Founders’ Story: How Trace’s CEO Greg Tran Is Making AR Easy—and What Founders Can Learn from His Journey
For anyone dreaming of building a startup in a cutting-edge space like augmented reality (AR), here’s your reality check: it’s not about flash. It’s about friction. And that’s exactly what Greg Tran, co-founder and CEO of Trace, is out to fix.
Greg Tran, CEO of Trace, and founding partners CTO Martin Smith and Head of 3D Art Sean Couture made headlines recently. Trace announced an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed investment, co-led by Rev1 Ventures and Impellent Ventures.
Trace is building a platform that lets non-technical teams create immersive, 3D AR experiences without needing a squad of Unity developers. “We wanted to make AR as easy as Canva,” Tran said. The company recently closed a $2 million pre-seed round co-led by Rev1 Ventures and Impellent Ventures—strong validation in a crowded, hype-heavy space.
But Trace’s story is less about hype and more about how. In this Founders’ Day Story, Tran shares hard-earned lessons every founder can use.
- Start with the pain: The idea for Trace didn’t start with “cool tech.” It began with watching companies struggle to deliver immersive experiences without breaking the bank or the team.
You had 8-10 specialists working for months just to create one thing.
We knew there had to be a better way.
- Don’t be afraid to pivot your background: Tran trained as an architect, but found himself pulled into interface design and spatial computing.
My co-founder and I joke that architecture school is a great startup bootcamp. We learned to take feedback, iterate fast, and present ideas clearly under pressure.
- Build relationships before you build product: One of Trace’s early wins came not from a killer demo, but from showing up, literally.
We flew to Germany to meet accelerator partners face to face.
. That relationship helped Trace land Fortune 500 clients like Dell, T-Mobile, and ESPN.
- Do the unscalable things early: Respond personally, be relentless, and treat every early partner like a co-creator.
At the beginning, you’re not convincing someone of your tech,
you’re convincing them to believe in you…
Trace is still early, but the momentum is real. The lesson is clear. You don’t need to invent sci-fi. You just need to remove the blockers standing between users and possibility.
Want more founder insights and AR startup wisdom? Watch the full Founders’ Story here.
