Zachary Murray / House of Koidiscussed
House of Koi (Miami) -- Japanese koi importer + pond design/servicesLuxury hobby (imported koi) -> pond design & recurring servicing
Creator Fund Weekly — Aug 18, 2026Sam Lessin, Eddie DeDomenico, Jack Raines, Megan Lightcap, Caroline Singer
House of Koi: koi as the top of the funnel for luxury pond design and servicing
4:31
from 3:13 in the recording
Creator Fund call, Aug 18 2026 (Riverside)
Miami-based founder who lived in Japan for three years (studied in Kyoto, fluent) and is one of the few Americans buying directly from top Niigata koi breeders, reselling DTC at $79-$2,200. YouTube is tiny (~2K subscribers) but a recent video hit 63K views and he's a genuinely good storyteller; content is koi unboxings and pond builds, which is the acquisition channel. Eddie's thesis: the koi is the top of the funnel and the real business is custom pond design plus ongoing servicing for wealthy owners, which runs 20-100x the price of the fish (the 'plant daddies' playbook). The hobby is deeply institutionalized (clubs, ZNA chapters where he speaks) and the community, not the dealer, sets prices. Sam thinks he's probably too small to engage yet but worth reaching out to. Caroline flagged two larger operators already doing pond build + supplies + servicing: Greg Wittstock's Aquascape and The Pond Guy.
Things We Like
- Repeats the 'plant daddies' playbook: a luxury hobby product as top-of-funnel for a much bigger design + recurring servicing business (Eddie: pond servicing runs 20-100x the cost of the fish)
- Rare supply-side edge -- Japanese fluency and direct relationships with Niigata breeders; one of very few Americans negotiating with koi farmers directly
- Community-set pricing in a deeply institutionalized hobby (clubs, ZNA chapters) -- a status market where the dealer doesn't dictate price
- Sam's frame: 'luxury as touching grass' -- physical, high-maintenance status symbols the 0.1% will pay others to maintain as life goes more virtual
- Founder-first, not creator-first: figured out YouTube fast (2K subs but a 63K-view video and daily growth), strong storyteller, great customer service on Eddie's cold call
Key Questions
- How big does he think this goes beyond koi -- Megan's point that man-made backyard ponds (stocked to fish out of) are a broader category than the koi hobby
- Is he simply too small for us to engage yet (Sam's read), or is early contact worth it anyway
- How do Aquascape (Greg Wittstock) and The Pond Guy -- larger, already doing pond build + supplies + servicing, one also sells koi -- change the picture; Caroline to send both names to Eddie
Conversation Quotes
- “The koi is just the top of funnel to get people into the custom pond builds and then the servicing thereafter... the pond servicing costs twenty to a hundred X what the fish costs”Eddie
- “Luxury as touching grass is another thing I would just really keep in mind as we look at things... no one wants to maintain this stuff, but it becomes the ultimate status symbol in a world of total virtual world”Sam
- “My dad had one of these things put in and he put fish in the pond so that he could fish the fish out of the pond”Megan