XIAO GUOXUN always wants to try something new. In 2015, he founded the salad brand Sexy Salad in Shenzhen with the ambition of promoting healthier eating habits in China. One year later, the company occupied over 90 percent of the market share in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Xiao, now in his early 30s, enrolled in the business school of Sun Yat-sen University in 2005. After graduation, he was recommended to Shanghai Jiaotong University to study for a master’s degree, but he gave up and joined P&G as he wanted to get enough work experience to start his own business in the future.

Two years later, Xiao left P&G and turned to the real estate industry. In late 2014, he founded an e-commerce company to sell fresh food online.

Also in 2014, salad as a staple food started to gain popularity among Chinese customers. Xiao noticed that many Chinese people had a habit of overeating, which might cause health problems such as obesity, high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia in the coming decades.

“I want to change Chinese people’s eating habits and promote a healthier lifestyle in China,” Xiao said. He founded Sexy Salad with four partners in July 2015. The brand’s target customers are the middle-class and those who pursue a healthy diet.

A year later, the company gained over 22 million yuan (US$3.38 million) in the A+ round of financing, and its market share in Shenzhen and Guangzhou reached 90 percent.

The recipes for its salads are open to customers, so they could easily be copied by its competitors, but Xiao said he isn’t worried about copycats as he believes that continuous innovation will make him go further.

The company has developed rapidly by expanding its online and offline sales channels. Xiao said his goal for the coming three years is to really change the eating habits of Chinese people.

Xiao said he has been independent since he was a child because his parents always let him make his own decisions. Xiao’s daughter was born earlier last year. He said he will give enough freedom to his daughter so that she can live her life in the way that she likes. (Zhang Yang)