In this episode of The New Frontier, hosts Jo and Max sit down with Jonny Plein, a repeat founder, investor and advisor. Jonny sold his first business Pouch for 7-Figures, and just announced a $11m Series A for his current business Yaso. YASO is a next-generation solution for ambitious brands looking to enter the $1.7tn Chinese ecommerce market and sell directly to Gen Z consumers, using the power of social commerce.
Reflecting on his first exit, Jonny shares hard-earned lessons on what it takes to build and scale a company: staying obsessively organized from day one, learning to delegate low-value tasks, and being ruthless but fair when hiring and firing. He emphasizes the importance of storytelling in fundraising — how effectively you can communicate your company’s vision in 90 seconds — and reveals that Yaso’s success hinged on the strength of its founding team, whose complementary backgrounds in Chinese internet governance, technology, and finance gave them a rare edge in a complex market.
The conversation dives deep into Yaso’s model, which enables brands to sell across China’s fragmented social commerce landscape through one streamlined system — integrating logistics, payments, and storefronts under a single roof. Johnny discusses the challenges of convincing brands to adopt a consignment model over traditional distribution and how data-driven results and trust have fueled their traction. With major clients like Pixi, Faith in Nature, and Cowshed, Yaso is positioning itself as a “revenue-based SaaS” company redefining cross-border e-commerce. For founders and brand leaders alike, Jonny’s story is a masterclass in execution, persistence, and building a global business with conviction.
This podcast is brought to you by Azoma, Amazing Wave, and Ecomtent.
Connect with us:
https://twitter.com/maxsinclair4
https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-sinclair-ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannalambadjieva/