Inspirational story of garage coffee business
From 2111 to 2111, Su Yi's life as a company employee seems to have reached a small level that makes people complacent.
In 2111, Su Yi, a college student majoring in electronic information in Beijing Union University, and several young children pooled 41,111 yuan to open a store in Warwick Shopping Mall in Xidan, Beijing, acting as an agent for the sale of 811 million space-time computers, and began to make money in the fourth month. "At that time, I sold 15 computers a day, and when I quoted a price to my customers, it was like a performance, and I sold it." "Due to external forces, the store has not been open for a long time, but it has done well. This is my first venture. "
After graduation, Su Yi joined Foxconn Fuben Main Board as the channel manager in North China. "In fact, the channel manager is a salesman, the lowest position, with a basic salary of 2,111 yuan per month." Later, he went to 8848, a well-known Internet company at that time, started with ordinary channel sales, became an agent in Jiangsu, and established a Nanjing branch from scratch.
Su Yi joined chinacache Blue Flood in 2116, and started as a salesman. This short Beijing boy is always full of energy. I woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning, played basketball, sent Weibo, rode more than 21 kilometers to work, and worked overtime for seven days a week. In the third month, with her accumulated contacts and years of experience in the Internet industry, Su Yi signed a big order of Guangguang International, and then signed several million contracts. Soon, he became the sales director of Lanxun. In the position of sales supervisor, he created a greater miracle: a person's sales performance is 1/7 of the company's total income.
At work, Su Yi has contacted no less than 2,111 Internet companies, including Kaixin.com and 58 Tongcheng.com in the start-up period. These customers he has served have become dark horses in the industry and distinguished guests in the capital market one after another. Su Yi simply suggested that the company set up a strategic investment department, and Su Yi served as the investment director-Su Yi was the only one in the department, making the world by himself.
in October 2111, Lanxun was listed on NASDAQ [Weibo]. Just past the age of 31, Su Yi has achieved his phased goal: as a company executive, to help the company successfully go public. "It's not challenging. Go on, isn't it just repeating yourself? I need to start over. "
Ferry man
As the investment director, Su Yi runs between the dining tables and conference rooms in the city every day. In this super metropolis famous for traffic congestion, she can only contact four or five teams at most from morning till night. "It is very difficult for investors to find projects. At the same time, a large number of entrepreneurs can't find a platform for dialogue with investors. There are too few supporting measures for investors and entrepreneurs. Perhaps, I can build a platform dedicated to incubating entrepreneurs? This platform is completely open, and any entrepreneurs and investors are welcome to come here to start businesses, find investments and find projects! "
" It will be a meaningful undertaking to bring entrepreneurs and investors together. Maybe because I have been in a startup for a long time, I have an entrepreneurial mentality. "
He thought of two key words: garage and cafe.
this "garage" is not that "garage". Bill Hugh Park Jung Su and david packard founded Hewlett-Packard [Weibo] in a garage in California, Jobs founded Apple in the garage, Bill Gates founded Microsoft [Weibo] in the garage, and Google was born in a garage. "There are many garages in the United States and their prices are low, which allows companies such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Google to start businesses at a very low cost when they start. On the other hand, China lacks some places suitable for early start-ups. Can my' garage' breed China's Microsoft and Google [Weibo]? "
during the American gold rush, a large number of gold diggers came to San Francisco, and most of them returned empty-handed. In the end, it was not the gold diggers who really made a lot of money, but those who sold hoes and jeans and ferry boats.
Su Yi wants to be the person on the ferry.
"No matter whether you succeed in the end or not, the feeling of chasing your dreams is the best!"
fortunately, behind his dream, there are big bosses willing to push hands. Bao Yueqiao, founder of Lianzhong, Shangguan Yongqiang, vice president of Haihong Holdings, and Yang Weiqing, founder of iResearch, all became his shareholders.
Su Yi aimed at zhongguancun west, which is the Silicon Valley of China. The original plan was to find a space of about 211-311 square meters. Seeing the 811-square-meter space on the second floor of the Book City Pedestrian Street, Su Yi decided to make the envisaged cafe bigger. With the rent, water, electricity and labor costs, the guaranteed income of garage coffee will be around 51 thousand yuan a month. Sue signed a five-year contract with the landlord, paid more than 111,111 yuan in rent, and invested more than 211,111 yuan in decoration and various equipment.
in April 2111, the garage coffee was opened.
The garage coffee is hidden on the second floor of a hotel on the pedestrian street of Haidian Book City, and there is no conspicuous sign-this is obviously intentional: only entrepreneurs who come to work are welcome here, not young couples looking for emotional appeal. The ceiling is a blackened exposed pipeline, the floor is a red common tile, and there is a glass-partitioned study. The books here are donated by successful entrepreneurs in the Internet industry, and entrepreneurs can look through them for inspiration. However, the four independent conference rooms are quite different from the pragmatic style of the big studio: Su Yi's friends who are looking for the art circle have all made wall paintings like starry sky, "Let people dare to dream when they work down to earth and exchange ideas".
On the left side of the gate is the recruitment wall, on which are all kinds of heroic posts freely published, some of which are handwritten and printed, and some information even comes from Shanghai and Shenzhen. The recruiter said that he would fly to Beijing every week to sit in the garage until he found a hero in appreciate each other. On the right side of the gate is a bulletin board, with photos of Su Yi, big shots from the investment community and senior government officials, and a call-up order for the garage coffee to organize a weekend trip to the suburbs.
A team of three people rents an office in Zhongguancun, and it costs at least 4,111 yuan per month. In the garage, you can work for one day by buying a cup of American coffee, which only takes 31 days in 22 yuan and 661 yuan. The garage provides printing, copying, scanning and brand-name making services, and provides mobile testing machines at the price of 5 yuan per hour, with projectors, desktop touch screens and even massage chairs for everyone to relax. Every Monday to Friday, from 13: 31 to 14: 11, it is a half-hour lunch for entrepreneurs to share their exclusive time to communicate, seek resources and make friends.
From platform to incubator
Su Yi spends his time in the garage coffee every day, chatting with every entrepreneur who comes here, then introducing them to investors according to their advantages and characteristics, and also recommending their business to other teams. Chatting all day at the busiest time, he knows everyone in the shop.
In the first half month of opening, lemonade was provided free of charge, and one guest really only drank lemonade for 15 days. His name is Mo Xiaoyi. After 81s, he just returned from working abroad and set up a four-person entrepreneurial team to develop mobile clients. Xiaoyi doesn't have the money to rent an office. She takes the bus twice a day, then transfers to the subway, and rushes to the garage from the East Fifth Ring Road. If you don't get the investment within three months, the team is likely to break up. "I thought that the investment they needed must not be small. As a result, they only needed 211,111 yuan."
Su Yi introduced the famous investor Lin Xinhe to Mo Xiaoyi. Lin Xinhe, together with Bao Yueqiao and UNITA, gave Mo Xiaoyi an angel investment. "Now Winglet is in good condition, with a daily income of 11,111 to 21,111 yuan, and occasionally she will go back to the garage to help other entrepreneurs who have struggled together."
Su Yi is not willing to publicize Mo Xiaoyi's so-called success. "I don't think getting investment marks the success of entrepreneurs. What garage coffee hopes to see is that the entrepreneurial team will grow here. Growth is far more important than success. "
In Su Yi's view, another story of growing up is even more touching. A 68-year-old entrepreneur came to Beijing from Wuxi. He came to the garage coffee on time every day to write a program to teach primary school students pinyin literacy, and then sold it to schools everywhere. I also encourage other entrepreneurs in my spare time. "The spirit is so touching. If your grandfathers are writing their own programs to start businesses, what reason do you have for a young man not to move forward? "
"Go to the garage for coffee duty every Tuesday, and welcome entrepreneurs to come and communicate." Jing Wang, the investment manager of Xianfeng Huaxing, issued the Weibo and became the first resident investor in the garage. Later, I don't know which investor dubbed "on duty" as "sitting on the stage". Xu Xiaoping, Lei Jun [Weibo], Jing Wang, Tong Weiliang, Managing Director of Gobi Investment, Jian Jiang, Vice President of Gaoli Angel Fund, Liu Yiang, Investment Manager of Zero2IPO, Shang Kewei, etc., more than 211 well-known institutions came to look for investment projects, and dozens of successful entrepreneurial projects were bred.
in February, 2112, Guo Shuqing, Chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission, Gui Minjie, Liu Xinhua, Secretary of Discipline Inspection Commission, Zhang Sining, Director of Growth Enterprise Market Department, and Guo Jinlong, Mayor of Beijing visited the garage coffee. Some people think that this is an important signal, which means that the capital market system has a major new policy for start-ups and technological innovation, and some people speculate that garage coffee may land on the Growth Enterprise Market. Despite these possible over-interpretations, at least one thing can be confirmed: the garage coffee industry has become the most famous gathering place for grassroots entrepreneurs. Washington post specifically mentioned the garage coffee in the article What Americans Should Really Fear of China, arguing that in the current China society, many grassroots entrepreneurs will become an important force to promote China's economic transformation, and Su Yi and his garage coffee are one of the forces supporting grassroots entrepreneurs to move forward.
Garage coffee is handsomely made, which has caused the whole country to follow suit. Su Yi won the May 4th Medal of Beijing Youth in 2113, and was invited to enter the official career-but as a profitable coffee shop, the profit model is always the core of its existence. The ultra-low turnover rate and low price strategy of the garage determine that it is impossible to make a profit by coffee.
"It is impossible to make money in a coffee shop without a turnover rate, so we are diluting coffee and developing into a deep entrepreneurial service club." By signing up for the promising projects selected by the entrepreneurial team and joining the deep entrepreneurial service club, enterprises can get a series of services worth 211,111 yuan provided by the garage coffee, including printing business cards, opening accounts and server bandwidth, without actually moving to the garage for office work. Garage coffee is undergoing a transformation from "entrepreneurial gathering platform" to "entrepreneur incubator".
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