Paul: Everyone at RT was pretty much a night owl. Half the company would drift into work around 11 am and the other half by 1 pm. Lily was the only one who would be in at 9 am. Of course, we always got our work done, but most of the world had already done half a day's work by the time we got started. So after several unsuccessful attempts to encourage people to come in earlier (it would happen for, like, three days before everyone reverted back to their usual schedules), Patrick instituted something called the Pig.

The Pig was kinda like an evil piggybank. People who came in after 10 am would have to pay a few bucks into the Pig. After 11, more sums would have to be sacrificed to the Pig. At the end of the month, all the funds in the Pig would be used for a company lunch and dinner. Needless to say, we had some nice lunches and dinners, but coming in around noon seemed to be more important than personal finances for everyone, with the exception of Lily.

Senh Duong: The one time I decided to come to work on time (8 am), there was an earthquake that shook the building and rattled the blinds for what seemed like an eternity (it was actually about 20 seconds). The only person at the office at that time was Lily. It took years before I could go to the office that early in the morning. At least that was my excuse for always being late.

In the case of Patrick Lee, there was no need to worry about being tardy to the office, since it became his unofficial place of residence.

Paul: Patrick didn't just sleep there, he actually lived in the office. There was a period -- 2003, I think -- that could be described as RT's darkest days. It wasn't that anybody was unhappy about working there or didn't believe that RT would become a viable business, but we had less than half of our initial funding left and revenues were growing a lot more slowly than we would have liked. At that point, there were just seven of us -- Patrick, Lily, Stephen, Binh, Susan, Senh, and me. To conserve cash as much as possible, Patrick and I basically reduced our salary to zero and everyone else took a 50 percent pay cut. No one at any time considered leaving to find greener pastures.

So basically, Patrick and I were living off our savings, and one day, he had this idea that rent was his biggest expense. Using the justification that he was a neat freak (believe me, Patrick is borderline obsessive compulsive when it comes to cleanliness), he kind of wondered aloud whether he could just simply move out of his apartment and live in the office. For showers, he would take them at the Club One that was on the office grounds. And just like that, he was living in the office for like five or six months.

Still, even during the rough patches, there was an esprit de corps that kept the company going.

Pizza Party at the RT office, Emeryville, 2000.
Lily: RT was my first startup, and in the beginning it took me a while to adjust to the entirely different culture. But this period of time at RT was one of the happiest several years of my career. It was a great pleasure working with a bunch of young, talented kids who were very passionate about what they did. I liked the entire RT team just as if they were my own sons.

Susan: When the workload was heavy and the stress high, Binh and I would giggle for no obvious reason and make up horrible puns. The latter activity was confined to instant messages, to spare the rest of humanity.

So yes, it was grueling at times, but RT was like a family, really.

Patrick Lee: We always said Rotten Tomatoes was a big happy family. We mostly hired friends we already knew (or referrals), and the few times we hired people outside of our circle, we were very careful to find people that we got along well with. The funny thing is ... Now some of us are a family. Senh ended up marrying Binh's cousin, so now they are cousins-in-law. And Susan ended up marrying my brother Bryan, so now she's my sister-in-law!

Next: Rotten Tomatoes hits the big time.