Danny Yeung has built three separate companies to nine-figure revenue: a Hong Kong e-commerce group-buying business (acquired by Groupon), Prenetics (a DNA testing company that became Hong Kong and the UK’s largest COVID PCR provider, hitting $700M+ revenue in three years and listing on NASDAQ), and IM8 (a daily supplement drink co-founded with David Beckham that reached $100M annual revenue run rate in 11 months and $200M run rate in 18 months).
Early entrepreneurial foundations
Dropped out of high school in San Francisco after getting kicked out for fighting; started working at 15 as a telemarketer selling timeshares, making 100–200 cold calls per night with a 90–95% rejection rate.
Telemarketing taught thick skin, direct communication, and the numbers-game mindset that later applied to fundraising, merchant acquisition, and enterprise sales.
First business was a restaurant (3–4 years), then hotel furniture import/export from China; cold-called MGM in Las Vegas and won a $4M contract for the MGM City Center project.
Moved to Hong Kong in 2010 to launch a group-buying e-commerce company when everyone said the model wouldn’t work there; Groupon acquired 51%, company became the region’s largest e-commerce player at ~$200M annual revenue.
Prenetics: from DNA testing to COVID testing giant
Founded Prenetics in 2014 as a life sciences DNA testing company, years before the category was mainstream.
When COVID hit April 2020, met with Hong Kong’s chief executive offering lab capacity; was initially declined because the government had its own public health lab.
Launched at-home PCR test in two weeks at $100 vs. hospital price of $300–400; sold out daily.
Three months later, government returned asking to test 300,000 restaurant workers across 18,000 restaurants in three weeks; scaled from 200 to 10,000 tests/day, hired 2,000–3,000 people.
Became the only provider with zero false-positive/false-negative incidents; eventually every arrival at Hong Kong airport was mandated a Prenetics test.
Three-year COVID run: 28M PCR tests, $700M+ revenue, >$100M net profit; listed on NASDAQ in 2022 at $1B+ valuation.
Post-COVID: market cap dropped 95% to ~$50M; revenue fell from $272M to near zero; let go 2,000 people quickly to avoid the overbuilding that bankrupted competitors like Q Health and Lucera.
Meeting David Beckham and founding IM8
While deciding whether to shut down Prenetics or pivot, met David Beckham through a mutual connection; conversation revealed that even with unlimited resources, Beckham and Victoria found the supplement category overwhelming (12–15 pills daily, hard to maintain while traveling).
Proposed a co-founder partnership, not just an ambassador deal; insisted the brand must live beyond Beckham and not be another celebrity brand.
Board disagreed (no supplement experience, celebrity brands mostly fail); Yeung threatened to resign if they blocked it.
IM8 product and positioning
Single SKU: Daily Ultimate Essentials — 90 ingredients replacing 16 supplements (multivitamin, CoQ10, MSM, probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics) in one powder sachet mixed with 12 oz water.
Priced at $90/month vs. $250–300 for the equivalent standalone stack; formulated for taste (tested 20–30 flavors over a week at the factory).
Category differentiation: red powder (natural beet color) in a sea of green powders; bold red packaging, premium unboxing experience.
Name: “IM8” = “I am” + infinity (8 flipped); works in China where 8 is a lucky number.
Scientific credibility: recruited world-class advisory board (Dr. Don Musum from Mayo Clinic, former NASA chief scientist James Green, Cedar Sinai microbiome director Suzanne Devkota); ran clinical trial pre-launch; dual third-party certification (Eurofins + NSF Certified for Sport, free of 280 banned substances).
Validation: recurring subscriptions drive 200M run rate; inbound interest from elite athletes (e.g., Aryna Sabalenka’s team emailed after 3 months of measured recovery/sickness data).
Growth engine: creative testing machine and offline events
Meta ads: 2,000–3,000 ads live at any time (55–60% static, rest video); test 500–800 creators weekly; proprietary creative fatigue scoring to rotate winners before ROAS drops.
Spend scaled from $17M to $33M/quarter (Q1 to Q2) while CAC dropped from $305 to $301 (AOV ~$230); July CAC fell further to $239 at >$10M/month spend.
Offline events: 200+ events in 20 months (e.g., 7 events in 7 days in NYC); scientific advisory board members attend, formulators and doctors present; builds authenticity in an AI-saturated market where “you don’t know what’s real.”
Believes offline presence creates disproportionate premium because it’s less contested; in-person touchpoints change how subsequent ads are perceived.
Entrepreneurial philosophy
Product-first realism: “If you build the best product in the market, everything else gets easier.” Uses AI to stress-test formulations against competitors (ChatGPT currently ranks IM8 above AG1 on ingredient utility and dosing transparency).
Founder mode: Involved in every key decision regardless of company size; founders take risks CEOs won’t (e.g., launching IM8 with no supplement background, committing to Beckham).
Delusion + realism toggle: Must be delusional enough to start with no evidence (market says no, board says no, no experience), then hyper-realistic on execution (taste testing, clinical trials, creative fatigue metrics, CAC tracking).
Value-first negotiation: Always lead with “what can I do for you?” — used to win first restaurant group in Hong Kong after their marketing director hung up on him; the owner signed 30 locations because Yeung didn’t quit.
Rejection as inventory: Adopted uncle’s mental model — price each “no” at $5 knowing 20 nos = one $100 yes; turns rejection into progress.
