Brian Yip | Head of Marketing

Things to note

The first time I found out I was colorblind was when I didn’t understand why I couldn’t beat the level after firing the final blue bubble into two others in the Nintendo 64 classic Puzzle Bobble. One was actually purple.

I was the President of my high school’s Hip Hop Club for two years. On Fridays after class, we would gather in one room to converse our appreciation for hip hop music. Yes, one could argue that we were the inspiration behind The Breakfast Club.

My first entrepreneurial experience was buying and selling Yu-Gi-Oh cards in the middle school playground. Cards went for anywhere between $0.25 to $1, so I was especially thrilled when I accepted an offer for the Blue-Eyes White Dragon for $2. As it’s now worth much more than that, I plan on teaching my future children the law of supply and demand as soon as they enter first grade.

-Born and raised in San Marino, CA

-Chose Squirtle as my first starter Pokémon

-Went to Milton Academy, a Hogwarts-esque high school in Milton, MA

-Pivoted into startups after a few stints at traditional real estate firms

-Graduated from USC, where both parents and sister are also alumni

-Purchased my first plant for my studio, which has since become a jungle

-Slung underwear for ~2.5 years

-Saved people money for ~4.7 years

-Now Head of Marketing @ Worklife!

Favorite Places and Local Businesses

🍕 Tony’s Pizza, San Marino, CA. Locally owned since 1973 — nothing beats their “Student Special,” or 2x slices of the best New York-style pizza and a drink for under $5.
🧋 Hey Hey Drinks, Echo Park, CA. My cousin started this contemporary tea room and they serve some of the most unique flavors that will cater to any palate from Thai tea + cold brew to ube + matcha frappes.
📍 Kowloon, Hong Kong. Once you try Hong Kong breakfast foods, you can never go back. For a close second, check out Alice’s Kitchen in Monterey Park, CA.

What moment in your career are you the proudest of?

I’m proud of co-founding Eastern Eats with my sister, a food delivery concept that ran during the second half of 2020.

One night at the height of the LA lockdown when all restaurants were closed, I opened my fridge only to find out that I had just run out of fresh groceries. Without skipping a beat, I turned to my freezer and pulled out the one item that I always stock - frozen dumplings homemade by my “neighborhood auntie.”

This time however, firing up the pot of water made me appreciate the convenience and flexibility of frozen dumplings. Fry them over a pan of sizzling oil and you got yourself a crispy snack. Boil them in water and you have a delicious treat to complement a warm bowl of instant noodles.

Homemade, convenient, and absolutely delicious. This was something meant to be shared.

Over the next few months, my sister and I sold and delivered pork/veggie dumplings straight to customers’ doors. After the success of our first run, another “neighborhood auntie” reached out wanting to be on our menu with her homemade XO sauce, a spicy seafood condiment. These two items ended up being the perfect pair, and we sold over 3,300 dumplings and 200 ounces of sauce in total.

But what I’m grateful of most was that Eastern Eats was an experience that I got to share with my sister. As she had planned on relocating to DC for her new job, this project gave us a reason to spend many Sunday afternoons together driving around LA for hours on end, memories that both of us will keep for a long, long time.

What trends are you most excited about right now?

Fractional investing. With the investor app economy growing rapidly in a post-covid world, people are at home and looking for new things to become a part of. As it provides a lower barrier to entry, fractional investing will continue to grow and soon exist for every equitable asset such as real estate, fine art, exclusive collectibles, and even wine.

Logistics. As consumer behavior shifts towards shopping online, the infrastructure supporting these businesses will become increasingly more vital. From freight forwarding or dealing with manufacturers, logistics is an antiquated and fragmented market ripe with opportunity — for example, the biggest company in freight forwarding owns just 6% market share.

What founder inspires you the most?

Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia for not only wanting to build a business with the highest possible quality products, but also having his company do the right thing by the environment along the way. To Chouinard, profitability was seen as nothing more than a byproduct of success, as he recognized “there’s no business to be done on a dead planet.”

Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges of a24 for being bold enough to start a new, independent film company aimed at redefining the way indie movies were made and marketed. Through creative guerrilla marketing tactics and investing in diverse stories, it’s impressive to see this (relatively) tiny company now carry such massive cultural weight.

How do you make your worklife better?

I’m a big fan of productivity apps!