Dominik Danninger’s journey from coding at age 12 in Europe to leading a next-gen packaging tech company in Korea is anything but typical. As the founder and CEO of Packative, he’s tackling one of the most overlooked bottlenecks in commerce—packaging—by digitizing and automating what was once a chaotic, offline process. Now with the launch of DYP.ai, an AI-powered design tool purpose-built for packaging, Dominik is set to redefine how brands across Asia and beyond create, customize, and produce packaging at scale. In this candid interview, he shares the story behind Packative, the challenges of building as a foreign founder in Korea, and what’s next for the company’s growing global ambitions.
Q. You started coding at 12 and now run a successful packaging tech startup in Korea. How did that journey begin?
I started coding at 12, got deep into workflow and ERP system development, and eventually led a software company in Europe. But in 2018, I felt the need to do something different. I started an import business here in Korea and ended up working with the 2018 Winter Olympic Games—coordinating with local caterers for 12 international country houses.
That’s where I first ran head-first into packaging. We had to constantly source packaging for food and retail goods, and it was a nightmare—high minimums, slow response times, everything offline, and chaotic coordination with multiple vendors.
Q. What inspired you to start Packative, and why the focus on packaging?
Everything from design to ordering was stuck in the past—email-based quotes, long lead times, and high minimum orders. I saw an opportunity to completely reinvent the experience with tech: from real-time pricing to design automation. For startups, creators, and even larger brands, packaging should be fast, flexible, and scalable—not a bottleneck.
Q. What problem is Packative solving for businesses and customers today?
We remove three major pain points: high minimums, offline design processes, and unpredictable quotes. Our platform lets anyone—from a small business to an enterprise—design, quote, and order custom packaging in minutes. No design experience needed, and no long back-and-forth with suppliers.
And we just launched DYP.ai, a new global platform that makes it incredibly easy for brands and designers to kickstart the packaging design process.
Q. Can you tell us more about your latest launch, DYP.AI, and what makes it special?
DYP.AI is our generative AI tool that helps users turn ideas into print-ready packaging files. But what’s unique is that we built it specifically for the packaging industry—it doesn’t just make pretty mockups, it understands dielines, fold lines, prepress requirements, and even generates print ready designs. It’s the first step toward a future where even factories won’t need so called “prepress” (prepress process includes the preparation and proofing of artwork for printing) teams anymore.
Q. How does your AI tool help people design packaging—even without a design background?
Most generative AI tools today focus on creating hyper-realistic or artistic images or Existing styles like latest gp4o Ghibli-style trend or abstract scenes. But that doesn’t work in packaging, where the design needs to be clean, clear, and printable. Packaging has its own language: flat designs, limited color systems, patterns, structural rules, and branding needs.
With DYP.ai, users can simply describe what they want like “pastel bakery box with eco-friendly vibe” maybe even add a reference image of a style you liked, and our model generates packaging-specific designs that are actually usable for print.
We trained it with packaging and print constraints in mind, so instead of getting overly artistic outputs, you get real packaging artwork that’s production-ready. It’s an intuitive, fast way to get started, even for someone who’s never opened any professional Design tools before.
Q. What was the biggest challenge building DYP.AI, and how did your team overcome it?
Honestly, the biggest challenge was my own ambition. While developing DYP.AI, we were also running continuous feedback loops with real users, testing and improving the model. At the same time, we completely overhauled our core marketplace at Packative.com and launched our own ERP system—built to become the Salesforce of the packaging industry.
Balancing all three products, with a team of fewer than 10 people, required relentless focus and execution. But we pulled it off. Today, we’re operating a full-stack ecosystem: design automation with DYP, scalable order management with our ERP, and a digital marketplace to bring it all together.
Q. You’ve grown fast and served thousands of clients—what’s been key to your success?
We focused on solving real customer pain and stayed obsessed with the problem, not just the product. Instead of accepting the way things were done by suppliers and manufacturers, we challenged every step of the process which made things incredible hard internally and created a lot of stress for the team, that takes resilience.
It’s not easy to push back against legacy systems, especially in a fragmented industry like packaging. But our team never backed down. We kept innovating sometime slower than we wish sometimes faster than we expected, but whenever a problem occurred and we had some unsatisfied customers or production issues from suppliers we got obsessed of how we can solve this. So far we served over 2,600 clients and producing nearly 4.5 million packages and I am really proud of that.
Q. What’s it like being a European founder building a company in Korea?
It’s definitely lonely—there aren’t many foreign entrepreneurs here, especially in traditional industries like packaging. The cultural & language differences as well as Visa policies and regulations can be tough to navigate. But I genuinely love Korea’s speed, decisions happen fast, and once you earn trust, things move.
When I started, I think most people in the industry underestimated me and probably still do. A foreigner, in packaging, trying to change how things work? But that underestimation became a strength. It gave me the space to challenge industry norms, scale quietly, and build something people didn’t see coming and have been trying to copy for 3+ years without any success.
I also might be totally wrong, but even though I would consider myself well connected in the Global Startup Community in Korea, I know only less then a handful of foreigners who has actually successfully raised investment in Korea. That’s rare. And when you compare that to the U.S., where 55% of billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants, you realize the gap in opportunity. I really hope Korea becomes more open and diverse—because people like me can build great things if given the chance.
Now, having built Packative here, I believe I’ve got a real edge—not just to scale within Korea, but across Asia. We’re already building networks for the next phase. If we can disrupt the industry here, we can do it anywhere.
Q. What are your plans next—any new markets or features coming soon?
Without revealing too much just yet, we’re actively in talks with some major players in Europe and Asia. These are domestic packaging giants generating hundreds of millions, even billions in revenue. And what’s exciting is: they see our potential and want to be part of what’s next.
New markets are coming—it’s just a question of when, not if. We’re not just expanding features—we’re building the infrastructure to scale globally. Stay tuned for some big updates this summer.
Q. What advice would you give to other founders building tech startups today?
Forget the hype. Focus on solving a real, painful problem – something that keeps your customers up at night. Don’t chase trends. Go deep in your niche, obsess over the workflows, and build systems that actually save time, money, or frustration.
Don’t wait for permission. When I started Packative, I had no background in packaging. I was a foreigner in Korea, and almost everyone underestimated me. But I stayed focused on product, stayed resilient, and pushed through every obstacle—and trust me, there were many. And there will be more. That’s the journey of a founder.
If there are no obstacles, maybe there’s no real problem. Resilience beats everything.
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