Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Duvall.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Inspired by its 10-year history as a Beijing Street food restaurant, Mr. Bing Chili Crisp is an intensely flavorful, crispy condiment. Made with four peppers of complimentary heat, smokiness, and fruitiness, umami-rich mushroom powder, and a crunchy punch of garlic and onion, it brings the flavor of Northern China home to elevate everyday meals with a burst of heat and just enough sweetness.
Mr. Bing Chili Crisp was developed in Hong Kong in 2013, as a signature ingredient in Mr. Bing’s cult-favorite jianbing, a delicious mung-bean batter crepe filled with fried dough, egg, scallions, and the spicy, garlicky umami kick of chili crisp. In 2015, Mr. Bing started to feed hungry New Yorkers, and the Vendy Awards crowned Mr. Bing “Rookie of the Year” for Best New Street Food of NYC.
Mr. Bing was founded by Brian and Ben, who met in Beijing in 1998 and spent 15 years growing businesses and raising families while living across China and Hong Kong. In 2019, when restaurant customers demanded to buy chili crisp by itself, the packed food business, Mr. Bing Foods, was born.
Although the restaurants closed during the 2020 pandemic, the Mr. Bing story lives on in a jar.
The company is a minority-owned business, whose owners include Chinese and China diaspora investors from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, and the US. Mr. Bing supports the cultures that inspired us by giving a portion of our revenues to charities that foster Chinese arts and community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Growing a business during a pandemic and recessionary economy is not easy. What I didn’t expect, coming from a tech background, was how big of an impact a slow supply chain can have on a CPG business’s cash needs. When raw material lead times go from 2 weeks to 22 weeks, not only is planning very challenging, but the capital needs to hold that much inventory that can easily eat up all the cash a startup has on hand. Raising more cash creates excessive dilution, while borrowing money creates debt that can accumulate and be hard to service – so it’s a really challenging needle to thread.
What hasn’t been an issue is my co-founder, Brian. While in past companies I’ve often had challenges getting through a “norming, storming, forming” stage, with various disagreements on company strategy, product, or ownership, working with Brian has been a shoulder to lean on and we complement each other well operationally. We’re like fraternal twins: while he’s the excitable, driven, sales-oriented evangelist, I’m the practical, brass-tacks strategist, and this is a very good combination in a startup.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
One thing people don’t know about Mr. Bing is that while Brian and I manage the company, the company is owned by a great number of investors from all over the world, especially from China and Greater China, and many have been incredibly influential in the creation of the brand and our story. Some of them have been involved for over a decade, since the previous restaurant business, and have supported the brand since 2012 when Mr. Bing was founded. So, it’s important to recognize that this story is the combined effort of this entire community that has been with us from the beginning.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I realize it’s become a fad, but I am a big proponent of meditation, especially Vipassana meditation, as an entrepreneur’s best ally. A regular practice smooths out many bumps in the road, instills patience, and keeps decisions non-reactive; probably the most important assets an entrepreneur can have, second only to patient and calm investors 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mr-bing.com
