Sep 10 2013 — first money self-earned for VNG

September 10, 2013. The milestone marking the first money we earned ourselves for VNG (before that we'd lost a lot of money, haha). I call it "earned ourselves" because this is a product we developed ourselves, self-this, self-that, self-a-lot-of-things. Only when you start making money do you realize every coin comes covered in bone and blood — the team has been sitting here all afternoon fixing bugs, big ones and small ones, the full set. But no matter how brutal it gets, it's a thrill every time an email comes in: "abc has subscribed to the 200,000 VND package" (I'm sitting here writing this and the emails are still coming, each one means the monthly payment record is getting broken <3). Thanks to everyone who stood shoulder to shoulder with me — Tien, Dang, Tho, Dinh Ba Truc, Jason Đinh, Nghia, Doan Ngoc Bao, the 123pay team Sinh, and everyone I forgot to tag or who's not on FB to tag.

But the battle is still long — bleeding, cracked heads, broken strength, lives lost still lie ahead.