David Wang on building the Future of Open Loyalty at HeyMax

What if all your loyalty points, credit card deals, and travel rewards lived in one open ecosystem, built around you instead of the banks?

In this episode, we talk to David Wang, founder of Krip, Hong Kong’s first centralised credit card deals platform, now part of HeyMax, the Singapore-based startup redefining loyalty across Asia.

David shares how recognising just how much value gets lost in everyday spending led him to build Krip, a platform that helped Hongkongers spend smarter and ultimately drew the attention of HeyMax. In this conversation, he reflects on building a startup from scratch, navigating its acquisition, and finding new purpose leading the next phase of growth, all while reshaping how loyalty and rewards actually work.

💡What You’ll Learn
How Krip became one of Hong Kong’s standout fintech success stories
Why HeyMax’s “open loyalty” model could change how you earn and spend rewards
What founders should know before considering an acquisition
The emotional reality of entrepreneurship, how to balance the highs and lows
Where travel, tech, and loyalty are converging next in Asia


TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Maximizing Rewards: The Vision Behind Krip and HeyMax
01:00 Pitch Round
02:52 The Journey of Entrepreneurship: From Krip to HeyMax
06:04 Understanding Customer Engagement and Loyalty Programs
09:09 Open Loyalty: A New Era in Customer Engagement
11:57 Navigating Competition in the Loyalty Space
14:56 Building Partnerships: The Role of Merchants and Airlines
17:53 The Emotional Rollercoaster of Entrepreneurship
20:53 Transitioning from Founder to Acquired Company
23:56 The Importance of Value Alignment in M&A
27:12 Productivity Hacks for Founders
30:03 The Future of Loyalty Programs and Customer Engagement

If you enjoy hearing about the personal journeys of founders, I recommend you listen to our conversation with Collin Hong, CEO & Co-founder of DeepTranslate, here:    • Niche AI Beats Google at Finance Translati...  
Access the full show notes for this episode: https://www.unsensible.com/resources/...

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LinkedIn:   / dbwang  
Website: https://www.heymax.ai/

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