter
Ian McDaniel
Co-Founder & Product Lead, Translation Exchange · Former Director of Product Development, Geni
Relationship
How we worked together
Ian and I met at Geni, where he designed the product's UI and we collaborated on many features, including the Facebook integration and tr8n. He also became a founding product engineer at Yammer. After Geni, Ian joined Amos Elliston at the mobile gaming startup Pocket Change while I continued working with MyHeritage after its acquisition of Geni. When we had both moved on, we reunited and formed the partnership that became Translation Exchange.
Influence
What I learned
Ian brought strong product thinking and visual clarity to deeply technical systems. At Translation Exchange, he led product while I led the company and technology. His pitch deck and my demos became a powerful combination that helped us raise funding and launch the company.
Projects
Projects we built together
Geni.com / Yammer / MyHeritage · 2007 – 2013
Geni — one shared family tree for humanity
Ian designed Geni's interface, and we worked closely across features including its Facebook integration and tr8n. As a founding product engineer at Yammer, he also helped design and build much of its early front-end experience. Our collaboration connected product design, user experience, and the underlying platform.
Read the case studyGeni / Translation Exchange · 2009 – 2018
Translation Markup Language — expressing meaning, not strings
Ian helped turn TML’s deeply technical language model into translator and product experiences people could understand. Our collaboration connected semantic localization infrastructure to in-context workflows and a coherent cross-platform product.
Read the case studyTranslation Exchange · 2013 – 2018
Translation Exchange — language as structured meaning
Ian and I formed the partnership that became Translation Exchange after leaving our respective roles. Ian led product while I led the company and technology. His pitch deck and my product demos helped us tell a complete story, raise funding, and launch the company.
Read the case studyThemes
The work we shared
Elsewhere