A Conversation with Huang Xiang CEO Yi Wang: Five Years, Three National No. 1s, Champion Breakfasts Designed for Kids — How Huang Xiang Is Reshaping Morning Meal Habits
June 4, 2025
For this episode, we invited Wang Yi, founder and CEO of Buff Boom, and Yuan Liu of ZhenFund, to reflect on the brand's past and future at its five-year mark.
Five years ago, Wang Yi told Yuan Liu a simple story: a father wanted to make a healthy breakfast for his child. As Chinese families' lives sped up, breakfast had become a daily challenge — time-pressed, demanding, and needing variety every single morning. Buff Boom was born to solve this increasingly common need.
Behind the sustained growth is a team with "athlete DNA." At Buff Boom, daily fitness check-ins are routine, and even the boss gets fined if he forgets. Wang Yi often says that entrepreneurship ultimately comes down to stamina. What others see as ups and downs, he considers merely "scrapes short of life and death." Whenever he feels stuck or troubled, he plays a game of ball, works up a sweat, and many problems simply pass.
In 2021, ZhenFund led Buff Boom's angel round. In the five years since, Buff Boom hit the accelerator. Since launching products, it has maintained annual growth of 200%-300%, with a GMV target of exceeding one billion RMB this year, serving over 6 million households.
On June 1, the fifth anniversary, we spoke with Wang Yi about: why he says "entrepreneurship is a long-distance run"; how Buff Boom used team culture to maintain its rhythm when facing copycats, winter, and transformation; and how, starting from breakfast, he understands a brand's long-termism and its relationship with families.
An Athlete's 20 Years in Food
00:28 From basketball player to food entrepreneur: health comes from both training and eating 06:58 Three championships in five years, 200%-300% annual growth, serving 6 million+ households
Reshaping Chinese Family Breakfast with Health Standards
08:23 Selling scenarios, not categories: how Buff Boom disrupted traditional sales thinking 10:35 The real hit product formula: quality ingredients + pain point capture + user trust 12:50 From the English Channel to the children's breakfast table: health is not a false proposition 13:38 How to improve traditional breakfast? Redoing "consumption upgrade" with better ingredients 15:19 Making "white people food" taste good, localizing health concepts 16:11 From hand-grabbed pancakes to black pork buns: fulfilling Chinese kids' breakfast imagination 18:49 Why "Buff Boom"? Looking back at the brand's story and starting point
Entrepreneurship Is a Total Explosion of Connections
20:56 From supply chain to brand: how Buff Boom survived its hardest days 23:55 What big companies can learn, what small companies can create: management, motivation, innovation 25:00 From B2B to B2C: how to build user mindshare 26:54 Building your own factory even without money? A non-consensus decision funded by core team members 28:10 Sponsoring youth sports teams: practicing what you preach about exercise and health 29:27 Entrepreneurship is a total explosion of life's connections
Bringing Chinese Flavor to the Global Table
31:58 West Coast creativity, East Coast capital, global supply chain 33:17 In a mature food market, how does Buff Boom get users to pay? 34:36 Not just hiring professional managers: going global requires a founder's mindset 36:09 The next five years: going out, becoming a globalized Chinese brand 36:50 High-standard food regulation is one of Buff Boom's best moats
Rhythm, Team, and Mindset in the Entrepreneurial Long Run
38:34 Learning from history: building teams with military strategy and locker room culture 42:47 How to hire? Look for athletic spirit, growth background, and drive 45:49 Entrepreneurship is a long-distance run; what matters isn't intelligence but stamina 47:58 At critical moments, what kind of support did ZhenFund give the founder? 48:51 The ideal breakfast: starting a healthy day together with family
Executive producers: Cindy, Jiamin, Xin, Wendi Post-production: newAction
"For Real" is a general business podcast produced by ZhenFund, where the ZhenFund investment team will share the latest hot topics and industry insights with leading figures across various fields.
Founded in 2011, ZhenFund is one of China's earliest angel investment institutions. Since its inception, ZhenFund has been actively seeking out the best entrepreneurial teams and era-defining investment opportunities in artificial intelligence, chips and semiconductors, robotics and hardware, healthcare, enterprise services, new energy, cross-border expansion, consumer lifestyle, and other fields.
ZhenFund — your first stop for entrepreneurship!