Updates

If you read the tech news recently, you might know that Wildfire Interactive, the company I’ve worked with as a contractor in the last 3 years, was just acquired by Google. Due to the new policy, the company will no longer work with outside contractors. At the end of August, I will part ways with Wildfire after all my work transition is completed. 

Working with Wildfire is a unique experience in my career. It has been a joy for me to collaborate with Wildfire since the early days and watched the company grow from a small startup with a few people to a market-leader with offices around the world and being a part of the Google family. I will miss the chances to work with the most awesome and talented people in the industry. I want to take this opportunity to thank to Alain Chuard, Remy Burger and other team members for helping me during the last three years. I’ve learned a lot from you guys!

So what’s next?

I will focus on the iOS app that I’ve been working on for a while. I’m also working on the redesigns of my sites. My portfolio also needs a major update.

I’m available for UI/app design work. If you think I’m a good fit for your next projects, please let me know.

My brainchild turns six

Today six years ago, there was a 20-year-old boy, kind of naïve, sitting in an Internet café and calling up a close friend who was studying in UK. The boy asked his friend for suggestions on some brands and domain names, which would be used for his upcoming web design studio. Some people told him that he was crazy. Indeed, he was! The boy was very hungry but so excited. He felt his blood flowing and burning in his vein. He was about to launch a rocket.

That boy was me and Frexy, a little startup I made on that day turns 6 today. The past six years with Frexy filled me up with hard work and passion. It also was so much fun. It was and is being a great lifetime experience for me. It changed my life forever. Now, six years later, I’m sitting on my comfort chair in an office based in sunny Saigon, Vietnam, working with clients and partners around the world. Frexy has grown from a soloist into a small studio of five awesome creative guys. The business has undergone and exploded in the way I never thought about before. During the past six years, I had chances to work with many awesome people and businesses. We have yet to grow much in terms of scope, but our portfolio and quality of work expand and develop greatly each day.

Before that, I never had no idea how to run a business; I had “nearly zero” clients; there’s no bank account at all, and I even couldn’t afford my own Internet connection. I didn’t have an office; my workspace was a 9m2 room that I shared with other guys, and it’s also the place where I ate and slept. I didn’t have what people consider as a business owner in common sense; but I did have two things: 1. The passion of doing what I really love, and 2.The firm belief in starting something that I had pursued with empty hands.

Frexy has been successful thanks to the fact that it not only helps me to save money for the rainy day, but it enables me to build up a career that I didn’t imagine about before, even in my dream.

I want to take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to all of my friends, my partners, my clients, my colleagues and especially, my talented brother/business partner Vu Tran and my gorgeous girlfriend Truc Nha. Without them, Frexy couldn’t be what it is today. Cheers with me!

Camera+ for iPhone: $253,000 in First-Month Sales

cameronmoll:

tap tap tap’s Camera+, which sells for $1.99 in the App Store, sold 217,000 copies in its first month. That’s a quarter-million dollars in one month of sales for an app that sells for two bucks.

Is it surprising to anyone that, right now, any mobile platform other than iOS is “largely out of the consciousness of your average developer”?

BTW, the article, written by founder John Casasanta, contains lots of good advice for those hoping to accomplish the same as tap tap tap.

/via @jaredfitch