Jing Gao’s Chili Crisp Business Grew 10x In Their Second Year
In her early 20s Jing Gao moved back to China for a tech job—but she soon ditched her full time gig to dive into the Chinese food scene and launch a food blog. By the age of 25, she landed a business partner and opened a 'Chipotle for China' restaurant concept in Shanghai.
The restaurant was a massive hit—but after two years Jing's business partner pushed her out.
"I was obviously devastated because I felt like I had lost my baby that I had built and had poured every part of myself into, but the only way forward that I could see was just to move on and move on as quickly as possible."
Jing kept working in the food scene, running an underground supper club, when she saw a gap in the American market for higher-quality ingredients and better tasting Chinese flavors and started making and bottling her own sauces for friends and family.
After perfecting her first sauce, Jing figured out a way to "game the Kickstarter algorithm" and raise $120,000 from 1,700 backers to fund production and launch Fly by Jing.
Jing's Kickstarter tips:
The video is the most important part of your campaign. Keep it clear and quickly communicate your value proposition.
When thinking about your offering, make sure there’s something at the $25 price because that’s the price most people on Kickstarter will back.
Kickstarter will push campaigns guaranteed to come to fruition (i.e. be fully funded). Make sure you’re fully funded within a couple of days by setting your fundraising goal a little lower and securing press to generate buzz.
Then came Fly by Jing's ecommerce launch. To get traction Jing DIY-ed her PR outreach, tapped Instagram and TikTok, and leaned on her Kickstarter community—who rallied behind the brand, reordering and spreading the word about Fly by Jing.
Next came Amazon and within six months Jing's wildly popular Sichuan Chili Crisp became the #1 best-selling hot sauce on Amazon.
The business grew quickly in 2020 as people started cooking at home more, and Fly by Jing attracted attention as one of the first modern Asian food brands. In 2021, the brand 3x'ed and ended up raising money from investors. Today, Jing leads a team of 20.
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