Jackson Aw of Mighty Jaxx marries passion and business savvy to grow some serious revenue from toys
Jackson Aw has always been interested in pop culture and art since he was young. But it was not until he was in college that he started to spend more money on this interest. What was an interest then developed into a passion, as Aw started collecting prints and artbooks from his “hero” artists and eventually moved up the chain to spend more on buying collectible figurines.
“I didn’t have much money when I was studying. But I started to collect my favourite artists’ works and eventually figurines. From just spending $10, my budget gradually increased to a few hundreds. I just fell onto a slippery slope, fuelled by my passion,” says Aw.
Although this interest was cultivated within Aw at a young age, the idea to venture into such an industry was not his first thought. He dabbled into his other passion — photography. He admits it failed a few times when he tried to make it a money-making business. Aw then looked into his other passions in life and that paved the way for him to start Mighty Jaxx, which has now earned him the title of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year — Collectibles and Lifestyle Products.
Founded in 2012 by Aw, Mighty Jaxx is an award-winning future culture company that designs and manufactures collectibles and lifestyle products in partnership with the greatest talents in the world, as well as global brands such as Hasbro, Sesame Street, Warner Bros (WB) and more.
When Mighty Jaxx first started, Aw collaborated with his close friend, artist and illustrator Eman Jeman — more popularly known as Clogtwo — who specialists in graffiti art. Aw met Jeman when he was dabbling in his photography business and later decided to collaborate with him to create Mighty Jaxx’s first ever figurine — Hell Lotus.
Aw recalls: “We debuted the brand and our first product at Singapore Comic Con 2012. At first, I was so excited. I thought we were going to make it big and sell out during the event. But we manufactured 200 pieces of this figurine and only manged to sell about 20 during the event.”
He adds: “After that, I had about 180 boxes of figurines stuck in my parents’ HDB flat in Choa Chu Kang. It was a terrible launch and I thought I would have to get a full-time job to pay off my debts.”
He chose to turn to e-commerce and put the figurines for sale online to overseas market. Fortunately, that worked out. “We managed to clear our inventory within six months,” says Aw, who adds that the US market is more mature and adventurous when it comes to collecting figurines.
When we first started,
challenges were an everyday thing.
We could not get funding ... it was
very tough. Any failed product for us
then could mean bankruptcy — Aw
From zero to hero
Starting the business from scratch with just passion and limited funds was not an easy feat for Aw.
Back then, the collectible figurine space in Singapore was rather small. Although Aw still thinks the space is small today, it has definitely grown from when he first started. And Aw says that especially for those in the creative field, be it arts or music, it was “hard to get validation”.
“When we first started, challenges were an everyday thing. We could not get funding and had to fund everything in the beginning with our own cash flow. I did get some help from my family, who were quite supportive. But it was very tough. Any failed product for us then could mean bankruptcy,” says Aw.
Armed with only his dream of one day working with his hero artists, Aw set out on the journey towards establishing his company. Although his background is in design, Aw was more comfortable in his tech expertise, as he built the digital infrastructure in the beginning, putting the products online and leveraging e-commerce to reach larger markets.
His hard work has paid off. Today, Mighty Jaxx boasts a staff size of over 100, a distribution network across approximately 80 countries worldwide, and Aw has had the opportunity to work with some of his favourite artists — Phunk Studio, Tara McPherson, James Jean and many more.
Aw says: “When I first started Mighty Jaxx, my goal was just to wear shorts to work. And I did that for a very long time. Now, I’ve graduated from that and I dress better.” He adds: “Back then, it was almost impossible to set a goal. Goals work for sole-purpose companies, but for us, we need to be agnostic and open to the development of cultures. As these cultures and sub-cultures evolve, we need to immediately change too.”
At first, Aw did not believe there was only one direction the company could head towards. But now, after getting the company on track and putting his big boy pants on, Aw admits: “After six, seven years, the company has started to take shape … Things have changed and now we need some definite goals to guide the whole company of 100 people, to make sure that we can achieve what we need to. At this point, it is not just about me. It is about the identity of this company.”
Mighty Jaxx today aims to supercharge future culture “phygitally” (the combination of the words “physically” and “digitally”). With that, the company is building an integrated platform to empower future pop culture brands with end-to-end supply chain of collectibles, including artist development and incubation, proprietary intellectual property operation, and providing global consumer access to new retail.
Mighty Jaxx leverages blockchain technology for this. “What we have done to our physical product is to build a chip inside it during the manufacturing process. Once a customer purchases a figurine, they can use their smartphone’s NFC (near-field communication) to scan it and register ownership of the item on our platform,” explains Aw.
There has always been the question of authenticity when it comes to collecting figurines. Now, with the chip, the customer can immediately, through Mighty Jaxx’s platform, record ownership of the item, transfer ownership and even view a certificate for the item. On top of that, the platform will also push content that is related to the items purchased to the customer.
Mighty Jaxx has also started to introduce an interactive element to its physical figurines, allowing customers to also access a game that involves the figurine bought. “When you purchase a figurine, you’re likely going to just leave it aside and just look at it. It does nothing. But we want to make sure that we can create a more immersive experience for the fans,” says Aw.
Meanwhile, Mighty Jaxx has also recently released its Non-Fungible Token (NFT), a digital asset that customers can buy, own and trade just like any other collectible. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, these cryptographic tokens cannot be replicated and have a unique identification code and data that distinguish them. One of its latest NFTs was minted in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Coinhako and put up for bidding at Singapore’s first large-scale NFT exhibition.
“The owners of our NFTs have full control over their digital, authenticated assets. They can choose if they want to trade it or hold it, or if they want to utilise its ability to take this type of asset and go to another type of digital environment and interact with it,” says Aw. “This also adds an additional layer to the value of the item and their ownership of it, as compared to only being able to interact with a physical collectible only in the physical world.”
Collecting accolades
Aw recalls that Mighty Jaxx’s big break came in 2015, when WB accidentally sent him an internal email, which included the contact information of its global head of toys. Aw took that opportunity and contacted him directly. The next thing, Aw found himself on a plane and driving in California for the first time to meet the executive. It took only 30 minutes for Aw to charm WB, and the rest was history.
In 2016, Mighty Jaxx recorded its first million-dollar turnover, and the company has kept growing since.
As Aw mentioned, it has always been difficult for the company and the industry to secure funding and support. But earlier this year, the company managed to raise US$10 million in a funding round led by Chinese Internet giant Tencent, along with other investors such as Korea Investment Partners and KB Investment, bringing the total raised to US$14.8 million over four rounds in all. Aw has come a long way.
Looking forward, Mighty Jaxx aims to recruit another 100 to 150 employees globally over the next 18 months, as they continue to expand into international markets. Aw believes that there is huge untapped potential in countries such as Japan and Korea, which already have strong fandoms closely integrated into their pop culture. By working with their local celebrities, game developers and media creators, Mighty Jaxx can expand further into different fandoms, and ultimately create an environment where fandoms from all over the world would be able to interact with each other.
“China is one of our largest markets and now we have three offices there. We are going to be quite busy in that market for now, but we also want to set up offices in the US, Europe and UK too. Hopefully, this can happen this year,” says Aw.
