An Engineer-Entrepreneur's Pursuit to Showcase Authentic Taiwanese Cuisine - AHN Media Group

Stories

June 24, 2023

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A successful engineer by day and an entrepreneur by night, that’s what Derek Ting is.

Derek followed his passion for entrepreneurship and launched FREESTYLE a few years back, a brand with the purpose to help and inspire individuals out there to pursue their own path in life through sharing stories, empowering messages, bold designs, and building a community. But he didn’t stop there.

Without a professional experience in the kitchen or background in culinary, but with a dream of sharing Taiwanese cuisine with more people in the world, he brought Little Ding’s to life.

In an interview with Asian Hustle Network, Derek shared insights into his entrepreneurial journey. Join us as we delve into Derek Ting’s remarkable story, uncovering the secrets to his success and the invaluable lessons he has learned along the way.

DEREK’S JOURNEY BOTH AS AN ENGINEER AND ENTREPRENEUR

I graduated back in 2019 with an engineering degree while working to launch my first real brand/business, FREESTYLE, but I wasn’t always into business or entrepreneurship. Before 2015, I thought that being an engineer was “IT” for me. I thought engineering was everything I wanted and everything I would be doing for the rest of my life so I didn’t even think of any other possibility. 

In 2015 I took on my first internship/Co-op after freshman year at IBM/Globalfoundries which was honestly a dream come true for me (I mean what freshman wouldn’t be excited about an opportunity like that?). Little did I know, that experience would change everything for me but in the complete opposite way I thought it would.

Seeing the energy of the people who were there for 20-30 years made me realize I needed to do something else, something different. That was when I read my first book, started taking stocks more seriously, and started trying out a whole bunch of different ventures/ideas/things. And for those of you who don’t know what you want to do yet, it’s okay to not know, but you won’t know unless you go out and try a whole bunch of different things!

Nothing stuck with me until later in college, which was FREESTYLE, but even then I wasn’t anywhere near launch by the time I graduated so I stuck out engineering as a way to support myself while I go on this journey to figure “business” out.

FREESTYLE didn’t take off how I wanted it to and I slowly learned that business in general and then each industry had their own “game” to play but I knew how important it was for me to continue to go through the growing pains. Experience compounds and business principles transfer over to new ventures so it was important I kept going despite not finding “success” so I could keep learning. I don’t believe that I’d be able to do what I’m doing with Little Ding’s today and at the speed we’re going at if I didn’t keep building FREESTYLE.

It’s been 5 years since I started building an actual brand/business and 7 since I started learning about entrepreneurship and I’m only getting started!

Little Ding’s has been something I’ve wanted to build for a long time and the accumulation of all of my past experiences, knowledge, and network is moving us forward and getting us opportunities at a speed that I couldn’t have predicted. It’s been really cool and super mind blowing but again, this is only the beginning, we haven’t even gotten started yet!

I’m blessed that I am also a full-time engineer on the side because being an engineer (specifically in data and analytics), has helped me develop and refine skills necessary in business but not stressed such as the importance of understanding numbers, metrics, and data pertaining to each aspect of the business. Is it hard to do all of the above? Yeah, my entire life at this moment is just work… but I love it.

PUSHING THE LIMITS

In the process of building FREESTYLE and Little Ding’s, I learned that limits are self-imposed.

I’m a huge dreamer, and I love challenges. The process and hardships of entrepreneurship, which are basically personal development, helped me to discover that every time I pushed myself to what I thought was my limit, I could handle more, and once I realized that the playbook was entirely up to me, I went kind of crazy (in a good way of course).

For example, I launched Little Ding’s in October of 2022. We then did ONE small event in November and ONE event in January. How were we able to handle the largest food events on the west coast, back-to-back weekends, and even introduce a new menu item? Because that’s exactly what we did when we did the Water Lantern Festival, into the first and second Foodieland, the first 626 Mini Night Market, the first We Bridge Expo in Vegas into more and more up to now, where within 8 months of even existing, we are coming for the main 626 events in SoCal!

STAYING TRUE TO THE FLAVORS OF AUTHENTIC TAIWANESE CUISINE

My goal with Little Ding’s is to bring Taiwanese food out to more of the world, and so doing that means the food I focus on has to be somewhat relatable between cuisines such as Taiwanese popcorn chicken, where almost everyone has some idea of what popcorn chicken is, but maybe not necessarily Taiwanese popcorn chicken.

When thinking about new food items to add, I’m envisioning myself taking a stroll through Taiwan’s night markets and seeing which foods are popular that I remember the taste of and would be easily accepted in the States.

When it comes to testing recipes, I gather a ton of different online recipes and lay out all of the ingredients that are being used to figure out what each ingredient adds to the recipe and then slowly test out the ratios until the taste brings me back to the streets of the night market.

I may not come from a culinary background or know a ton about ingredients but I have good taste buds and I can remember taste even if I didn’t know what made it.

The reality is that, it is a LOT of testing and as much as everyone around me enjoys the food I make and the recipes I created, I myself got a bit sick of them because I ate each item that I tested multiple times a day for weeks before I got the recipes to where I wanted them AND THEN I would continue to adjust as I got feedback from all of my guinea pigs *cough* I mean friends, in Vegas.

It’s a bit easier now because I have a team so I don’t have to eat as much of my own food over and over again but it’s still a lot of testing especially to stay true to the flavors of authentic Taiwanese cuisine.

OVERCOMING HURDLES

The more I zoom out, the smaller the stumbles become.

Derek Ting

I love challenges in general so I actively seek them out for us to take on and I think almost every event we’ve done was a challenge because every single one was unique.

But in terms of the challenges we’ve faced where things went wrong or weren’t great for us, a lot of it comes down to the long-term vision and how focused you are on it. We came out swinging when we launched Little Ding’s and crushed our first event. We thought it would be like that for other events too but we were met with two financial losses in a row, one of them being -$2,700 which hurt really bad especially when we’re just getting started and every dollar meant more.

So this is where the long term vision comes in. If I look at the 3-month timeline, we’re absolutely broken. We invested thousands, made some back at the first event, and then dug a deeper ditch with the next two events. If I look at the 6-month timeline, well okay we have Foodieland and 626 Vegas coming up, and we have a good chance of making those losses up at those events. If I look at the 2-year timeline, we should have 1-2 stores open by then with catering clients set and be doing multiple events a weekend.

The more I zoom out, the smaller the stumbles become. Even if they hurt a ton at the time. Another thing I will note is that as a founder or leader, you can’t break… at least not in front of your team. It’s good to be transparent with how business is doing but even in those moments, you have to excite your team.

And there are of course countless challenges with doing outdoor events especially not having done any yourself but those typically come down to how fast you can think on the spot and how well you can adapt to situations which honestly becomes second nature after enough practice.

OTHER VENTURES DEREK IS INTERESTED IN EXPLORING

I have a ton of ideas in my head that I want to eventually build out, including a sister shop to Little Ding’s focused on Taiwanese desserts, a co-working space with incubator access, with access to investors, schools similar to the one founded by the Blue Man Group in Manhattan, universal educational platforms for everyone, and I do want to get into Esports but that one is more of a “for fun” project.

HOW DEREK DEFINES SUCCESS

Success to me has changed a lot throughout the years and a lot of it had to do with the friends I have around me.

Before, success to me was making a ton of money to buy my parents and myself nice things and not having to work anymore. Now, success to me is being able to create without anything holding you back.

Create businesses, opportunities, and experiences for those around you. That’s what I care about and want to do and there’s some debt I have to pay off first but honestly, I think I’ll be successful as long as I can get both myself and businesses in the green because after that, I’ll have some money to do more of the above!

ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OR SKILLS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

The essential qualities or skills I believe every entrepreneur should have or be working on are: communication and vision, humility, adaptability and decision-making, mental fortitude and perseverance, and patience and optimism.

I think the ones I grouped together work hand in hand!

Communication should include vision because your team should always know where you’re going as a company and where they’re going/where they can go within the company. Drop your ego, you don’t know as much as you think you do, and listening can save you time, money, and resources.

Being able to adapt pretty much means making a decision to change on the spot but both are important and practice helps a lot here.

You have to have the mental fortitude to push through because it’s not easy (principles are simple but insanely hard to master).

The last one is patience where you have to be patient with the results of your work since it might not show up for years and that plays in with optimism because you have to see that you will succeed (the “light”) otherwise you might need to re-evaluate your current trajectory.

CONNECT WITH DEREK

IG: 

Derek Ting – @duhricehero 

Little Ding – @littledingscafe

FREESTYLE – @frstyleofficial

Websites/Blogs:

Little Ding’s – littledingscafe.com

Little Ding’s Blogs (Medium) – @littledingscafe 

FREESTYLE – frstyleofficial.com

FREESTYLE Podcast – Spotify

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ChargerGoGo’s Next Chapter: GoGoSpark Brings AI-Powered Entrepreneurship to the Future of Work

ChargerGoGo built its nationwide phone charging network by betting on everyday entrepreneurs.

That bet is paying off. In 2026, ChargerGoGo landed at No. 744 on the Inc. 5000 (top 15%), No.5 in Las Vegas, and No.41 in AI and Data industry, the annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America, after reporting 467% revenue growth over three years.

Led by founder and CEO June Zhu, the company has spent years helping local operators build businesses through its charging network. With GoGoSpark, it’s bringing AI into the picture.

Launched at CES 2026, GoGoSpark is ChargerGoGo’s AI-powered business copilot and operations assistant, built to help operators handle the day-to-day work of running and growing their businesses.

What Does GoGoSpark Actually Do?

As AI reshapes the workforce, the next economic opportunity is not only about making employees more productive, it is about giving more people the tools to become business owners.

GoGoSpark was built around that mission.

ChargerGoGo believes the future of work will include a growing number of people, across both white-collar and blue-collar professions, who want to build independent income, own productive assets, and operate businesses of their own. But becoming an entrepreneur requires far more than capital or a good idea. New business owners need help with sales, operations, financial decisions, technology, strategy, and the hundreds of decisions that come with running a company.

GoGoSpark is designed to put that capability in their pocket.

Serving as an AI-powered COO and business mentor available 24/7, GoGoSpark can help entrepreneurs analyze performance, identify opportunities, improve sales, troubleshoot operational issues, understand financial decisions, and determine what actions to take next.

The vision extends beyond operating ChargerGoGo stations. ChargerGoGo is building GoGoSpark as an intelligent business platform that can lower the barriers to entrepreneurship and help everyday people transition from employees into capable, technology-enabled business owners.

In an economy increasingly shaped by AI and automation, ChargerGoGo believes AI should not simply replace work. It should help more people create, own, and participate in the businesses of the future.

GoGoSpark does not replace the entrepreneur. It gives the entrepreneur a COO, an advisor, and a mentor in their pocket—so they can make better decisions and build with greater confidence.

Five Years in the Making

GoGoSpark came out of five years of working directly with thousands of operators, partners, and small business owners.

Over that time, ChargerGoGo saw the same kinds of questions come up again and again: How do I sell this better? Why is one location outperforming another? What should I focus on next? How can I run this more efficiently?

Those real-world questions helped shape what GoGoSpark became.

Rather than building AI for the sake of having AI, ChargerGoGo built a tool around the work its operators were already doing.

As Zhu said when the platform launched, “GoGoSpark is built to be a business co-pilot, helping operators learn faster, operate smarter, and participate in the post-work economy.”

The Bigger Goal Behind GoGoSpark

The Inc. 5000 ranking is a milestone for ChargerGoGo, but Zhu has been clear that she wants the company’s growth to reach beyond ChargerGoGo itself.

When the ranking was announced, she pointed to a bigger goal: giving ChargerGoGo’s Distribution Partners the technology, infrastructure, business model, and support to grow companies of their own.

She even said she hopes to one day see those entrepreneurs make the Inc. 5000 themselves.

GoGoSpark is one way ChargerGoGo is trying to make that happen.

As AI becomes part of how companies sell, analyze data, plan, and operate, smaller business owners risk being left with fewer resources to compete. GoGoSpark brings some of those capabilities directly to the people running businesses on the ground.

ChargerGoGo’s acceptance into the NVIDIA Inception Program also marks another step in that direction as the company continues developing its AI technology.

“The future belongs to those who engage with their AI,” Zhu said at CES 2026. “Our mission is to make sure everyone has that chance.”

ChargerGoGo made the Inc. 5000 this year. If its operators eventually start appearing on that list too, GoGoSpark may have played a part in getting them there.

Discover how GoGoSpark is helping entrepreneurs grow smarter.

📍Website

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Stories

The Day a Las Vegas Slot Machine Changed June Zhu’s Vision for Entrepreneurship

When June Zhu immigrated to the United States, she wasn’t chasing certainty.

She was chasing the possibility.

Like millions of immigrants before her, she believed in something uniquely American: that regardless of where someone came from, if they worked hard, solved real problems, and created value for others, they could build a better future.

That belief led her to found ChargerGoGo.

At first glance, ChargerGoGo looks like a portable phone charging company. Today, its network spans more than 6,000 locations across all 50 states, serving more than one million users.

But ask June what business she’s really building, and her answer is unexpected.

“I’m not trying to just build the biggest charging network,” she says. “I’m trying to build one of the largest entrepreneurship platforms.”

The Question Every Founder Faces

That vision wasn’t obvious in the beginning.

Like countless founders, June spent years trying to answer the same question that keeps entrepreneurs awake at night:

How do you build something nationally without billions of dollars from venture capital?

Every new market required more equipment.

Every new customer required more investment.

Growth always seemed tied to raising more capital.

The Las Vegas Moment

Then one ordinary afternoon in Las Vegas, while talking with her team, she witnessed something that unexpectedly gave her a new perspective.

A few teammates each pulled a small amount of cash from their wallets and decided to play a slot machine together.

Nobody risked very much.

If they lost, the downside was limited to a few hundred dollars each. But if they won, everyone shared in a prize far greater than they could have won individually.

“It wasn’t about the slot machine,” June recalls with a smile. “It was about the ownership.”

She watched people willingly contribute because everyone had a stake in the outcome.

At that moment, the question in her mind changed.

Instead of asking, “How can I raise enough money to own every charging station?”

She started asking, “Why should I own them all?”

What if every charging station could become an income-producing asset for a local entrepreneur?

That idea transformed ChargerGoGo.

Rather than building a company that owned every charging station, June built a platform where local entrepreneurs could own, operate, and grow businesses under a shared brand.

Every charging station became more than hardware. It became an opportunity for someone to build recurring income and grow a business within their own community.

Building an Entrepreneurship Platform

For June, that model reflects something she has admired since arriving in America.

“The greatest strength of this country isn’t just innovation,” she says. “It’s that ordinary people have the opportunity to become builders.”

Instead of measuring success solely by the size of the network, she measures it by how many entrepreneurs it helps create.

Through ChargerGoGo’s distribution partner model, local business owners can build recurring income while expanding the company’s nationwide footprint. As the platform grows, so does the number of entrepreneurs building businesses of their own.

Why Ownership Matters More Than Ever

That belief feels even more relevant as artificial intelligence reshapes the global workforce.

While much of the conversation focuses on jobs disappearing, June believes the more important conversation is about creating more owners.

“The future shouldn’t belong only to companies with the most capital or the most powerful AI,” she says. “Technology should lower the barriers for everyday people to own businesses, generate wealth, and create opportunities for their families.”

That’s why she believes entrepreneurship is becoming more important, not less.

Her vision extends far beyond portable charging.

She imagines a future where platforms, AI, and connected infrastructure allow millions of people to own income-producing businesses that once required millions of dollars to build.

Redefining the American Dream

For June, that’s what the American Dream has always meant.

Not that success is guaranteed.

But that ownership is possible.

Today, when people ask what ChargerGoGo does, she could talk about charging stations, technology, or nationwide expansion.

Instead, she prefers a simpler answer.

“We’re building a platform that helps more people become entrepreneurs.”

Because in the end, June Zhu isn’t trying to build a billion-dollar company.

She’s trying to help build thousands of million-dollar entrepreneurs.

Perhaps that’s the most powerful way to measure success: not by how much one person owns, but by how many owners they help create.

Learn more about ChargerGoGo here:

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Stories

How Stephanie Lau Jensen Turned a Personal Identity Journey Into CULTR, a Marketplace for Cultural Brands

Stephanie Lau Jensen grew up between Hawaii and California. Like many Asian American kids raised in predominantly non-Asian communities, she learned early how to move between worlds. Parts of her culture stayed in the background, not because she pushed them away, but because the environment made it easier to leave them there.

She later returned to Hawaii for college, where her father is originally from. Being there placed her in a community where Asian culture was woven into daily life through food, language, and family traditions. It was not a rediscovery, it was a reminder of what had always been hers.

Years later, as a mother of three and a founder with a background in commercial real estate investing, she built CULTR, short for Created for Culture. A curated marketplace for AAPI  and third-culture families raising kids between cultures, one that makes cultural products easy to find and part of everyday life, not just special occasions.

A Birthday Conversation That Changed Everything

The idea for CULTR took shape at one of Stephanie’s birthday gatherings. She was talking with a close friend about identity and culture when a childhood friend overheard the conversation and joked that Stephanie used to be one of them before she moved to Hawaii and really leaned into her Asian side.

Everyone laughed. Stephanie included. But the comment stayed. It put words to something she had been sitting with for years. Culture is not something that automatically transfers to the next generation. It has to be lived daily. If it is not in the house on a regular Tuesday, it probably is not there at all.

When she became a mother and started looking for books, clothing, and toys that reflected her culture, she saw the problem clearly. The products existed. The founders were there, but their work was scattered across small websites and Instagram pages, invisible to most families who needed them.

The Platform She Wished Had Existed

Stephanie’s background in real estate investing trained her to look closely at markets and recognize opportunity gaps. As she continued discovering founder-led cultural brands online, she saw a clear problem: families who wanted these products had no easy way to find them.

That realization led her to build CULTR, a curated marketplace that brings modern cultural brands from around the world into one central destination. The platform highlights independent founders, many from Asian and immigrant communities, whose products carry culture through everyday objects, from children’s books to home goods, apparel, even everyday products you would have never known were made by AAPI makers. With a refined, modern aesthetic, CULTR presents these brands in a way that feels contemporary, approachable, and deeply connected to heritage.

Building CULTR came with its own challenges because the platform did not fit neatly into an existing category. It sits somewhere between a retail marketplace and a cultural storytelling platform, which meant Stephanie had to develop the platform while also helping people understand the vision behind it.

Bringing Culture Into Everyday Family Life

For Stephanie, culture often lives in the smallest everyday objects. A children’s book written in the language your grandparents spoke, a toy tied to tradition, or a piece of clothing that carries a story can shape how the next generation understands identity and belonging.

Alongside CULTR, she is also building PenPals Collective, a project designed to spark global curiosity and connection for children, and launching a podcast called Series M that explores career, motherhood, and identity. Each project reflects her interest in connecting people across culture, family, and generation.

Through each project, and while raising three young children, Stephanie continues working toward the same goal: creating spaces where culture is not something people rediscover later in life, but something families live with every day.

Learn more about CULTR here:

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Stories

Billionaire Heir Enters Wall Street’s Hottest Trade With $480B in Assets

Andre Koo Jr. isn’t just inheriting a financial empire, he’s also reshaping what it looks like in a new era of investing. 

From Taiwan to New York, his latest move brings a centuries-old legacy into one of Wall Street’s fastest-growing spaces. 

With K8 Capital, he’s betting that the future of wealth lies in doing more than just one thing well.

Image Source: NYU Stern

Building on a Financial Legacy

Andre Koo Jr. grew up in one of Taiwan’s most influential banking families, where scale and stability defined success. Today, that legacy spans a $16 billion family fortune and control of $480 billion in assets. But instead of staying within that system, he’s building something that looks very different.

K8 Capital, his new firm based in New York, is designed to be more flexible and forward-looking. It’s launching with a debut fund of at least $50 million, with a $500,000 minimum that signals who it’s built for. The focus is on US companies, along with early bets on AI and enterprise software, areas where growth is still taking shape.

Image Source: Sally Ride Science

A Dual Investment Approach

K8 is a fully integrated hybrid private credit and venture capital firm, combining short-duration, high-yield credit investments with long-term venture growth. Its dual strategy is designed to deliver both liquidity and capital appreciation, giving investors access to predictable income while still capturing venture upside.

What sets K8 apart is how it brings two distinct investment styles into one platform. It focuses on short-term credit deals that can generate returns relatively quickly, while also investing in startups that may take years to mature but offer strong long-term potential. This allows investors to earn steady income today while staying exposed to the companies shaping the future.

Image Source: @andrejrkoo (Instagram)

Entering a Rapidly Growing Market

Private credit has quietly grown into a market worth more than $1.5 trillion, as companies look beyond traditional banks for funding. Wealthy families like the Koos are moving in, seeing an opportunity to lend directly and capture higher returns.

K8 is already showing early signs of traction, with reported returns of at least 50 percent from short-term loans to US businesses. But for Andre, this isn’t just about performance. It’s also about carrying forward a legacy that began nearly 200 years ago with his ancestor Koh Lay Huan, while making sure it still matters in a very different financial world.

Learn more about K8 Capital here:

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