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Stanford Grad Walks Away from TikTok and AI to Build a Mochi Pancake Startup That Sold $100K in Its First Month
John Liu’s story is anything but typical. He studied at Stanford, helped launch TikTok Shop, and built TikTok’s AI-driven video platform. Then he walked away from it all—for a dream that might sound surprising: a bag of mochi pancake mix.
Calling this a “dramatic change of direction” doesn’t even begin to cover it. As Liu tells it, there was a push and a pull. “Honestly, I’d gotten a bit tired of models and tech,” he said with a laugh in an interview with Meet Startup. That was the push. The pull? A childhood dream of becoming a chef. Launching his mochi pancake mix brought him real happiness.
KiuKiu (pronounced like “QQ” in Mandarin), the brand Liu founded, has only been on the market for a month but has already brought in over $100,000 in sales (around 3 million TWD).
Turning AI Profits Into a Mission to Share Taiwanese “QQ” Culture
Liu was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, but moved to the UK at age six when his father took up a university post. Later, he earned a full scholarship to Stanford, majoring in computer science and AI. But food was always his real passion.
“I started cooking for my family almost every day from age eight, so I know how tough kitchen work can be. And food startups are capital-intensive businesses,” Liu explains. That’s why he chose to first build up his skills and savings in tech. His personal goal: save enough for at least two years of runway—without any salary—before quitting to search for true product-market fit.
In 2025, at 27, Liu hit the launch button. He felt this year, he finally had the timing, resources, and skills, from social storytelling learned at TikTok, to his deep understanding of e-commerce, to a multicultural background and love of design. “If my company fails, I can always go back to tech. But if I wait until I’m 30, I might miss the golden window to build momentum in a new field,” he says.
But why mochi pancake mix?
Of course, part of it came from nostalgia for Taiwanese food. But the main reason was the market. Liu noticed that American consumers—especially busy families—are more and more into Asian “QQ” chewy textures, from bubble tea and mochi ice cream to Korean rice cakes. These treats are now part of daily life, but in the grocery baking aisle, you hardly see any rice-based products except ice cream.
So instead of competing with giants like General Mills in existing categories, KiuKiu aims to be a “category expander”—not just taking market share from other brands, but bringing in new customers who never bought pancake mix before and growing the entire baking segment.
Data-Driven D2C Sales: The Secret to KiuKiu’s Rapid Growth
Liu applied Silicon Valley-style product management directly to KiuKiu. Building a “minimum viable product” was key, so he chose a mix that’s easy to ship, shelf-stable, and reliable. The goal was to quickly test demand for QQ textures. “Before launch, we ran two months of taste tests with about 4,000 people,” he explains. KiuKiu’s recipe was iterated 80 times, tweaking sweetness and fluffiness, with every change guided by data.
“Instead of rushing to get into every retail channel, I wanted to really understand our customers and their feedback from the start. That’s why I chose a direct-to-consumer strategy,” Liu says. Today, about 80% of KiuKiu’s sales come from its website. These loyal fans are powerful storytellers for the brand, and strong single-store sales numbers are great proof points when talking with big retailers or potential investors. “Right now, we’re in about 80 stores,” Liu adds. “It’s better to stand out in 20 stores than quietly disappear in 200, right?”
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For example, Liu originally planned to make the product himself—he even bought a commercial mixer. But due to a visa delay, he had to switch to outside manufacturers and third-party logistics. “Actually, it turned out for the best. I could spend my time growing the business—talking to buyers, building sales channels—instead of mixing rice flour at 2 a.m.”
Supply chain hiccups were another constant. KiuKiu insists on sourcing original ingredients—black sesame from Taiwan, ube from the Philippines, pandan from Thailand—so Liu had to handle international shipping headaches, from customs changes to FDA holds and endless paperwork. Once, a shipment of ube powder arrived the wrong color, forcing a production delay and a loss of several thousand dollars. “That taught me to set strict specs for suppliers,” he says. Liu ended up talking to over 200 manufacturers before choosing the right partner.
Despite all these challenges, Liu still runs KiuKiu as a one-person, 12-hours-a-day operation. But he believes that being hands-on helps him understand every part of the business, so he’ll know exactly who to hire for logistics and other specialties later. “Honestly, this kind of varied, challenging work gets me out of bed way more than a big tech company ever did,” he says with a smile.
©2026 Business Next Media Corp. All Rights Reserved. No.102, Guangfu S. Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan