FOUNDER, ONE LITTLE BULB
YAN
“I see marketing through a business owner’s eyes.”
YAN / FOUNDER
My journey
At nineteen, I founded a copywriting studio in Australia, later co-founding education and entertainment businesses, managing both operations and marketing.
Three years of marketing my own education business and working with a Xiaohongshu (REDnote) KOL team gave me hands-on experience in business operations, content and social media. From Australia to China and the UK, I’ve worked across more than ten industries, from copywriting to brand building.
Having run businesses myself, I understand the pressures of allocating budgets, winning customers, covering costs and delivering on promises.
I start with your business goals, growth stage and resources before deciding what marketing should do. Every piece of content and every pound spent on advertising should serve a genuine commercial purpose.
Marketing is not just
the final step.
Marketing connects a business with its customers, but its effectiveness depends on everything before it: product, positioning, pricing, purchasing experience and delivery.
Marketing is a magnifying glass. If the product is worth zero, multiplying it by a hundred million still gives you zero.
My first principle is simple: everything must ultimately serve profitability. Reach, followers, engagement and sales are objectives at different stages, but profit is the lifeblood of a business.
What I believe in —
ONE LITTLE BULB
Over the past year, I’ve carefully selected and built our team in China, valuing commercial insight, efficiency and forward-thinking business practices. The deeper I’ve worked in this industry, the more clearly I’ve recognised China’s leadership in these areas.
But I knew that wasn’t enough.
I wanted a London team for its diverse creative perspectives, independent thinking and freedom of expression. Brands, like people, need space to express themselves. Without it, they lose their vitality.
I’m also exploring advanced Chinese AI models, not merely to reduce costs, but to make experimentation easier and ambitious creative ideas achievable with fewer resources. AI is unstoppable. Rather than resist it, I believe in learning to harness it early and discovering what makes us irreplaceable.
These strengths belong together: commercial insight and efficiency, creative freedom and imagination, and technology that expands what’s possible.
This year marks an important milestone. After a year of careful preparation, our people, ideas and direction have finally come together.
ONE LITTLE BULB is ready to meet the world. And I believe it will bring more light into it.
上善若水
The highest goodness is like water.
Water benefits all things without contention.知行合一
The unity of knowledge and action.
To know and to act are one.一心一意
With one heart and one mind.
Wholehearted devotion to one purpose.
