She Started With $25 Donations on Kickstarter — Now Her Chinese Noodles and Sauces Are Sold in Over 12,000 Stores
Fly By Jing’s founder, Jing Gao, reveals the secret ingredient for turning cultural pride into a thriving business.
Make sure you have a cold beverage at the ready because this episode of How Success Happens is fire.
My guest was Jing Gao, founder and CEO of Fly By Jing, the spicy Chinese sauce and noodle brand that transformed the sleepy “international aisle” into the literally hottest spot in grocery stores nationwide. Jing was born in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province and raised “around the world,” as she puts it. She originally followed a traditional business path, working in tech, before a move back to China pulled her toward food and her cultural roots. She studied with master chefs, opened an award-winning modern Chinese restaurant in Shanghai, and launched Fly By Jing as an underground supper club where she told me guests’ eyes would “light up” the first time they tasted her now-famous Sichuan chili crisp. That pop-up project evolved into a pioneering packaged-food brand that’s now on shelves at over 12,000 retailers across the country.
Watch the video above to see how my taste buds stand up to the chili crisp, and read on for Jing’s insights to help ignite your personal success take off in three, two, one!
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Three Key Insights
1. Fear Is the Price of Admission—Pay It
Jing delayed launching her Kickstarter campaign for months because, she admits, she was a bit terrified. “There was a ton of fear around being so vulnerable — you put your blood, sweat and tears out on the internet for everyone to see and to judge and to decide whether they want to give you their $25,” she told me. But she reframed it as proof of concept: if people wouldn’t back her Kickstarter, why uproot her entire life in Asia to launch in LA? She studied successful campaigns, cold-emailed journalists, and went all in. Within the first day, she was fully funded. The campaign exceeded its goal by several thousand percent and gave her the critical first 1,000 customers she needed.
Takeaway: Reframe the risk of rejection as a proof of concept.
2. Innovate One Step at a Time
One of Jing’s most powerful pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: watch your layers of innovation or risk confusing customers. “When there are too many layers of newness, that just means the added complexity and amount of resources required to educate people and to market to people,” she explained. Fly By Jing introduced a textured hot sauce—something that required a spoon, not a squeeze bottle—while also redefining what Chinese food could mean to Western consumers. That’s multiple layers of innovation stacked on an unfamiliar category. It worked, but it required immense effort. Her advice? “Take what already is out there and then add like maybe one level of innovation so that it’s easier for people to understand, accept, and not so difficult for you to make a splash without having to raise a ton of money.”
Takeaway: Keep products and services simple enough that customers can instantly “get it.”
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3. Your Personal Taste Is Your North Star
When I asked Jing how she calibrated spice levels for different palates, she said something surprising: she doesn’t. “I think the way that I’ve approached product development throughout my whole journey is really just to tailor it to my own tastes. Something that feels really personal and real and authentic to myself typically tends to translate well to others.” She saw this validated through hundreds of underground supper club events in Shanghai, where diners from all walks of life—people who’d never even heard of Sichuan cuisine—fell in love with the flavors she grew up with. That taught her an essential truth: authenticity resonates universally.
Takeaway: Don’t water down your vision to please everyone—your unique perspective is what will make your product stand out.
Two Great Ways to Learn More
- Follow Jing Gao on Instagram (@jingtheory), where she regularly shares entrepreneurship tips, book recommendations, and behind-the-scenes insights.
- Read the playbook of a couple who turned a spicy tomato sauce recipe into a side hustle that makes them $15,000 a month.
One Question to Ponder
What is the go-to dish that you make at home, and what would you name it if you could instantly package and sell it on store shelves?
Send your answer to howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com. Your response could be read on a future episode!
About How Success Happens
Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It’s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.
Make sure you have a cold beverage at the ready because this episode of How Success Happens is fire.
My guest was Jing Gao, founder and CEO of Fly By Jing, the spicy Chinese sauce and noodle brand that transformed the sleepy “international aisle” into the literally hottest spot in grocery stores nationwide. Jing was born in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province and raised “around the world,” as she puts it. She originally followed a traditional business path, working in tech, before a move back to China pulled her toward food and her cultural roots. She studied with master chefs, opened an award-winning modern Chinese restaurant in Shanghai, and launched Fly By Jing as an underground supper club where she told me guests’ eyes would “light up” the first time they tasted her now-famous Sichuan chili crisp. That pop-up project evolved into a pioneering packaged-food brand that’s now on shelves at over 12,000 retailers across the country.
Watch the video above to see how my taste buds stand up to the chili crisp, and read on for Jing’s insights to help ignite your personal success take off in three, two, one!
