Run Run Runbin - Our Founder’s Story

How does a former product executive and chief partnership strategist at some of the biggest tech and healthcare companies in the world also find time to grow a door-to-door dumpling business? Love. That’s how. 

Scale Social Founder, Runbin Dong, has spent time in boardrooms and as an executive at mega corporations, including IBM, Moderna, and CVS Health. But his story begins humbly in the corner of a Chinese restaurant, where his parents worked tirelessly to grow their businesses and to provide a great life for their family. 

“It is incredibly difficult being a restaurant operator. And I kind of knew that first-hand because my parents were never really home.”

Runbin was raised in restaurants. The son of two restaurateurs, his parents spent their entire working lives building and growing various Chinese and Japanese cuisine restaurants in and around Nashville, TN. When he wasn’t helping in the kitchen or cleaning up the dining room, he was doing homework, cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit, and witnessing firsthand the grit and determination of his parents as small business owners.

As he grew up and his parents retired, Runbin noticed that his mother had lost the spark that had carried her through the ups and downs of the restaurant industry. “Their entire livelihood is tied to the businesses that they're a part of. It's almost as though the identity is tied to it.” While he was working in tech, his mother couldn’t help but send him handmade Asian delicacies—specifically her homemade dumplings—and Runbin couldn’t help but share them. Who doesn’t love a care package from mom?

It was the love of entrepreneurship and family that drove Runbin to work with his mother, selling her dumplings door-to-door. After coding a simple Shopify storefront, their business took off. As they grew, he began fostering personal connections with customers via text, where they would share stories, photos, and videos of their dumpling experiences. 

It struck him that these authentic interactions were the secret to their organic growth and that model, if scalable, could be incredibly successful for other restaurant owners.

“How can you convey that authentic experience to other would-be customers? Such that when they see this, it doesn't seem like an ad anymore.”

Scale Social was born out of an idea to create scalable, pun somewhat intended, ad campaigns for franchisees and restaurant owners to grow their local businesses. Runbin and his team quickly realized that AI wasn’t working to create ads that converted, but it was effective in targeting and placing them locally. The content that worked the best was the authentic, user-generated content of happy customers enjoying their meals with family and friends.

Runbin’s story is a full-circle tale; growing up in family-owned restaurants, forging his own path in tech, and now combining the two to help other small restaurants grow and scale. As an entrepreneur, founder, and builder, Runbin never stops.