PUBLISHED ONJanuary 12, 2023 9:50 AMByTimothy WeeEver wondered what CEOs and founders are like? Are they all work and no play? Do they have a nurturing or intimidating personality? In Employee No. 1, catch a glimpse of what it is like being a homegrown boss under 50. Take an inside look into their day, how they run their successful companies, and learn what it takes to be employee number one.
Toys have been a constant throughout his life, even well into his adult days, confesses Mighty Jaxx founder Jackson Aw.
"Ever since young, I never stopped collecting (action figurines) all the way to adulthood", exclaims the 33-year-old entrepreneur.
So is it any surprise that when it came to starting a business to call his own, Jackson decided to take the plunge into what he knew best?
Starting from scratch in 2012, his company Mighty Jaxx quickly grew into a designer toy empire with devoted fans in over 90 countries and golden opportunities to work with renowned brands such as Warner Brothers and Netflix.
But how did Jackson spearhead this transformation of Mighty Jaxx?
Taking time off his packed schedule, the Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur speaks to AsiaOne to give us an insider look behind the company's success.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ODU_3ISO0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]
He is the company
As a former magazine designer, there is a certain aura of irreverence around Jackson.
Despite saying that he doesn't care about anything, he appears to inspire confidence in his staff just by being around them.
This too-cool-for-school persona is also reflected in Jackson's personal mantra where he aspires to "create something extraordinary".
And according to him, the idea of not really caring too much enables him not to fall in to the same "perimeter" of thought and deliver "the same result as many different people have done before".
By going against the grain, Jackson states that's when one will be able obtain "unique results" — whether good or bad — which "point [one] in the right direction".
This has been the guiding mantra not just for Jackson, but for Mighty Jaxx in the beginning as well.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CXgY0ktskDJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]
Besides that, another defining trait of Jackson that has found its way to the company culture is his laziness.
"The culture in Mighty Jaxx spun off as an extension of myself, I'm someone who tends to be lazy." he tells us matter-of-factly.
Now before anyone get the impression that he's skiving off, what he actually means is that he prefers to "find a solution through the shortest way possible" because he believes in being efficient.
This results in Mighty Jaxx being a company that has the attitude to "create something extraordinary in the shortest time possible," he says.
Besides providing the guiding principles for the designer toy company, Jackson also aims to promote better relationships among his staff which stretches beyond work matters.
Citing music as a common thread throughout Mighty Jaxx, he shares how he loves to jam with his staff at the company's lounge area. By doing so, Jackson hopes to foster staff engagement which also improves their working relationship with each other.
"So that we can engage each other on a better frequency, and when we work, it's almost like in tandem", outlines Jackson.
From rag to riches
While it is apparent that Jackson has the brains, does he have the street smarts to run a successful business? The answer is a resounding yes.
Recounting the early days of Mighty Jaxx, Jackson reveals how he bought a one-way air ticket to Shenzhen, China and tirelessly knocked on factory doors in order to understand the entire process of producing a collectible toy.
Upon his return to Singapore, he was just "full of excitement to create that collectible that is [his] own" and collaborated with local graffiti artist, and personal good friend, Clogtwo.
Armed with a $20,000 loan from his family, Jackson produced 200 units of the figurine Hell Lotus which debuted at Singapore Comic Con back in 2012.
The Hell Lotus figurine sold out within six months and the rest as they say is history, as Mighty Jaxx has grown from strength to strength with each passing year.
In 2015, Jackson flew to Los Angeles and managed to land the toy company's first licence agreement with Warner Brothers, producing a variety of Batman figures. Mighty Jaxx produced $1.7 million in revenue that year — a four-fold increase from 2014.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is worth a cool $200 million, with big backers like Chinese corporation Tencent, KB Investment, and East Ventures.
In addition, their list of collaborating artists have been scaled up to feature the who's who of designers like American anatomical artist, Jason Freeny and local design studio Phunk.
Low points
Though they are sitting pretty at the top of the mountain now, Jackson has not forgotten the hard lessons that brought him and Mighty Jaxx to the peak.
"Low points are part and parcel of [our] everyday journey, this is something a lot of business founders can relate to", Jackson insists.
"The first five years, almost every other month, we were going into bankruptcy", he elaborates.
Aside from cash flow issues, Jackson also shares that Mighty Jaxx at the time was "more of a grassroots level sort of effort" than "an actual business".
Hence, that created a challenge of managing the commercial side of things.
As more people joined the company over the years, product and team issues became everyday occurrences because "working in a team of three or four is very different from like 100 over people," he said.
But the added responsibility and challenge of managing a fully-fledged company was "essential for [him and his team] to learn and "grow into what [they] are right now".
To infinity and beyond
Having established himself and Mighty Jaxx as a major player in the collectible toy industry, does Jackson feel that he has attained success?
"My vision constantly changes which means I'm never satisfied, and so success is always just ahead of me", he tell us.
Calling success an ongoing process, Jackson says this is what drives him and the Mighty Jaxx team to keep breaking new boundaries and even venture into phygital collectibles such as their latest Chxmp figurine which is based off their own NFT art.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CnHdYMRIi-e/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]
But just as Mighty Jaxx's business has grown in leaps and bounds, the company is now more than just one man.
"Mighty Jaxx, as a company, is an extension of its founder in the very beginning, and then after that [it] is shaped by the people who are in it", he tells us.
By keeping an open mind, he and the Mighty Jaxx team have developed new technology for Web 3.0 through their very own Mighty Verse and achieved steady revenue growth that would have eluded a traditional collectible company.
As Jackson prepares to head off to meet his team, he has some words of advice for others who are looking to start their own business.
"If you are able to free your mind, and allow yourself to think that there's a solution, then it can manifest", the EY Entrepreneur of the year 2021 noted.
Another thing that has helped Jackson countless times on his entrepreneurial journey is to understand and remind himself why he's doing all this.
His reasoning? There will be challenges no matter what, even when you're established, but "the difference is why you're doing it".
And if you know the why, Jackson feels that you "can continue on despite the challenges".
timothywee@asiaone.com
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.