Darrin Woo: On road trips, collectible cars and managing the Woo Hon Fai group

From vintage cars to blockchain technology, Woo Hon Fai Group investment mastermind Darrin Woo steers smartly into the future

Woo Factor Gafencu interviews Darrin Woo four generations of family money — Darrin Woo wearing Chinese jacket by G.O.D.

You helm the Woo Hon Fai Group. What’s the background of this company and how do you see its role today?
Woo Hon Fai Group is a single-family office named after my grandfather, who was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and a former president of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society. Today, our office manages capital on behalf of more than 30 family members across four generations. As the eldest grandson, I am accountable to a big family, and I am currently the third-generation family member leading the office. Our core business, Lee Cheong Gold Dealers, started in 1950 and remains active today.

As managing director of WHF Group, what comes under your purview?
My areas of responsibility are wide-ranging and divide broadly into two categories: managing financial and human capital. The former involves overseeing legacy investments (some of which date back over half a century), real-estate investments and core businesses, as well as sourcing, allocating and monitoring new and existing investment opportunities, including hedge funds, private equity and venture capital. Managing human capital encompasses developing and implementing succession planning strategies; identifying and retaining talent both inside and outside the family; managing our family businesses; and continuing our family legacy. Our office also provides concierge services to meet our family members’ daily needs. I lead a team whose roles include such responsibilities as corporate administration, accounting and finance, tax and estate planning, property management, investment management and domestic staff management.

Woo Factor Gafencu interviews Darrin Woo four generations of family money (4) — Darrin Woo wearing Jacket, top and pants by Hugo Boss; Shoes by Mr P., courtesy of Mr Porter

What are the benefits of being raised in a prominent family, and the drawbacks?
Growing up in a prominent family meant we enjoyed great privileges. My grandfather entertained a lot and we got to meet other prominent families and develop multi-generational friendships. Hong Kong was, and to a certain extent still is, a city where who you know is just as important as what you know, I’m grateful for the exposure and my childhood experiences.
I was born in San Francisco, did my schooling in Hong Kong, and went to university in the United Kingdom [studying town and country planning at University College London]. The message that with privilege comes responsibility and the paramount importance of giving back to society were inculcated throughout my formative years. Both my family and I have an active philanthropic programme that supports causes across the globe.

Can you elaborate on some of these?
Our family’s philanthropy programme began with the founding of TIACC Woo Hon Fai Secondary School in 1987 in Tsuen Wan. One of the more notable – and meaningful – gifts in recent years was a US$15 million pledge by my late father [David Woo] to the University of California at Berkeley, which ensured the preservation of the old Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive building. This was renamed Woo Hon Fai Hall and today houses the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, an incubator with 40,000 square feet of labs and office space for life-science research, innovation projects and start-ups. My father graduated from UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design in 1967, and was a resident architect for the firm that constructed the building. It is with great regret that he passed away last year, and he never got the chance to see Woo Hon Fai Hall in its present glory.

On a personal level, I recently supported a joint research studio between the University of Hong Kong and UC Berkeley, an innovative collaboration with an interesting comparative model to deliver design strategies for urban resilience and climate change in both Hong Kong and the San Francisco region.

Woo Factor Gafencu interviews Darrin Woo four generations of family money (3) — Darrin Woo wearing top, pants and shoes by Mr P., courtesy of Mr Porter

Aside from your work with the family business, you’re also involved in a new fintech startup. Tell us about this.
Blockchain technology and digital assets have seen tremendous growth with the promise of reinventing the finance industry. While physical gold bullion trading has been around for thousands of years, professional investors today are becoming interested in digital assets like cryptocurrencies, and I believe this trend will continueto grow. A big part of my job is investing into and for the future. One recent investment I made is in Volmart, a pioneering hybrid risk manager using TradeFi, AI and blockchain technologies to offer investment solutions for private banks, asset managers and prime brokers.

If you had a spare million to invest right now, where would put that money?
Capital preservation is my number-one priority. Real assets, financials, real estate and commodities offer superior risk-adjusted returns under the current inflationary environment and cycle of rising interest rates. I would buy gold bullion bars, not only because we are in the business, but I believe they are an important hedge against risks associated with financial systems and fiat currencies. The recent surge in gold prices amid the tension between Ukraine and Russia is proof that gold continues to be an effective hedge against geopolitical risks. The vintage-car market continues to perform well, too, and shows little correlation to the stock market. Even if your vintage-car investment isn’t financially profitable in the end, the joy you derive from driving one on the open road on a sunny afternoon is priceless.

Even if your vintage-car investment isn’t financially profitable in the end, the joy you derive from driving one on the open road on a sunny afternoon is priceless

How did you passion for collectible cars begin?
It goes back as far as I can remember. As a child, I lived and breathed toy cars, from pushing Matchbox die-cast versions to assembling static models and building petrol-powered remote-controlled buggies. I was desperate to start driving during my teens, so I arranged lessons in advance and took my driving test on my 17th birthday, the first day I could legally drive in the UK. It was a first-time pass, of course! Vintage cars are my true passion – I admire their aesthetic beauty, quality craftmanship and pure driving experience. I am a member of the Classic Car Club of Hong Kong as well as the Royal Automobile Club in the UK. I like to share my experiences on my personal blog, Motor & Co.

What are the standouts in your collection and your most cherished car memory?
My collection includes a 1927 Bugatti Type 35B pre-war race car, 1957 Fiat-Abarth 750 GT Zagato, 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman, 1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GT, 1983 BMW Alpina B9 and 1992 Lancia Hyena Zagato. I am fortunate to be the custodian of these highly collectible cars – many are limited editions and rarely available for sale.
Just before Covid, I took an intercontinental road trip with my son, Marc – this is one of my most memorable car journeys. We started in a small town called Arese in Italy, and passed through Switzerland, Germany and France, crossing the Channel on a car ferry to the UK. The 1,500km drive took us through some of Europe’s most beautiful and most rugged countryside. We visited historic towns off the beaten track like Baden-Baden, Colmar, Reims, Rouen and Caen.

We met some great people along the way, and the highlight was a visit to Champagne house Taittinger, where we were greeted by Clovis Taittinger, a family friend who is at the helm of this legendary family business.
Your wife, Bonnie Chan Woo, is a successful entrepreneur.

Woo Factor Gafencu interviews Darrin Woo four generations of family money (2) — Jacket, top and pants by Mr P., courtesy of Mr Porter

How did the two of you meet?
As clichéd as it sounds, we met on the plane when we were teenagers. Those were the days before email and WhatsApp, so we communicated the old-fashioned way through writing letters – we still have many of the original letters at home. Our relationship developed over 14 years before we officially got married in 2005.

How has Covid impacted your family’s jet-setting lifestyle?
Last year, I spent nine months in the UK and the rest of it in Hong Kong, 42 days of which were in hotel quarantine. Bonnie, Marc and I were hardly ever in the same place due to our various travel engagements, but we are still very grateful for the time we had together and can’t complain.

Can you pass on a few tricks on how to cope with isolating and quarantining?
That’s a difficult question to answer; different people have different tricks. Living in a confined space over long periods is both mentally and physically straining. I find having a room with a view and direct sunlight helpful. The ability to see activities in the outside world helps combat loneliness and exposure to sunlight elevates my mood. I keep busy with Zoom meetings during the day and relax in the evening watching Netflix and listening to podcasts and audio books.

Living in a confined space over long periods is both mentally and physically straining. I find having a room with a view and direct sunlight helpful

What are your top-three quarantine must-haves (apart from basic necessities).
JIA Everywhere – delicious meals from the JIA group restaurants delivered right to your hotel; Muo Wireless Bluetooth Speaker by KEF – amazing sound in a sleek design; and Amazon Audible – A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is a great quarantine companion.

Thank you.

(Interview by: Nikita Mishra Photographer: Jack Law Art Direction and Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma; Videographer: Jackie Chan Venue: Hutong Hong Kong Cover look: Suit by Ring Jacket and button-up shirt by Pye)

In Conversation with Ryan Cheung, CEO & Founder, PressLogic: Asia’s new-media wizard

Armed with the platform’s spot-on content, PressLogic Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Cheung makes data, analytics and algorithms seem positively thrilling…

Shine some light on your background and how it’s shaped what you are doing today.
I studied at HKU [the University of Hong Kong] first and then, right after graduating from Peking University, I joined the structural products team at an investment bank. The tech industry was booming, and since I was handling a lot of data, equity and analytical aspects, after five years in banking I thought it was time to leap in that direction.

You co-founded digital media company PressLogic in 2016. How did the idea germinate?
Five or six years prior to PressLogic, my CTO, Edward Chow, and I started another e-commerce firm. For this venture we spent most of our time, money and resources on marketing and leveraging social media numbers. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but we managed to build a strong relationship with data, and that’s when the realisation that this could be used to drive editorial content dawned upon us.

After a couple of years, we sold that company and our investors asked if we had another business idea in mind. At this point, we thought of launching a lifestyle media house and taking an innovative, analytical approach to media.

So, timing has played a big role in your success?
Most certainly! Five or six years ago, most media houses were very traditional in their approach and didn’t really care about data or social media trends. We took advantage of the situation and leveraged our unique methodology of studying social media analytics and predicting viral topics. It’s definitely about timing and the fact that we were lucky enough to build a solid, loyal audience who keep coming back to us for high-quality original content.

We have become a leading lifestyle portal for millennials, with more than 10 million monthly views across Asia – in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia – and every year we achieve more than 50-percent growth rate in terms of revenue. This year, even with the pandemic raging and advertising brutally hit, our revenue has still grown aggressively.

Meitu gave us our first round of funding – US$10 million towards the end of 2018 – we achieved the break-even point in 2020. It was an incredible milestone for PressLogic, and we haven’t really needed further funds since.

Tell us about MediaLens, the artificial-intelligence tool that has underpinned PressLogic’s unprecedented rise.
MediaLens is our propriety AI social-media analysing system that uses data analytics to predict highly effective YouTube, Facebook and Instagram viral trends. It boosts engagement manyfold. To give you an example, while creating editorial or branded content, MediaLens prompts us with popular key words that are likely to trend across different categories – like women’s fashion, spring-summer style, and so on.

After several years of improvements, the software is now very sophisticated and can help create highly effective analytical insights for branding and advertisement purposes. The AI in the software uses a kind of reverse engineering approach in its algorithm, helping us to track our competitors’ social media movements and performance, and then compare that with ours. We can even track which company is using which influencer or KOL for its advertising.
MediaLens is a powerful tool, and after using it in-house for five years, we are now ready to find another revenue stream, so the plan is to re-launch the product and pitch it to others. Any digital content creator who works with advertisers will find it extremely useful in driving social media traffic.

“The AI in our software uses a kind of reverse engineering approach in its algorithm… We can even track which company is using which influencer for its advertising”

Are there any strategies you used when PressLogic was a start-up that you now find redundant?
In our case, it was quite the opposite. In the first few months, we tried to launch MediaLens [rather than the content platform] in the market and achieved no success. But as we strongly believed in our product, the setback did not hold us back. Instead of scrapping this, we steered our business model in another direction by using our methodology ourselves first. We created content first and tested the AI-backed system to drive traffic and assess its real-time success.

This proved to be very useful – trying our product first-hand not only gave us all the necessary data and traffic, but also helped us create a market price for it. Last year, we launched a new platform, an e-commerce website, based on this solid user base. This experience taught us the value of being adaptable and persevering, and we’ll take the same approach when it comes to any new idea.

Covid-19 has been especially challenging for media companies. What were some of struggles you had?

In the first few months it was very tough – with a novel virus, no one knew what to expect, and suddenly there was complete social isolation. But we were grateful to be an online company at the time – that’s the beauty of digital, you can do it from anywhere – so except for our video production and sales, it was smooth sailing after the initial hiccup.

Before Covid we were expanding quite aggressively in Singapore and Taiwan. I travelled once a month to the different offices to oversee work, but the pandemic has put a complete halt to that. We slowed down our expansion, but we’re hoping 2022 will be different and allow us some normalcy.

How do you see your company five years from now?
I want to see the PressLogic group leverage its data and continue expansion into different markets. If travel reopens by 2022-23, then we have plans to expand outside Asia into North America. We hope to become a more elevated, advanced and sophisticated data-technology company that utilises and is reliant on data and artificial intelligence to help our branded partners and merchants boost their revenues.

You recently became a father. Which is more challenging now – work or the baby?

Well, my baby girl turned one in January, but so far, it’s not been difficult. My wife and the whole family are very supportive and it’s absolutely beautiful to teach her the little things, to hold her hand while she crawls and takes baby steps or says her first words.

So, you’re truly focusing on work-life balance now?
[Laughs] Yes! I must spend time with my baby every day. Earlier, work-life balance meant hanging with friends, partying on weekends, but now it’s purely family time and being able to walk away from my cell phone. Which is hard, by the way, as we are a tech company – there’s something happening 24/7, there’s a notification popping up every minute – but I make an effort not to always be glued to my phone.

“We are a tech company – there’s something happening 24/7, there’s a notification popping up every minute – but I make a conscious effort not to be glued to my phone”

What advice would you give fellow entrepreneurs entering the start-up world?
Study the business model and your market well. Be clear on your exit strategy. If your model is not generating success, have a clear timeline on when to exit. Start-ups aren’t just cool, hip and trendy, and not everyone is lucky with funding, so unless you believe in your idea 100-percent and are willing to give it your all, don’t get into it. The journey is not smooth; it will consume you, burn you, but it is extremely rewarding if it’s your passion project.

What’s your definition of success? Any regrets?
Doing things that I am told are impossible. An idea or a dream might sound difficult in the beginning, but if I believe in it, and there is some chance of success, I will dedicatedly pursue it until it becomes a reality.
I have no regrets. There were mistakes, and learning from those mistakes, but I don’t believe in analysing decisions in hindsight. That’s just not healthy!

What’s your ideal Sunday like?
Hanging out with my wife, friends and my baby girl. Enjoying the sun, a nice brunch, and some outdoor activities. I love windsurfing, watching movies and Netflix as well.

Thank you.

(Interview by: Nikita Mishra Photographer: Jack Law Art Direction and Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma Videographer: Andy Wan)

5 Hong Kong startups to watch this year

On 25 January 2018, Sheung Wan based investment accelerator Betatron held its ‘Demo Day’ – a culminating event for the second cohort of its intensive four-month programme. The private, invitation-only affair was held at The Annex in Nan Fung Place, Des Voeux Rd Central, attended by more than 360 entrepreneurs, investors, strategic partners and the media.

With an estimated worth of US$32 Billion, Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem – the world’s fifth fastest growing – is definitely one to watch. Let’s take a look at some of the exciting new players in this up-and-coming sector, as presented in Betatron’s event last month:

Pakt: The Smart Wardrobe

Asia’s most innovative clothing storage service

Shopaholics, rejoice. This “wardrobe away from home” offers pristine storage conditions and a digital platform so you can browse your clothes anytime, anywhere and always know what you have in storage. PAKT also helps property developers like JLL innovate; they think smaller units should become smart homes and that means a smart wardrobe.

The startup also holds occassional Preloved Fashion and charity sales and works closely with bridal dress designers, retailers, beauty / fashion bloggers and more. www.pakt.hk

Pixofy: Interactive furniture shopping

The augmented reality furniture shopping experience

Moving into a new space? Forget hours of going through different home stores only to realise they don’t match with your home or office in the end. Pixofy is focused on providing a next generation interactive shopping experience that allows consumers to visualise products in a different environment via augmented reality. Pixofy aims to enable furniture shoppers to make enhanced purchasing decisions and works with design studios and furniture manufacturers. www.pixofy.io

IC Workshop: Product testing, Inspection and factory certification

An international compliance platform

It may not be the sexiest of startups out there, but this B2B solution promises to deliver solid returns with real added value to the supply chain industry. IC Workshop enhances the efficiency in the procurement process; as of late 2017, the startup had over 100 enterprise users, generated 700 projects and US$6.3 million in revenue. Its vision is to make Hong Kong the international centre of global product testing, inspection and certification. www.icw.io

KidHop: All You Can Play

Discover and book amazing children’s activities

Parents, this one’s for you. The entrepreneurs behind KidHop understand how hard it is to navigate through the myriad of education centres and activities providers in Hong Kong. How do you choose which ones are best for your kid?! With KidHop’s aggregator, you only have to go to one platform containing a comprehensive list of curated activities for children, categorised by time, location, age, etc. Kids can explore a different activity everyday, or take up to 3 visits per month to the same provider for drop-in classes.www.kidhop.com

Trip Guru: Authentic Travel Experiences

A platform for travellers to discover each other through the best group experiences

Who said solo travel has to be lonely? There’s nothing better about travelling than the people you meet along the way! (Read: Gafencu’s travel section) This Hong Kong based startup – headed up by a team of Italian and Argentinian travel enthusiasts – is the millennial answer to the dusty travel agencies of the past. Their first batch of destinations cover Southeast Asia, but with more funding they are hoping to expand to China, India, Myanmar and Latin America. thetripguru.com

Written by: Julienne C. Raboca