How a 29-Year-Old Bought a Chinese Factory From New York

Jason Wong bought the factory that makes your packaging in China. He's 29, tracking for 9 figures, and making boxes for the fastest-growing DTC brands out there. He spent 13 years building ecom brands. Then he realized every product in the world needs packaging, walked into the factory making his own, and offered to buy them out. Today Paking Duck runs 4 locations in China, gets 100 to 200 inquiries a week from TikTok content, and has never sent an outbound email. Jason sits down with Monish Sabnani at the Studio in Hong Kong to break down the deal, the content engine, and the AI running inside the factory. We also get into the 30+ companies he's invested in, why he's borrowing his five-year plan from Hilton and Marriott, the near-bankruptcy, how to do business in China like a local, and why he'd start with dropshipping today. Everything from this episode, structured into a free playbook: https://www.elevatorgoods.com/talks/jason-wong Follow Jason Wong: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pug/ X: https://x.com/eggroli LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imjasonwong/ Website: https://www.jasonwong.co/ Paking Duck: https://www.pakingduck.com/ Follow Elevator: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatorgoods/ X: https://x.com/elevatorgoods YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Elevatorgoods LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevator-goods/ Website: https://www.elevatorgoods.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1fCirPyNlzTxT4hOOH0tVC Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elevator-talks/id1896325680 Follow Monish Sabnani (Host): Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msabnani93/ X: https://x.com/msabnani93 Chapters: 00:00 Meet Jason Wong: starting businesses as a teenager 05:36 From building brands to sourcing and packaging 07:20 The deal that turned his supplier into his next business 09:28 The world of Elevator Goods 10:57 The hidden costs in your packaging supply chain 13:17 Expanding from one factory to four 14:15 Running Chinese factories from New York 17:00 Competing in the factory business 20:31 Lower costs and a different approach to content 21:59 AI in production, operations, and content 25:31 Why he moved deeper into the supply chain 28:48 How business actually gets done in China 33:02 Why you never negotiate at the dinner table 34:11 Hong Kong as a gateway to doing business in China 34:34 Borrowing the hotel model for packaging factories 37:10 Turning excess demand into a factory network 39:53 Coming close to bankruptcy twice 41:59 Why he'd start with dropshipping today 45:45 Building an investment portfolio through an audience 51:52 Why he favors software and invests in his own clients 54:04 Why AI makes creativity more valuable 55:31 Finding business ideas in other industries 59:17 Rapid fire: packaging, founders, and tools 1:00:15 How Lark changed his team's workflow 1:01:58 Hiring operations and staying connected to the team 1:03:33 Why meetings should be for discussions, not reports Subscribe for more conversations about growing brands. #ecommerce #elevatorgoods #elevatortalks #manufacturing #businessinchina