- yesterday
He failed at baking but rose to rule online retail, here's Jason’s unlikely UAE story
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00:00Hi everyone, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan. Today we are back with Dubai's success series
00:08and it gives me great privilege and it's a great honor to introduce Jason Kuao who has built his
00:15life really from Dubai. I think he is truly the epitome of what it takes to hustle hard in Dubai
00:21and come up with a winning formula. Jason, thank you so much for coming to Gulf News and sharing
00:26your incredible success story. Absolute pleasure being here Manjusha. It's such a great honor to
00:32be in your presence, your energy is absolutely fantastic. Let's start from the beginning, from a
00:36pizza delivery boy to your own boss. How did that transition happen? So actually I was at university
00:42and you know you're scrolling on Instagram, you're seeing these kids make money and in my mind I'm
00:46thinking how is this possible? You know I'm out here studying hard but I feel like I'm going to
00:50lectures, I'm still broke. So I'm like okay I'm gonna drop out, I'm gonna figure out how to make
00:55money online and I end up back home because I'm not sure what to do but then as I'm at home I'm
01:00thinking ah you know I need to make money, I need at least something you know some startup capital
01:04and then I start learning how to drive mopeds and then I get a job at Pizza Hut, I'm delivering
01:09pizzas, I'm saving all the money, I'm investing the money but I'm not getting the returns I want
01:12and I'm like okay I'm buying so many things off Amazon let me start selling on Amazon as well
01:17and then before I knew I was selling the sourdough baskets and as I was selling sourdough baskets on
01:22Amazon Covid hits and I'm making so much money at such a young age and it's so weird selling online
01:29because you send a stock to Amazon you look at your phone and it's like oh someone has bought
01:33something someone has bought something I'm not doing anything except speaking to my suppliers
01:37so it was an absolutely crazy experience for me but I thought I was so rich I ended up losing all
01:42that money after Covid because of not managing the stock properly but I kept learning I kept investing
01:49in myself and then I started working with brands helping them grow and scale on Amazon
01:53and then me and my wife we moved out to Dubai and yeah in Dubai we came it was like I really have
01:58to make this work and then in 12 months we built a company to 1 million pounds so it's been an
02:03interesting and entertaining journey but there's been lots of ups and downs ups and downs throughout
02:07the whole journey and there's been lessons that we've learned along the way I love that I love that I like
02:12the fact that you had the courage to drop out of college because every Indian parent says study
02:19first then become an actor singer whatever yeah how did your parents react to you say I'm going to drop
02:24out of college and make money well yeah it was it was very difficult for them I mean at the start I
02:29didn't even tell them you know I was just at home you know holiday I'm saying nothing is good in our
02:34university even when I started doing deliveries on the motor they they didn't like it and when I started my
02:40first day actually I slid on the road because it was raining and I went like at least three car lengths
02:46with the motorbike on the floor and I didn't tell my parents because I knew if I told them they'll be
02:50like don't do this go back to school and everything so they're very risk averse um they didn't like it
02:56but as my dad saw that okay I'm making money I'm helping out with the household I'm investing my money
03:01I'm not doing silly stuff going out clubbing and everything he could kind of sense okay this guy maybe
03:05has another vision but it's only now when they're seeing like the news articles and things coming out
03:10they're like whoa this guy really knew what he was doing we just didn't see it at that time
03:14this Sado idea I think that was like a I don't know being at the right place at the right time
03:19yeah yeah who would have thought it would take off yeah yeah no 100% I think throughout my life I feel
03:25like there's been moments where I do something and I'm not really sure what's going to come out of it
03:29but just because I take that first step and I was speaking to a friend about this recently it's like
03:34if we have an idea sometimes we think so far ahead of maybe this is going to happen this is going to go
03:38wrong but sometimes it's just about taking that first step and as you take that first step the
03:42next step will unfold and then you know luck will come in the way or maybe something drastic will
03:46happen but you just have to keep taking that one step before the other so tell me when you were going
03:50through the downs let's say what did you tell yourself what did you and your wife at that time
03:55were you married or did you get married recently um so we got married around two years ago um but my wife
04:01she's been absolutely amazing in our journey and uh when we first met actually um I realized very soon that
04:07this is someone I need in my life someone I need in my team and so many things in the world aligned
04:11for us to meet because where we even lived at university it's like we live 30 minutes away
04:16from the university but somehow her house is literally one minute from the corner from where
04:20I lived I was born in Holland she's also born in Holland and there were so many similarities that
04:24we had together even studying the same course uh one of my first products ended up failing on Amazon
04:29she gave me a quote she said every setback brings with a equal or greater comeback and you know she printed
04:35that I put on the wall as a quote to remind me okay let's keep going because I was used to always
04:40quitting when something fails but she told me now let's keep going stay persistent and I stayed
04:45persistent and that's how I found the sourdough thing and then before I knew it I was doing 10k
04:49per month selling on Amazon when the COVID hit then you see 10k is at 10 000 pounds oh wow that's
04:56a lot of money that's a lot of money and I was I think maybe 20 at that time so it was like
05:01I'd never made that much money in one go um and I wrote the date from the setback to the comeback and
05:07it's a picture that I keep even to date so if things are going wrong I know it's just a setup for things
05:12to go right right so when did you make your first one million dirhams in essence on Amazon we've been
05:18doing lots of sales like we're helping all these clients some clients do five million even in a month
05:23in pounds so like currencies we've been dealing with a lot but for us to have it as our own business the
05:28value of our business that only happened for us in January 2025 oh that's brilliant no no but that's
05:33good what's your relationship with money and I ask you this because you didn't grow up in the lap of
05:38luxury I'm assuming because yeah you had to deliver pizza we can do the math what's your relationship
05:44with it do you are you attached to it do you hold on to it yeah do you want to multiply it I'll see
05:49money as it comes to you if you're adding value to the world so as long as you're adding value to the
05:55world you're bringing joy to people you're making them happy um you're helping things move in the
06:00marketplace then you will make the money but I feel like when your only conception of money is that
06:06you need to work hard and you need to go to a job I feel like sometimes some people don't even like
06:09their job and they dread the money and they hold on tight to the money but when you make money in a
06:14way that you enjoy like even making videos on youtube I make money from that now I'm like I make money
06:18for making videos I enjoy this you know people pay me for this I'm so happy for it um so yeah
06:24there's so many different ways you can make money and for me it's I have fun when I make the money
06:28I have fun when I spend the money um the money comes and it goes obviously you want to keep some
06:32aside for investments for children and all of those things did you expect a sado basket to go viral
06:39during covid that is really like it's almost like a stroke of luck like a miracle right you wait for
06:45that to happen and it doesn't happen to everybody right we hear only the success stories what about
06:50the multiple times people have tried selling stuff on amazon or any other platform and failed
06:54spectacularly 100 100 so with the sourdough and covid happening it was really out of the blue because
07:02even when covid happened it was a time when I had my first daughter and then I had to stay at home
07:07I was actually working at a warehouse at that time as well but then I didn't know the good was going to
07:12come out of it as well did you also wonder why did you decide to put your money on it so when it
07:18comes to amazon actually there are tools that help you pick a product and I just did like my deductions
07:23I thought sourdough I really like bread I'm working with pizzas already my first job was actually a
07:28bakery so it just made sense it was just the right direction what can go wrong with bread exactly
07:34everyone needs bread you know everyone loves bread I love that I love that what about your failures talk
07:39me through that as well I mean success is amazing it's a great uh it's addictive but what about
07:44failures what does that teach you yeah I mean I had lots of failures I think one of my first failures
07:50I had a job I was working on the tills at asda and I knew I wanted to quit this job I wanted to do
07:56something more interesting so as I'm walking outside a university someone hands me over a flyer he's like
08:02if you can help me sell all of these properties or rent them out to students I'll give you a commission for
08:06it and to me I was looking to quit my job already because I thought you know soon they're going to
08:10replace me with AI so I took all the leaflets from the guy I'm like I'm going to sell all of these
08:14properties because there's so many students looking for places but as soon as I finished selling those
08:19properties all of a sudden the work is done I already quit my job so now I'm back broke again
08:23and I realized very soon if I'm going to do your business I need something that's consistent that I can
08:27consistently build on it's not that there's a limited inventory that I sell in the finishes and that's
08:33when I started sourcing items from China because now I have a steady supplier so when the stock
08:37finishes I can just buy more from them and I can put it back into the business if you're looking at
08:41other countries the trade is affected naturally when there's conflict how do you gear up for it
08:47it's your first time I'm sure with that kind of reality Covid was a reality we faced we didn't know
08:51where we were going I think when Covid happened initially people thought oh it's going to be okay it's
08:56going to be okay but then as things started to go and realized no this is not going to be okay for
09:01a long while things started to slow down even when I was ordering stuff from the suppliers all of a
09:05sudden the wait time was now longer people were buying in the UK but it was hard to actually get
09:09the stock yes but it helped in a way as well because now the stock that you did have available
09:13people are willing to pay more for it because it's harder to get so it plays a lot with like the money
09:18the fluctuations you have the statue of faith yes in your on your hand is that related to your
09:25success story as well yes certainly certainly so when we came to Dubai I was actually in London I
09:30was making a lot of money but my daughter Sophia she has autism so she wasn't speaking so I'm working
09:35so hard I'm thinking is it because I'm working so hard as a parent that she's not speaking and for
09:40me when things are going wrong I always know like it's time for me to change things so it can go right
09:44so we left the UK we literally packed our bags within like a month we were already out of there
09:49and I knew okay I wanted to actually become a millionaire by the time I'm 27 so I was 26 at
09:55the time and I'm thinking I have to make it happen now and I knew this journey that I'm about to go on
10:00all of the past failures I've had are all gonna come into play right now I have to keep going never
10:06quit um so now we we're traveling we're going to different countries but then it was like we love
10:11Dubai it's the place we want to build our family and our home and then we sat around Dubai and I
10:15got this tattoo because on my 27th birthday actually really yeah because I knew the journey is going
10:21to be one of the most hardest and most difficult journeys I'm ever going to have and I need faith
10:25I need to believe in the vision more than I believe in my fears when you came to Dubai how many or do you
10:30remember how much money did you have in your pocket we came to Dubai I don't know how much money we had
10:36but we had a lot of money because we were making a lot of money in the UK you you were fresh off that
10:39uh that way yeah yeah so it wasn't that uh crazy we had around let's say five figures in the account
10:46yes in pounds so it was it was good but now you come to Dubai you need to do your visa business my
10:52wife was pregnant we don't have insurance so we're paying everything out of pocket so that money is
10:56going down really quickly and you're seeing it go down but you're still figuring out the business
11:01you're trying to get more clients so the money is going down but not as much as coming back in yes so
11:04at some point we was actually going into debt um because every resource that we had we literally
11:10take money out of the stocks out of our investment um later on as we started posting more and then
11:14people are seeing our work and results then the money is coming in now we're making more money and
11:19you know then we're finally able to live the Dubai lifestyle because when we came the first year
11:22it was really work work work work work we weren't even going out on date nights or anything
11:27it was literally just working working working make a bit of money put it towards this
11:31becoming money put it towards that and only this year like we're actually able to go out you know
11:35have some fun i love how Dubai has become one of the cities where people come and try their luck
11:40and often uh what what about the city do you think really works for you is it is it the can-do attitude
11:46or what is it but it feels like the future you know um i love the energy of the city there's always
11:53hustle and bustle things are always going on i feel like it's really 24 hours even if i'm really at home
12:00night time i know i can order something or just come to my door yeah people just deliver noon same
12:04day delivery even in the amazon pickups they if you want to return an item they come to your house
12:09and pick up in the uk you have to go to the post office it's still a bit manual right i really love
12:14the convenience that they buy offer assistance second to none what was the most bizarre product that you
12:18that you gambled on and it actually took off so there's actually a surgical knife uh which you know you
12:24use like as a medical tool a medical product but i remarketed it and i actually put it on as
12:29like a sourdough sculpt um score and just score the bread to design the very important i really
12:35liked it people were buying it well unfortunately amazon kept taking it down because they're like
12:39this is a dangerous tool you know but did it work yeah it did work it made a lot of money i was making
12:44lots of profit from it i love that i love that so do you um right now at what juncture of business are
12:50you in would you call yourself a middle-tier businessman or how how would you like in uh in common man's
12:57balance i just think i'm a regular guy from court and he likes to make money online you know and yeah
13:03if you want to call me a businessman i'd call myself a middle-tier businessman oh i see i love the idea
13:08about people making money online because it's it's not a everybody hasn't cracked that code it's like
13:15digital journalism either you get it or not yeah how did you just decide online is the future online
13:20marketing online sales online everything yeah so when i was younger i was really obsessed with video
13:26games i i would play video games all the time i remember one time i broke my leg and i got off
13:32from school my leg wasn't really broken i'm gonna stay home so i can play video games and i can be
13:36better than all of my friends i realized you know i love this video i love tech and i sometimes i even
13:42wish i was born a bit later so i can be in like the metaverse and i can explore all of that because it's
13:46only going to get better and better but the human lifestyle i'm probably going to live to 100 that's
13:50right i want to see what's going to come next you know who are your heroes like do you have any movie
13:55hero that you saw and you're like you know what i'm that person i could be that dude you know i really
14:00love the way richard branson lives his life i absolutely love the way he has fun with his business
14:05and my wife really loves richard branson as well and there's one guy as well he's called vision
14:09lakiani founder of mind valley and he has a business where he educates people and very spiritual and
14:15that essence and i love that as well right what's next for you jason now that you have conquered sardo
14:21market surgical knives as sardo equipment that goes into the uh baking repertoire so actually for me
14:32what i really love is the media um what you guys are doing here i absolutely love it like making a
14:37video getting paid of making videos telling people stories because i think for me being exposed to
14:43the knowledge and being exposed to entrepreneurs like patrick batteevic from valutainment like when
14:48i was exposed to that my mind could not shrink back i found out about entrepreneurism at that age and
14:53i knew i have to become this you know so exposing as many people to different stories as possible
14:59i think that's the key for me and networking is key right people keep saying talk to people
15:04does that really help in business people think networking sometimes it's more so what can i get from
15:10this person but i look at networking like what can i give to this person right because the more value
15:14you add to people the more they want to add to your life like i've just met you and we're having
15:18a great conversation and i love your energy and i want to give give give but you're out here talking
15:23about you know you want to cook and you want to bring it into the office and people can enjoy that
15:26because the more you give to other people the more they want to give back it's just a natural law
15:30really okay and of course on a fun note what was the most extravagant thing that you bought
15:35since you made money in your 20s and you're like yeah i can buy this something spectacularly useless
15:40as well what i did buy i haven't splurged recently but what i did buy uh i bought a louis vuitton bag
15:46for three thousand pounds wow yeah a laptop bag or no no just like a little backpack yeah i i always
15:53wanted one but i actually think it's very useless like you know it's a bag that you just put your it's
15:59a fancy bag sir you know what i put in it i put my kids nappies in there when we go no way are you
16:03using an lv bag i'm sure lv somewhere is like this is not how i intended it sir it's sacrilege
16:10100 but you know i'm a dad you know when i go out with the kids this has to go so how many kids do
16:15you have now so i have two kids i have one daughter and one son do you intend to be here or maybe perhaps
16:20branch to branch out to abu dhabi rasul khaima it's all happening right so right now i want to explore
16:26every single angle of dubai until i feel like i've got everything out of this city um then i want to
16:31go probably abu dhabi for a bit but i think the world is so big even china i want to meet some more
16:36suppliers people in person i want to go where the future is where the energy is if you have a dream
16:41and you have a goal and you have a vision just keep going after it a lot of people won't see the
16:45vision of what you're trying to attain sometimes even my friends and family wouldn't see what i'm
16:49trying to do and they think this guy's crazy you know it's only when you got the success that
16:53everyone's like yeah you know i knew you could do it you know you always had something special
16:57but you know stay focused on your goal don't be distracted by party and girls or any of those
17:02other things just stay focused on your goal and you will get there eventually thank you jason for your
17:07valuable time as well and here's hoping that you and your success your wife find a lot of success
17:13thank you so much such a pleasure
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