Jason Wong: From selling candy to building global businesses  

By Jordan Hoover, AsAmNews Intern

Since an early age, Jason Wong has pursued his entrepreneurial spirit. From selling gum and candy in school to starting his own meme business, Wong always knew he loved to sell products, he told AsAmNews.

Now, the 28-year-old is the founder and CEO of multiple companies, including Doe Lashes, Saucy, and Paking Duck.

Wong was born in Hong Kong and moved to the U.S. with his mother when he was 7 years old. At the time, neither spoke English, and Wong had to learn the value of hard work early on, he said.

Taking on the kindness of their relatives and friends, Wong started working in the back of restaurants as a child until the age of 16. He chopped vegetables, took orders, and did everything in between at different businesses in each city they lived in. 

“At a young age, it was instilled in me that you have to work hard to make it in this country. And if you do, there’s a great reward at the end of it,” Wong said. 

Moving around a lot as a child, Wong lived in predominantly Hispanic or White neighborhoods. 

“I never really had like that, that sense of fitting in as an Asian person in America up until high school,” said Wong. 

Finding his community

With advice from a friend, 15-year-old Wong started a Tumblr blog to connect with others. 

Despite his username @asian, he did not post about his ethnicity but wrote about funny subjects. He found humor, jokes, and memes as a way to connect with people, he said. 

“And for someone that didn’t really understand the language, it was a great way for me to make friends,” Wong said.

On the platform, Wong found his identity and ultimately started building his first business. Through his large audience and community, he built, Wong started promoting other companies. One of the earliest companies he worked with was Shein, he said, which was much smaller then than it is now.

“And that’s how I got to make my first $100 online and how I got to experience e-commerce,” he said.

Eventually, Wong amassed over 30 million followers across all of his social media and network accounts, he said. He saw his influence as an opportunity to sell his own products. Under the name Trendy Co, he started his first business selling t-shirts with memes on them.

Navigating viral success and dropping out of college 

While studying in community college in 2016, Wong decided to create the Holy Meme Bible, a coloring book of the year’s most viral memes.

Despite not having the products made, he posted the idea on his blog, labeling it as the “Most Viral Christmas Gift of the Year,” he said. A week later, it sold out, and Wong earned a profit of about a quarter million dollars.

Thrown into the deep end of e-commerce, Wong had to make the product fast, he said. He dropped out of college and quickly taught himself Photoshop and the skills he needed to make the books. Later on, Wong launched five more editions, made meme cookbooks, candles, and other products. 

Bridging the gap between Asia and the U.S. with business

Since his Tumblr success, Wong has founded several companies that have bridged the gap between Asian and American needs. 

“The way that my brain works is… I’m going to find an opportunity and see how I can insert myself in this opportunity,” he said. 

In 2018, he saw a lack of Asian brands represented in beauty stores. Observing how the market overwhelmingly served European beauty standards, Wong aimed to provide a different option. With $500, he founded Doe Lashes, a company that makes eyelashes catered to Asian Americans. By the first year, he turned a profit of $1 million, and by the next, he doubled it. 

Later in 2020, Wong decided to start another company, Saucy, to help connect the U.S. and China’s supply chain. Saucy is a sourcing partner that helps its customers find products and manufacturing in China at discounted prices, according to Wong.

While still involved in both companies, Wong’s main attention today is captured by his newest venture, Paking Duck, a custom packaging manufacturer. Created in 2023, Wong started Paking Duck after he found a need to grow the packaging market.

“And you can kind of see like throughout my trajectory of the business, everything kind of bounced off of each other,” he said. “It’s really about fixing a problem from a previous business I had.”

Now the company sources packaging for over 2,500 brands, including Vita Coco, Elliot Cole, Quest, and Venus et Fleur. 

Looking ahead 

Wong is currently focused on building AI tools to improve Paking Duck’s internal efficiency with final plans to sell the AI systems for profit. Meanwhile, he doesn’t see himself pursuing other business ventures anytime soon. 

“But I think down the line, there’s always opportunities for me. I think working in the technology side, I think that’s the next step I want to get into,” he said.

Wong encourages anyone to be an entrepreneur, but you must be prepared for the long hours and grind, he said.

“So number one advice is try to get as much experience as you can on someone’s dime, whether through an internship or through a job,” he said.

When asked about his legacy, Wong hasn’t thought much about it. He is more focused on the present, but he wants his story to be an example of an Asian American’s non-traditional path towards success. 

“I think back when I started, there were really no familiar faces of people that were doing business that I could look up to. And I’m not saying I’m doing this, so people can look up to me,” he said. “But, at least give an example to other Asian Americans that the traditional pathway that our parents want us to go through might not be the only option.”