Entrepreneur of the week
12/28
David Fung
YouTube Star
Growing up, what values or pressures from your family shaped how you think about work, risk, and success today?
I think just seeing my dad be the only breadwinner in the family. He had to work really hard for it, and it stressed him out, and sometimes it stressed us out. I think just feeling like, if we didn't do something different, we were going to be the poorest people amongst our extended relatives. But I also always liked nice stuff, nice clothes, nice food. I think life is always a mix of the fire behind your back, the carrot, and the stick. People think it's only carrot or stick, but I think there's a larger macro thing as an immigrant (of course there's a variance of immigrant experiences to be fair) where it's a raging fire on your back - it's even more intense than a stick (if you are the metaphorical donkey)
Early on, what did people misunderstand or doubt about what you were building, and how did you push through that skepticism?
I just felt my life mission in my heart, to probably like a 10/10 level. And unless the person who told me to quit or that my idea was wack or "not gonna work" - was WAY more successful than me (and coming from zero leverage like me), within the exact same lane of life, there's no way I was going to listen to any dissent. I think a lot of people are like that. You need the relatability. I mean, the truth is, if you're 12/10 passionate about your own idea, even someone who is your big bro telling you "don't do this" still won't stop you. But a lot of people only like their own vision/dream at a 6/10 level, and the pushback might reach a 7/10 level. Seven is bigger than six, so they're going to break. So make sure you love your idea at like a 9+/10. Cuz it's gonna be really really rare someone you value, respect, and care about - hates your dream at a 10/10.
When did you realize that embracing Asian culture and your own identity was an advantage rather than a limitation?
Just when I realized there was so much depth and breath in the topic that was unexplored, unless someone lifted those heavy rocks, to show what was under those rocks. In America, it's easy to like...fit into the same old thing that everyone around is doing in your locality, and that may or may not have even 1% to do with educating yourself - on yourself. But I always knew it was important.
Why did you decide to start a chili oil company, and what made you confident Smala Sauce could be a real business and not just merch?
We knew we had a brand in the F&B Digital content space. And we really liked using Chinese-influenced chili oils everywhere around Asia. But the thing was most of them were in these super-traditional bottles and the flavors might have had ingredients at certain ratios that might not fit with Western audiences. We didn't want to make it merch, although we could have, because we wanted to people to take it serious within it's own product-segment and we felt like it could be bigger than our own brand was (which can wax and wane).
For young people who feel underestimated or boxed in by expectations, what mindset shift helped you change your own trajectory?
You gotta have that fire in you, to take control of your own life. A lot of people are part-time drivers or part-time pilots - of their own airplane! Because it's easier, or it's less-hours or it's like...less ownership. But then you can't be mad where the plane lands. Being like...the dog-sled leader of your own life at a 100% ownership level is hard. Easy to either take the path your parents wanted, or the life your community wanted for you. But if you don't want to have any regrets about giving up self-agency (I'm not saying you won't regret just overall business decisions you made in life, mistakes happen to everyone) - then you gotta kick everyone out of the cockpit of Star Command (that isn't just support staff for your chosen path like Sulu or Spock) and be the sole commander.
At what point did you realize you didn’t want a traditional career, and why did YouTube and storytelling feel like the right path for you?
When I job shadowed a couple people who had good jobs in High School. I met someone who went to Colombia Law School and Duke Undergrad and their life was horrible even though they had money in the bank (and of course some old-school parental communal status). He told me "Don't ever do this if your hearts not in it". I was like "damn I just need to make this happen within the pathway of my actual passion and work". When you give yourself no Plan B option in the video-game of life, thats a pretty good motivation to make your Plan A work.
Did being Asian make it harder to break into influencing or media at the start, and how did stereotypes impact your journey?
Yes and no. I'd say it gave me a really tight-knit community to start with, and we all felt some sort of mission due to Asian-Americans having almost zero representation in America at that time on either a Mainstream or even YouTube level (Asians were always stronger on self-produced content platforms though, and still are to this very day). But yes sometimes it made me feel like "no matter how good I do, I'm always going to be boxed in". Which may or may not be true functionally in terms of market demographics but in a way - who cares? We still got more than enough to do our thing.
What is the biggest misconception young people have about being an influencer or content creator?
That you can just be cool and fun and good-looking and make millions. Unless you're like top 0.0001% in some metric, you just gotta add value to a niche, then grow from that entrypoint in everyones mental attention-marketplace. You're fighting for market-share just like...a seltzer brand, ot a tequila-brand within a category. Any consumer product. But you're fighting for mental space or eyeball time
How did you think about turning attention and views into something sustainable instead of just chasing numbers?
I just figured I had to be adding a lot of value, so people should watch my material. I've seen people get rich chasing the "wrong things" but I've also seen a ton of people fail at it. The thing that "having true belief and passion" does is it gives you unlimited "at-bats". When you play the gimmick game, you might strike out, you might hit a homerun. Not everyone I've seen who is sustainable ever has the peaks but they might not have the valleys. Basically it's tough to sum up advice to anyones unique situation in a few quotes but I can try and educate people on frameworks that I think hold generally true for 95% of cases I've seen (that didn't involve some shadow thing going on the background).
What were the hardest or least glamorous parts of launching a physical product that most people never see online?
I'd say just the constant contact you need with your various supply-chain parties. You might have a handler that makes it smooth if you're like...Jake Paul or Mr. Beast but there's just a ton of back and forth day to day, things that need to get green-lit that are little things, but without owner sign-off the project can't even move forward. Like what bottlecaps to buy. Or if there's a minor issue at the factory, what's the course of action? Where are you going to actually physically store and distribute the product from geographically? Logistics stuff like that. Maybe that's why people just ship it out of their garage like merch or a direct-fulfill warehouse nearby. But then it's capped on scalability but it does reduce some chokepoints.