Rotten Tomatoes: A Uniquely Asian-American Success Story
Find out how it all started -- and almost ended -- as Rotten Tomatoes' Alex Vo reflects on the mission of founders Senh Duong, Stephen Wang, and Patrick Lee, and how their vision still drives the brand today.
And then there were seven. Doing the job of 25.
The year is 2001: Rotten Tomatoes, nearing its third birthday, is on the brink of dying a dotcom death. Despite launching to immediate growth and notoriety in 1998, profitability for the site was worlds away. In those days, you woke up every morning to the overnight news that another once-sizzling Silicon Valley startup failed. pets.com. Webvan. eToys.com. CDNow. Rotten Tomatoes had a weirder name than all of them. The site had no previous business model to work off of. Exactly how do you make money collecting movie reviews?