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What it is, what it do, cyber world. It is
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your girl, the one and only, Ash Brown, and this
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is the Ash Said It Show. Over 2,200 episodes since 2014, 700,000
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streams globally. None of this is possible without you guys,
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so thank you so much for the shares, the cares.
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It makes a huge difference. Today, we are talking to
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the founder of Tutu. We've got Matz Wang with us today.
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Hey, Matz. Hey, Ash. Good morning.
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Good evening for you.
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Yes, I know.
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Thank you so much.
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For having me.
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Well, thank you so much for joining us. So, Matt,
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I want to get into the origin story. Where did
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the idea for your brand even come from?
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The original idea actually goes back many years before I
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started Tutu. I used to be working in Sweden before.
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I was in a long-distance relationship with And, you know,
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so long distance relationship means we could call each other,
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text each other, but.
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Always I felt something was missing.
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So sometimes you don't really need a conversation. You just
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want the other person to feel one for one second
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that I'm thinking about you. So, but I didn't start
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a company because of that experience, but that feeling stayed
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with me. And, uh, years later, wearable technology suddenly became
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a big trend.
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So, you know, speech-to-speech.
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At that time, almost everyone here in China was building
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some version of fitness band. And I remember thinking, do
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we really need another device measuring the same thing? So
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that was when my.
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Old experience came.
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Came back to me, and I started thinking about jewelry,
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because jewelry has carried human emotion.
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For thousands of years.
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Rings, necklaces, can stand for love, commitment. But traditionally, the
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meaning is symbolic. And I thought, if wearable technology is
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becoming popular, Emotional jewelry is the only symbolic. Why can't
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a piece of jewelry actually help one person feel the
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presence of another? That was when I began to see
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smart jewelry, not a smaller smart watch, but as a
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completely different category.
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And, yeah, so for me, it.
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Should be technology built around emotion, relationships, and human connection.
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That was really the beginning of Tutu.
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I love that. Now, as you were building this brand yourself,
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what was the first challenge that you faced?
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The challenge is nobody did it before. I mean, the
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know-how is zero. I cannot ask anybody how to do
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small jewelry. It's 10 years ago. So even me, my
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background is not a jewelry person.
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Right.
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And before, I haven't done anything about hardware either. So
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I was from the internet and the media industry first.
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Which means, from the beginning, it's very.
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Difficult for me. So, especially jewelry, you.
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Know, it's a very traditional industry. Everything is about handmade.
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But the smart technology is another thing. So, we have
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to combine jewelry craft with smart technology. We have to solve.
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A lot of problems. Yeah, so, yeah, that's, you know,
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what is the most difficult?
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I think everything is difficult for me, yeah.
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But you made it at you. You made this amazing brand,
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and the jewelry, it shows for itself. It's very heartfelt,
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which is why I love it. And we were talking earlier,
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and I thank you to you and your team for
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sending me a set of those bracelets because I sent
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one off to my wonderful goddaughter, Jasmine, who's out there. Yeah,
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and that's just a really awesome way to just stay
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connected to your loved ones. So I applaud you and
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your team and everyone making that dream a reality.
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I'm so happy you love it.
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Yes.
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Now, what would you say has been a notable moment
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Load full transcript
for you and the brand, be it with a customer
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or maybe with a loved one? What stands out to
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you as a very important moment?
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Um... Actually, we launched this product in Milan 10 years ago.
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But at some point, we have to make it a
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real product. So we launched it online and people have
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to order it, pre-order it first.
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But they have to wait.
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So we got a lot of stories from the people
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who pre-ordered the product. The first story that really changed
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the way I saw the product happened very early.
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One day, a customer called.
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Our service team asking about a product she had pre-ordered.
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And I happened to.
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Take the call. She told me she was buying it
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for her mother. But, you know, at first, I was a.
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Little surprised because at that time, we were still thinking
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of the tutu mainly as a product for couples in romance,
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you know.
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Then she.
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explained that her father had recently passed away, and her
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mother was living alone back in their hometown while she
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was far away. And she wanted her mother to wear
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the jewelry so that whenever it lights up, she would know,
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my daughter is thinking about me, I'm not alone.
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So that conversation really stayed with me.
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It made me realize that what we were building was
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much bigger than a long-distance couple product. The deep need
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was connection between partners, parents and children, friends and family,
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like you. Honestly, so starting like that also helped me
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keep going during the difficult years. So when you are
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struggling with technology, manufacturing, and even money, it's easy to
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ask yourself whether it's worth continuing. But then you hear
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how a real person is using the product in a
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way you never imagined, and it demands you why you
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started it. So even now, we collect stories more systematically
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through something we call 2-2 Love Stories. People can
read
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the stories on our website. So yeah, we hope real
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stories like this can help more people believe in real
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love and real human connection.
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Yes, I think that's a beautiful thing. Now, what is
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on the horizon for Tutu? Like, what's next? Can you
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share anything or any secrets you can share with us?
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Yeah. So, Inepti Jewelry is our first product line. You know,
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people enjoy wearing this. send a touch to another one
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and their partners can feel.
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Love across distance.
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People can always choose or customize the color or the
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meaning in the app they can send. I love you,
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I'm thinking of you, or even I hate you.
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So it's very customized.
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People can create a private love code between two.
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But it's only our first step.
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And just a month ago, we launched the first smart
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locket in the United States. You know, personally, I like
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these ideas very much because the traditional locket is already
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one of the most emotional pieces of jewelry ever created.
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So we ask ourselves, what could that experience become today?
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With a smart locket, you can carry photos, short videos,
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and moving memories inside. the jewelry. So imagine it's your
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childhood dog, your grandmother, or someone you miss very much.
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You open the locket and instead of only seeing a
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still photo, For a few seconds, you see that familiar smile,
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a little movement, maybe an expression you remember.
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So suddenly, a memory then that you used to leave
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in a photo album becomes something you can carry.
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Close to your heart. So that is a second memory.
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Second part of that line. And we are also developing
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other smart jewelry line for next year and put more
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AI into jewelry.
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Yes, loving that. Well, Mats, thank you so much for
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coming through to the show. We appreciate you so much
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and we're looking forward to seeing What's next with Tutu? Like, well,
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there's new launches and things into the new year. And
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don't think of this as a one-off. I want you back.
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I want you back on the show and to give
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us exclusive announcements and all the good things that's going
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on at Tutu and more. So I would love for
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you to come back. Yes.
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Thank you so much.
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I really enjoyed this conversation.
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Yes, and thank you to each and every one of
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you guys. Thank you so much for all of your love,
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all of your support. Keeping in mind, anyone to tell
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you that you can't do what you want to do,
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you look them square in the face, you tell them,
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don't believe me, just watch. Watch what I do. Watch
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me make it happen. Watch me make history. That's what
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we're doing this for, the history books. Social media is nice,
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but real life is so much better. Until next time,
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you guys.