Kai Yan Chan (left) and Jiayi Chow (right) run a Singapore-based bakery called Cake Inspiration.
Provided by Cake Inspiration
When Kai Yang Chan and Jiayi Zhuo matched on Tinder at age 19, neither of them expected it to lead to marriage. Six years later, they were not only married, but also business partners.
“I downloaded Tinder because I was so bored at school that I would just (swipe) it during class,” Zhuo said. “Neither of us ever thought we would end up together,” she said.
“Personality-wise, we’re very different,” she says, adding that she is an introvert while her husband is the life of the party.
Currently, Chan and Zhuo run CakeInspiration, a Singapore-based bakery. Their business is expected to bring in more than S$850,000 (about $650,000) in revenue in 2024, and more than $775,000 this year, according to documents seen by CNBC Make It.
The company is known for its custom cake designs, and its clients include family offices, hospitals, and even global celebrities.
family circumstances
CakeInspire originally started in 2010 as a home bakery run by Zhuo’s parents.
“My parents actually started (the business) when I was 9 years old,” Zhuo said. “I’ve never been a very studious person, but I love being hands-on, so I like baking and dancing and making all these little cute things,” she said. He has often helped us design cakes since the company’s inception.
Then, when the pandemic hit, sales slowed and they began burning through cash to keep the business afloat. With his parents considering retirement, Zhuo felt it was time for him to retire.
Courtesy of CakeInspire
“(I felt) it was a waste to leave it like this. I grew up watching my parents work 16 hours a day… so I didn’t want the business to close,” she said.
In 2020, Zhuo officially joined her parent’s business and expanded the company’s product range. She ended up introducing two new brands. Eggyi.Co sells bento cakes or individual-sized mini cakes targeted at Gen Z, and the other sells cakes customized for pets.
The introduction of these two brands ultimately helped save the family’s business through COVID-19, Zhuo said. Currently, its prices range from about $100 to $10,000 per order, and it has a staff of about 14 people spread across two kitchens, one for human cakes and one for pet cakes.
Shooting for the stars
Like Zhuo, Chan’s passions have been outside of academics since childhood.
“I was never that studious, but I always loved entrepreneurship and the idea of doing our own thing,” Chan said. “Ever since I was 16, I started my own little startup and sold everything. If it was sneakers, I’d buy them, clean them and sell them. Anything that makes money, I’ll do it,” he said.
In 2022, he and his wife decided to join the family business full-time. He introduced new strategies. In other words, we proposed not only selling directly to individual consumers (B2C), but also selling to other businesses (B2B) to create a more stable source of income.
He also focused on building the company’s brand online. Chan worked to establish a presence across social media platforms and began targeting celebrities and influencers coming to town.
Custom-made cake created by CakeIn Inspiration for social media influencers Ha Sisters.
Courtesy of CakeInspire
In June, three Korean-American content creators (sisters Evelyn, Erica, and Emily Ha) traveled to Singapore for a beauty store pop-up event. When Chang learned they were in town, he saw it as a chance to surprise them with a cake.
“It’s actually pretty crazy, because they were in Singapore for this beauty store pop-up… They were posting stories from the hotel, and I was like, ‘Hey, this looks really familiar. I know[which]hotel this is,'” he said. “So, I prepared a cake and headed straight to the hotel.”
Chan and his team quickly created custom cakes for the sisters and timed the delivery to coincide with Sister Ha’s event. “Of course, after the pop-up you have to go back (to the hotel) to change, right? Yeah. So (that’s when I) went there,” he said.
As it happened, his timing was perfect. When he arrived at the hotel entrance with cake in hand, he ran into the sisters and managed to hand them a surprise. Later, one of the Ha sisters shared a video of the cake on social media, which eventually received over 500,000 views.
This interaction marked the beginning of the company’s celebrity marketing strategy. To date, CakeInspire has also delivered custom cakes to the likes of Lisa from K-Pop band BlackPink, Russell Simmons, and G-Dragon.
Despite common advice to avoid working with a partner, for Zhang and Zhuo, working together as a couple actually had great benefits. Mr. Chan is best at partnerships, marketing, and other external engagements, while Mr. Zhuo is best at day-to-day operations and managing everything internally.
“Our roles are clearly defined, so we don’t have any conflicts over work. So I don’t usually tell her how to do things internally, and she doesn’t really tell me how to do things outside of the company. I think we trust each other to perform our roles to the best of our ability,” Chan said.
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