Jayson Siu was utterly “unprepared” when his side project selling vehicle accessories went viral.
In October 2021, a TikTok video featuring one of his products—a rearview mirror with LED lining—began to receive a lot of views. $12,000 in a single day, Siu tells CNBC Make It, they became sales.
In order to complete the orders, Siu, a freshman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa at the time, raced to Office Depot and stayed for hours, printing and then manually cutting labels. One of his films, which featured an LED-backed light-up sticker, went viral a year later and has now received over 9 million views.
According to Siu, Invalid.jp generated $38,000 in income in the following day.
Based on the data that Make It studied, the company made $512,000 in total revenue in 2022 and has already surpassed those sales this year. Siu places the profit at about thirty percent of such earnings.
Now that Siu works at least 40 hours a week on top of a full course load, Invalid.jp isn’t actually a side gig. He operated the company out of his parents’ two-bedroom Honolulu apartment until this past summer, when he rented a warehouse.
Siu, 21, declares, “I’m really stressed out all the time.” “I can no longer just pause it because it’s not just a business at my parents’ house,” It has to function now.
From decals to automobile mirrors
Siu, a senior in high school, founded Invalid.jp while working for a valet service. His friends liked stickers, so he wanted extra money to buy accessories for his Nissan Rogue SUV. He bought a $300 vinyl printer using $300 he saved from a prior side gig, selling stickers to his buddies on Snapchat for $3 to $5 apiece.
Siu’s objective eventually changed to something more costly: new auto parts. This implied that he had to market a more profitable item. He discovered an LED-backlit rearview mirror on Instagram while doing research. “I remember thinking, ‘I could be the one selling this.'”
He purchased a $20 mirror from a Chinese factory, removed the glass, and added LED lights inside in addition to his most well-known sticker, which reads “drive safe.” When he put the glass back, the sticker was visible thanks to the backlighting.
After learning from a buddy that he could increase sales on TikTok, he began sharing films there “as often as possible.” Siu remembers thinking to himself as sales started to come in, “Yo, maybe this could be a real business.”
Siu quit his valet job shortly after his first experience going viral on the internet, which happened months later.
A hit driven by social media
Profits for Siu dried up along with the focus. He tried social media advertisements in an attempt to increase sales consistency, but he had trouble.
Siu claims, “I was wasting thousands of dollars.” “I was barely breaking even, and in some months I was even losing money.” It was incredibly demotivating.
He redirected his marketing budget to TikTok, Google, Facebook, and Instagram after realizing that his sales weren’t being aided by advertisements on Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitter (formerly known as X). He claims that the caliber and scope of his campaigns have increased.
Siu expanded his product offerings to include license plates, visors, and cupholders. He bought these items in bulk, customized them, and then sold them for a profit. He created the customizable light-up stickers, which can change colors when operated by a simple remote, by combining his two most popular products—LED mirrors and stickers.
Siu advises against using them when operating a vehicle.
The battle for work-life balance
Viral days can bring in a lot of money. According to Siu, the social media advertisements help Invalid cash flow remain somewhat more stable for the remainder of the year.
Siu tries to have most of his college coursework done by noon so that he can work on Invalid.jp during the second part of the day. In order to reduce the number of shipping trips he made to the post office, he says he financed a Toyota 4Runner SUV, which is larger than the Scion coupe he was driving. His warehouse costs $1,500 each month.
He says his mother and girlfriend assist him in organizing and packing orders. He has brought on a few contractors to assist him in editing and filming TikTok videos.
According to Siu, there aren’t enough hours in a day to manage a very successful firm and attend classes like a regular college student; also, the business is now succeeding. In the long run, he wants to employ enough people to be able to spend less time in the warehouse and more time at the beach with his loved ones.
Uncertain of how long that will take, he says he has been discussing potential side projects with online buddies.
He says, “I’m attempting to figure that part out.”