Hanoi, Vietnam · operating US time zone
I am Khue Tran. Ecom operator from Hanoi.
15 years in performance marketing, now a full-time AI and automation builder. I run three US-market wholesale nail-supply brands from Hanoi (DTK, ND, LAVIS) and use AI to handle the boring infrastructure work that quietly compounds.
The journey
From a Russian dorm to running three US brands from Hanoi.
Russia, the first $1
Vietnamese student in Russia chasing affiliate marketing. Reading Pat Flynn at midnight, copying landing page patterns, testing Google AdWords with whatever rubles I could spare from a student stipend. Most things failed. A few things worked.
Vietnamese affiliate blog, top 10
Built a Vietnamese affiliate blog that ranked top 10 in its niche. Not big money by US standards, but enough to learn what most marketers never do: how to make $1 turn into $1.50 reliably, at scale, while nobody is watching.
Niche site flips, escrow deals
Built and sold niche affiliate sites across Amazon Associates, Clickbank, and Vietnamese networks. Individual deal sizes ran $50k to $500k, transacted through Escrow.com. Buyers were US and EU portfolio investors building affiliate rollups during that brief window when PBNs were still profitable to acquire.
The nail pivot, real inventory
Amazon kept cutting commission rates and Google’s quality-update shadow was already visible. Started a US wholesale nail supply ecommerce brand. Real inventory, real customers, real warehouses. Went through several rebrand cycles between 2016 and 2020 because brand-name fit matters more than founders admit.
Three brands, ~$500k MRR, Hanoi to US
DTK, ND, and LAVIS Nail Supply serve the US salon and wholesale market. Combined ~$500k MRR. Shopify multi-store, shared GMC catalog, cross-brand ad accounts. Day starts at 4am to overlap with US Pacific hours. Warehouse ops happen while I sleep.
Brands I operate
Three US wholesale brands. One shared infrastructure.
What I do
The boring infrastructure work that compounds.