Operators Titans E009: Dropout to David Beckham’s Cofounder: Danny Yeung, CEO of IM8

Matt Bertulli and Sean Frank sit down with Danny Yeung, co-founder and CEO of IM8. Danny shares his journey from immigrating to San Francisco at age five, to telemarketing at fifteen, to partnering with one of the world’s most famous athletes and building the fastest-growing supplement brand in history.

The conversation covers Danny’s scrappy early ventures in dessert franchises and hotel furniture, his bold move to Hong Kong to build a Groupon competitor that sold within six months, taking Prenetics public as Hong Kong’s largest COVID testing provider, the gut-wrenching decision to cut 2,000 employees down to under 100, and finally landing David Beckham as a co-founder to launch IM8.

Chapters

00:00:00 Danny Yeung, CEO of IM8
00:02:09 Immigrating from China
00:05:01 Kicked Out of 3 Schools
00:08:45 Telemarketing at Fifteen
00:13:30 The Dessert Shop Gamble
00:17:24 Fake Employees at the MGM
00:22:44 Barracuda to Hong Kong Move
00:28:06 Building a Groupon Competitor
00:34:30 Selling to Groupon in Months
00:38:58 Pivoting Into Genetic Testing
00:48:04 Going Public Then Crashing
00:50:25 Cutting 2,000 Jobs Overnight
00:53:59 David Beckham Says “Yes”
01:02:44 Building IM8 From Day One
01:05:20 Why Celebrity Brands Fail
01:10:03 Titan 10 Rapid-Fire Questions

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