David Yu: 2023 EY entrepreneur of the year with Aotearoa’s fastest growing company

·48 min·4 clips

David Yu's company Vivi sold 10 million digital collectibles and won New Zealand's fastest growing company award.

The episode begins with host Simon Pound introducing David Yu, whose company Vivi was named New Zealand's fastest growing company and won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Yu explains Vivi as a digital collectibles platform built by collectors for collectors, featuring licensed characters from Marvel, DC, Sony, and others. He describes the app's AR features that allow users to project 3D models into their environment and share them on social media. Yu details Vivi's use of blockchain for authentication and provenance, distinguishing it from many NFTs by focusing on utility and existing fan bases. He reveals Vivi's biggest drop was a Back to the Future DeLorean that sold 85,000 units and grossed $7 million in hours. The app has over 3 million downloads and about 700,000 users with collectibles. Yu shares his entrepreneurial background, starting with selling reused stamps and handmade stamp sets as a child to fund his hobby. He later opened a retail store in Takapuna in 1997, selling trading cards and games, which taught him cash flow management and community building. Yu discusses the challenges of launching Vivi, including convincing major IP studios like Marvel and Disney to license to a pre-revenue startup from New Zealand. He and his co-founder Dan pitched with PowerPoints, editing slides between meetings, and faced hundreds of rejections. A turning point was the COVID-era launch in 2021, where technical issues and bot attacks occurred, but the DeLorean drop brought massive success. Yu recalls nearly shutting down at Christmas 2020, having to lay off staff due to cash flow issues. Vivi has since expanded with physical integrations, like Funko statues and Christian Louboutin shoes that include digital collectibles. The company recently launched Vivi Comics, a new platform allowing users to buy and mint limited edition digital comics with gamified rare covers. Yu envisions future growth into music and wearable tech like Apple Vision Pro, aiming to make digital collecting a globally accepted experience.

As heard by us

A grounded founder story about turning collector retail instincts into Vivi's digital business.

Business is Boring follows David Yu from a Takapuna shop opened in 1997 to Vivi, the digital collectibles company later named New Zealand's fastest growing company at the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards and recognised at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

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