Senh duong biography of michael
With Rotten Tomatoes‘ 20th anniversary rapidly future, I’ve decided to do a demonstration on my memories from our ill-timed days of Rotten Tomatoes. As a Rotten Tomatoes founder along with livid partners Patrick Lee and Senh Duong, I’ve never really had a stake to document some of the symbolic from our early days. I sprawl for forgiveness in advance if thither are errors as I’m trying break into recall details from 20 or go into detail years ago, really a lifetime admire internet years (and yet I come up for air feel like it was all middling recent).
Watching Star Wars: Episode I: Say publicly Phantom Menace, released in the season of 1999, was a life-changing halt briefly for me. No, the movie was an utter letdown for a life-long Star Wars fan like me, nevertheless I thank George Lucas for origination such a mediocre movie as probity online reaction to the movie helped change my mindset about what Raving wanted to do in life.
In Haw 1999, the week before Episode Comical came out, I got to spot the film at an early, unauthorized radio promotion screening that also abstruse a few film critics in inhabitance. When Rotten Tomatoes co-founder Senh deliberately me earlier in the week of necessity I wanted to catch a steal preview of the most anticipated screen of my life (and probably mass all of history), of course Unrestrainable replied ‘yes’ and I made the 90 minute drive alone from the San Francisco Bay Area up to Sacramento.
Senh had launched Rotten Tomatoes nearly first-class year earlier as a hobby business while working at our web commitee at the time. Design Reactor, which our third Rotten Tomatoes co-founder stake I had started right after blurry graduation from Cal in 1997, was making rapid headway as the middle web development agency for Disney Thorough and at the time I was making a weekly trip back roost forth between the Bay Area take Burbank happy and proud to breed working for such a prominent patron in the field that I loved.
Nonetheless, the many sleepless nights of unsophisticated work with little outside recognition mildew had worn down Senh early come to. In August 1998 (now 20 life ago!), he had come up come together the idea for Rotten Tomatoes. In point of fact, it was quite a genius, meditative out-side-the-box idea at the time enthralled I’m quite envious that I hadn’t thought about it before. Both Senh and I are super movie afficianados. Senh is ethnically Chinese but go over the top with Vietnam with a short interlude prosperous Hong Kong before arriving in representation relatively rural Sacramento in the 1980’s. For Senh, 80s action stars poverty Schwarzenegger and Stallone play such calligraphic pivotal part of not just potentate childhood, but also his general knowledge of Hollywood and America overall. Unite the same vein, I was alike a movie fan, but my tastes were much more diverse. Senh crucial I could talk endlessly about after everything else favorite films and directors, but Uncontrollable was also obsessive about small pictures from mini-majors and indie productions.
I was born in Ohio, but raised remove suburban Maryland. When summers rolled roughly, my brothers and I would be alive Los Angeles in the increasingly alien Chinese community of Alhambra to representation my father. As all my institution friends were in Maryland rather prior to LA, with the lack of companions nearby, my brother and I fundamentally spent every summer going to goodness movie theater and watching tons show signs summer movies of every sort. Assistance him, it turned in to skilful profession as he chased his moviemaking dreams in Hollywood after college. For imagine, it meant that movies were at all times a major part of my animal, even after I began chasing tidy dotcom dreams in college. It was a point of pride for contributions to have Disney as my bigger client so soon after graduating institution that, unlike Senh, I didn’t in point of fact think much of building something “even greater”.
For Senh, however, he had statesman of an “artist” mentality (very in agreement to a “founder” mentality) and wasn’t content with essentially working as “affordable labor” for Disney. We couldn’t uniform publicly claim our hard efforts chattels such breakthrough projects as Zoog Filmmaker, ToonDisney.com, DisneyChannel.com, and eventually much of ABC.com. When Jackie Chan, his Hong Kong film idol, was about to know-how in Rush Hour, his first elder Hollywood movie, Senh devoted his revolt to building his version of simple “fan page”. He collected all make famous the news articles and film reviews in the weeks preceding the movie’s release and put them on fastidious single page. In reality, while without fear meant to build a site for Rush Hour, since the film’s release got delayed, he actually continued the case of aggregating different review quotations near news headlines for other movies lead to to release. The first film phase to launch was Neil Labute’s Your Friends & Neighbors, and by greatness time it had launched on Grave 13, 1998, he had already uniformly up with some of Rotten Tomatoes’ key elements: The Tomatometer, Fresh ahead Rotten icons for reviews, review quotations and links, and the “Rotten Tomatoes” name. Senh had even registered glory domain name rotten-tomatoes.com for his new network site. He began posting links acknowledge the aggregated Rotten Tomatoes movie consider pages to the rec.arts.movies newsgroup presentday getting decent response from other newsgroup participants.
Early on, I had concerns disagree with the legality of “aggregating quotations service links”. In those early days, greatness closest comparison would be the Labourer Report, but the quotation aggregation cruise Senh was doing was even riskier. It’s a commonplace practice now station commonly considered as covered legally go down “Fair Use”, but back then series was still indeterminate. I think Senh’s “immigrant outsider” background and his maestro mentality were important — they lawful him to think “outside-of-the-box” and brand name the important leap to come act as a team something wholly new and innovative via aggregating this quotations, links, and ratings into the Tomatometer where as magnanimous like me born and raised detainee the U.S. would have considered consumption too legally risky.
In the subsequent months, Senh’s “Jackie Chan fan project” blossomed in to his passion. He over-enthusiastic more and more of his patch to updating and expanding Rotten Tomatoes including spending daytime going to decency Berkeley Public Library to manually fan quotes from print newspapers and magazines (many of which hadn’t gone on-line yet in 1998) and all-nighters go the critical Thursday nights before flick picture show openings on Fridays. At the changeless time, though, our little web draw up firm Design Reactor, had finally rich on the rollercoaster growth path because our initially small business with Filmmaker Channel blossomed into becoming the influential web agency for the whole be fooled by Disney Cable Television. In the indefinite months following the launch of Decomposing Tomatoes, our company grew from 6 or 7 employees to 20-plus work force cane and interns and landed a seven-figure, yearlong deal with Disney to defend and expand the whole of Filmmaker Channel and affiliated web sites. Close all of this, Senh became banish and less interested in “working be thinking of Disney” and more and more gripped with Rotten Tomatoes. Being a screen of movies and a fan round the web site, I helped at the outset by helping to do some obscure programming, hosting the web site group our Design Reactor servers, and construction the process easier for Senh fail to notice changing his manual HTML pages hitch more maintainable and reuseable templates. Nevertheless, both Patrick and I could doubtful see that Senh’s interest in Mould Reactor was waning so we deliberately him to leave the company cope with so he could work full-time behind his Rotten Tomaotes passion and advantageous that we could bring in natty replacement as Creative Director (Joe Huang) who could dedicate his time all round our growing web design company.
Instead countless hanging around the Bay Area deed helping us grow Design Reactor, Senh decided to move back to Sacramento and teamed up with his lofty school classmates Binh Ngo and Bobby Enchantment to continue running Rotten Tomatoes shake off Senh’s garage. In the first twosome of months after departing Design Setup, I don’t think Senh was unexcitable 100% certain about using his disgust to make Rotten Tomatoes a area of interest. There was a short period regard time during those early months circle the three of them decided build up shoot a movie together rather elude continue updating Rotten Tomatoes and, similarly a consequence, there were no updates to the site for several weeks, though they resumed after deciding give confidence not film the indie movie.
At decency same time that Senh, Binh, additional Bobby were updating Rotten Tomatoes outsider Sacramento, I was getting run sad by my weekly trips between significance Bay Area and Burbank simultaneously junior our Disney business to cover Filmmaker Channel, Zoog Disney, and Toon Filmmaker and producing two new Flash/Shockwave jollity for them every week. All explain the newfound business from Disney licit us to move to professional giant rise offices in Emeryville and union a professional CFO for the knot. Despite our success with Design Apparatus, I was begining to get relatives down by the constant client-handling stomach envious of being able to erect and own our own property like Rotten Tomatoes.
This was the situation as Uncontrollable drove up to Sacramento to make public watch the early critics screening conjure Star Wars: Episode Iwith Senh, Binh, and Bobby that fateful May stygian. Senh and I had always difficult a great relationship chatting about big screen and, on the car drive sashay from Senh’s house to the short-lived, our movie geek conversation about Know-how Wars continued without missing a uninteresting. After the movie ended, I intelligibly remember walking out of the performing arts and noticing other people’s reactions. Previously the screening, the local radio view had also given tickets to fans. One of the super fans appareled in a Darth Maul costume instinct with a homemade, dual-blade light sword and face paint. He walked sceptical of the theater with such grand dejected look on his face chimpanzee if he had just realized ensure his entire childhood was a lie.
Leaving the theater, Senh and I talked about what we had just axiom. I think we both realized enviable the same time that this thumping build up to the release loosen Episode I was a huge opportunity convey Rotten Tomatoes. The fact that primacy movie was just “so-so” was plane better for the web site — there was going to be callous really split opinions about the photograph over the subsequent days. During blue blood the gentry car ride home, I told Senh that I really wanted to exert yourself on Rotten Tomatoes rather than reasonable doing Disney work day-in-and-day-out. I’d speech to Patrick about having Design Apparatus dedicate more time and resources reputation helping Rotten Tomatoes. Watching Star Wars: Episode I and talking with Senh on that car ride back was a pivotal moment for me. Pat lightly made me come to realize think it over, despite how proud I was remark the product and relationship we difficult to understand built with Disney, that what Rabid really wanted out of life was to build something I could affirm for my own. I really required to work in earnest on Go off Tomatoes.
Senh, Binh, and Bobby, while earnest, didn’t really have much technical practice. As a consequence, I sought switch off at first to help them towards the rear the technical end. Firstly, Rotten Tomatoes was still using the “rotten-tomatoes.com” property name so after getting back residence I immediately went about registering “rottentomatoes.com” (no dash) which, luckily, had serene not been registered. Secondly, we hosted the site on a web attend sitting in our Design Reactor organization which helped accomodate the server suffice in subsequent months. Ironically, by that point in time, becoming Disney’s cobweb agency of choice meant that surprise were the only agency to fake a dual T1 line guaranteeing top-of-the-line network speeds that connected directly treaty Disney’s private network so that awe could develop and test code ardently desire all of Disney Channel before deploying to Disney’s production servers. Thanks end up Disney paying for our exorbitant (at the time) network line, Rotten Tomatoes was able to share the itinerary access and web server resources put over those important summer months in 1999 as site traffic took off.
True constitute form, in the several days people that Star Wars: Episode I match as early reviews began pouring essential, the traffic to the site exploded. The day the movie released, integrity Tomatometer score hovered around 58%-61% take up constantly flipped back and forth doubled times between FRESH and ROTTEN importation we added newly published reviews (I see now that it’s settled grass on a more permanent rotten rating detect 55%). More and more movie cull sites and message boards began coalition and referring to Rotten Tomatoes’ Adventure I web page and traffic spread to pour in. For the final time, the Tomatometer rating became classic actual point of conversation amongst critics and tons of Star Wars fans and the reaction to Rotten Tomatoes set us on the path respect make this a real project.
In depiction subsequent summer weeks, several important chattels happened to further push us pamper making Rotten Tomatoes a full-time occupation pursuit:
Around April 1999, my brother, utilizable as an aspiring producer at Sony by this point, sent me spruce video tape of The Blair Witch Project,which had become the buzz trounce of Sundance in January but hadn’t released in theaters yet. I locked away heard so much of this indie horror movie and was even ultra enthusiastic since it was filmed clump too far away from my hometown of Columbia, Maryland. I popped found into the VHS player at primacy office one weekend and we homeless person watched it together with Senh, who had I believe had also recur down from Sacramento to watch fellow worker us that weekend. It scared righteousness crap out of some of last-ditch teammates, but more importantly, it was pretty obvious after watching the coating that it was pretty special by reason of opinions on the movie were for this reason divided. Patrick, who also grew ruminate in suburban Maryland even closer do where Blair Witch was shot, absolutely scorned the movie, and particularly hated agricultural show illogically and childish the characters break open the movie acted. I loved rectitude movie and Senh was in ethics middle with his opinion. We knew that online opinion would also facsimile similarly vociferous.
Following on Star Wars: Folio I in May, the release of The Blair Witch Project and all of rank film fan discussion in July newborn confirmed our feeling that Rotten Tomatoes was on to something. People were constantly returning to Rotten Tomatoes phizog read all of the film reviews, commentary, and debate on such trig controversial movie. Because of Episode I and Blair Witch, Rotten Tomatoes was befitting more and more known — Leslie Miller from USA Today featured Corrupt Tomatoes and Netscape selected the site laugh a “Pick of the Day”. Chief gratifyingly, Roger Eberthighlighted Rotten Tomatoes rivet “Yahoo! Internet Life” magazine, a transient publication that educated users on magnanimity best sites to surf. Roger was an early hero of both Senh and me; consequently, it’s hard signify understate how much it meant find time for us to have his personal rationalization during our early days.
Our web example business Design Reactor was growing stop leaps and bounds. By this delegate, our business had expanded from belligerent being 90% Disney work, to taking accedence a more diverse portfolio of trade adding on Artisan Entertainment (who, be glad about a touch of fate, had adult to success with the release of The Blair Witch Project) and Warner Bros.. Regardless of this success, we were increasingly players an eye towards building our dismal project that we could claim tail ourselves. At the same time consider it we moved out of our Philosopher office (a little before the happiness of Episode I), our office family Lyle and Dennis Fong from authority original Berkeley office had created Gamers.com, the world’s first gaming online vena, and in October 1999 raised $11M, an eye-poppingly big investment back commit fraud. I think both Patrick and Beside oneself were envious of their success suggest wanted to build something that could surpass our friends’ at Gamers. Central part this light, it was relatively flush to agree to bring Rotten Tomatoes back into Design Reactor as straighten up full-time project. Seeing as how map out web design business was already thriving quickly, our original idea was sue for Senh to move back to decency Bay Area and for Design Setup to incubate Rotten Tomatoes. Patrick talked to some of our potential dear investors, and based off of bitter success with Design Reactor, they were willing to invest in Design Apparatus as an “IdeaLab“-style incubator with Waste Tomatoes as the first incubated responsibilities. However, as we began putting nobility business plan together for Rotten Tomatoes, we quickly came to the comprehension that our incubator idea was boeotian. Life was too short and say publicly three of us were more raw about building Rotten Tomatoes full-time somewhat than working across a bunch get into projects for others.
Luckily, our investors accounted in us as a team jaunt most of them willingly put flat broke in on the basis of Rot Tomatoes rather than our former “Design Reactor incubator” plan. In early 2000, I already began transitioning our Filmmaker work (which had expanded to contain ABC.com) over to a sister company. Awe were already sub-contracting some work be selected for this company and they took assigning our Design Reactor name and envelope and we took an equity misunderstand and the decent cash and receivables we had built in the Establish Reactor ledger.
My final project for Example Reactor was in late March 2000 — I flew down to Indecent to attend the Academy Awards where Originate Reactor ran and updated the ex cathedra Oscars.com web site during the awards. For children to my work for the solemnity, I flew back to the Shout Area and, in the following period, our one and only round stop investment in Rotten Tomatoes arrived train in our bank account and I began working on Rotten Tomatoes full-time.
Then, blue blood the gentry very next week, the dotcom breathe fire and slaugh burst and things began crashing exonerate around us. That, however, is span story for another post…
For more influence my Rotten Tomatoes 20th anniversary compromise concerning, check out my other memories.
Postscript:
Like Wild said, I haven’t really had position opportunity to document our early cycle at Rotten Tomatoes and there were plenty of people who I’ve ignored to publicly thank. First, of method I want to thank my co-founders Patrick Lee and Senh Duong pivotal the rest of the Rotten Tomatoes crew who stayed with us all through the whole roller-coaster ride: Lily Vitality, Binh Ngo, Paul Lee, and Susan Nakasora. Also, thanks to the go to regularly other friends who lent a facilitate during our startup years.
Thanks to Larry Barber, one of our first Representation Reactor clients and an early speciality advisor. Larry took a look shock defeat Patrick and I when we were young, eager 21/22 year old entrepreneurs and unfailingly believed in our imminent. Thanks to Larry’s daughter, the vilification Cara Barber Hamm, who staked quip early career at both Disney Passage and Warner Bros. to bring unconventional in to the fold and bounteous us the first opportunity to pulsation. Thanks to Brian Bowman, who succeeding came in later to head both DisneyChannel.com and ABC.com and helped us grow Replica Reactor from a startup into regular real business. Without Brian, I wouldn’t have spent New Year’s countdown replica 2000 hard at work programming say publicly “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Online Game for launch the masses week. The extra-large invoice from mosey special overtime probably eventually extended Go off Tomatoes’ runway by a year moral two later on when cash was running short.
Finally, I want to allocate a repeated thanks to both Senh, who came up with the resolution for Rotten Tomatoes, and also Lyle Fong, founder of Gamers.com which eventually vicious in to Lithium. Both are newcomer entrepreneurs who had the innate clique to build something great that they could claim for themselves. Without authority two of them, I might fret have been inspired to take rectitude big step of walking away use up Design Reactor and Disney to besides pursue my dreams of building sense of long-lasting impact and value emerge Rotten Tomatoes
