Chapter
Sparrow
2018–2026I joined to build a company.
I stayed because of the people.
From the present
Looking back, I don't remember every milestone.
I remember who was standing beside me.
The Beginning
I Took the Leap.
Looking back, joining Sparrow almost feels inevitable.
At the time, it felt anything but.
Crypto was still misunderstood. There was no playbook, no certainty, and no guarantee that any of it would work.
I simply believed it was worth building something ambitious.
I didn't realise I was also building the chapter that would shape the next eight years of my life.
Memory
The Best Things Were Never Written Down.
Nobody announced a culture.
There was no handbook telling people to stay late decorating the office, remember birthdays, or make sure nobody celebrated alone.
Yet somehow, it happened.
Charmaine always remembered birthdays before anyone else did.
Cherie, Rina, Kristal, Naomi and Xuebin stayed behind long after work, turning ordinary evenings into Christmas lights, birthday surprises, and dinners that nobody wanted to end.
Looking back, I do not remember every decoration we built.
I remember the people who quietly made the office feel like home.
Little Things
The memories were rarely the official ones.
Friday Nights
Sometimes work quietly turned into dinner, and dinner quietly turned into conversations that lasted until midnight.
Movie Nights
Sometimes the whole company sat in the same cinema. No presentation. No agenda. Just people choosing to spend time together.
Random Nights
Some nights were not planned enough to become official memories. They became the ones people kept replaying anyway.
JB Trips
A short drive across the border became another reason to eat, laugh, and spend a little more time together.
Office Decorations
The office changed with the seasons because someone always stayed behind long enough to make it feel alive.
The Indonesia Team
The circle grew beyond one office, but the feeling of building alongside one another remained familiar.
Milestone
The Day the Room Exploded.
It started like every other workday.
People were replying to emails, rushing between meetings, debating over tiny product decisions that felt important at the time.
Then someone read the announcement.
"I... P... A."
For a second, nobody reacted.
Then the entire office erupted.
People laughed, shouted across the room, and somehow every conversation became one celebration.
Xuebin was still inside a meeting room.
He looked through the glass wondering why everyone had suddenly abandoned their desks.
When he finally walked out and asked what happened, twenty people shouted the same answer.
"IPA!"
He jumped too.
I no longer remember what the announcement actually said.
I only remember how everyone looked when they realized we had reached it together.
Trust
Words became unnecessary.
There came a point where Charmaine and Cherie understood what I needed before I said anything.
Sometimes it was work. Sometimes it was something personal. Sometimes it was just a glance across the room.
That wasn't efficiency. It was years of showing up for one another.
Trust is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is simply knowing who stayed close enough to understand.
Maybe Sparrow was never only the company.
Maybe it was the culture we carried with us.The way people continued treating one another after the office was gone.
The People
A company is remembered
through the people who carried it.
Companies are remembered for what they build.
I remember the people I built it with.
Some stayed for months. Some stayed for years. Some became lifelong friends.
Long after the projects faded, they were still the people I remembered.
Belonging
The Circle Kept
Widening.
Over time, new people entered our lives who had never worked at Sparrow.
Nobody had to explain why they belonged.
They simply did.
After Sparrow
What Remained Was Not the Company.
The work ended, but the people kept appearing.
That was how I learned which relationships belonged only to a chapter, and which ones had become part of my life.
After Sparrow
The destinations changed. The people didn't.
At first, travel belonged to work.
Later, it belonged to the friendships the work had created.
The cities changed. The reason changed. But the people beside me still felt familiar.
After Sparrow
Then we started celebrating each other's lives.
At some point, the invitations stopped being company events.
They became weddings, birthdays, and family celebrations.
Life kept moving. We simply kept showing up for one another.
After Sparrow
One More Chair.
Every gathering looks a little different.
Someone brings a partner.
Someone introduces a friend.
A new colleague who never knew Sparrow somehow becomes part of the tradition.
The conversations have changed.
The stories have changed.
The people around the table have changed.
Yet the feeling remains strangely familiar.
Perhaps that's how you know a chapter has outgrown the company that began it.
Every year, there seems to be one more chair.
I joined Sparrow hoping to build something meaningful.
I left realizing the most meaningful thing I built was never the company.Next Chapter
Atlas
Some places teach you how to build. Others teach you why.
Sparrow taught me that the real map was never just places, companies or milestones. It was people.
Continue to Atlas ->Every chapter leaves traces.Some become the next map.
Continue to Crossroads ->