What kind of person is Freeman? Why are investors optimistic about Blue bottle?

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Blue bottle originated in Oakland, California, USA. In 2002, it was just a coffee stall in the farmers' market. The first shop was still located in the garage, and there were no seats. Two years later, the first physical store was established.

Growing up in California, Freeman studied single Reed from an early age and was a romantic musician rather than a digital operator. He is deeply influenced by Japanese culture and has always respected the Japanese staff spirit. therefore, in the first decade after its establishment, although Blue bottle slowly began to chain operation, he did not want to copy a large number of stores and quickly display them. Only a dozen stores have been slowly opened in the California Bay area, New York, and Los Angeles. Until 2016, Blue bottle had only 23 stores in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In the first decade, Freeman transformed his enthusiasm and focus on coffee bit by bit into the business process and product features of Blue bottle. Not only pay attention to the quality and flavor of coffee, he attaches great importance to every detail of coffee drinking, dress, and so on. No matter which branch, they all insist on using coffee beans that are strictly selected and roasted by themselves, and only sell coffee beans that are baked within 48 hours. It is stipulated that coffee powder must be used within 45 seconds after grinding, and then cup by professional barista after ordering, which is a lot of attention. Just to ensure that the personality and delicacy of coffee can be fully tasted by customers.

In addition, he also personally plans and designs every store, whether it is using the factory, the seaside warehouse, or the space of the old theater, which can be integrated with architecture and local culture, showing a unique style of minimalist and bright blue bottle. Take the Palo Alto branch in California as an example, it is located in the 50-year-old theater and community exchange center. There are spacious spaces and seats inside and outside the coffee shop for people to read or discuss freely.

His intentions and management characteristics have created a kind of charm for Blue bottle as well as an emotional connection between brands and people. this charm coincides with the rising tide of consumer awareness and humanization in the high-tech industry in recent years. therefore, it has won the favor of many American science and technology celebrities, who are not only loyal customers of Blue bottle, but also compete to become its shareholders.

Two ○ took the lead in investing in Blue bottle in 2012 by Bryan Meehan, the founder of Nude, a natural care product, and a venture capital firm engaged in environmental protection. He introduced Mike Volpi from Index Venture, a technology veteran, and then brought together founders of Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Uber and other companies, as well as James Bigar, Google Venture, and Morgan Stanley, who once followed Apple founder Jobs. Meehan later served as CEO of Blue bottle, persuading Freeman to speed up the exhibition store and enter Japan, and used the money raised to help Freeman realize his innovative vision of coffee evolution.

After Blue bottle successfully opened its No. 1 store in Qingchengbai River, it soon opened No. 2 store in a shady two-story mansion in Aoyama Lane in Tokyo, and the third branch entered the new landmark Log Road in Daiguanshan in the form of a coffee kiosk. The popularity of Blue bottle continued to burn in Japan, and the turnover was also rising rapidly.

However, in Freeman's view, entering the Japanese market is not only a career expansion for Blue bottle, but also an opportunity for overall quality upgrading; he believes that many operators of small coffee shops in Japan have the spirit of staff. they are passionate about coffee and insist on it. this is consistent with the spirit of Blue bottle, and the quality of service in Japan is recognized as top, and he hopes to apply what he has learned in Japan to branches in the United States.

According to media reports, in order to achieve this goal, Blue bottle does not adopt a joint venture or authorization as Starbucks did when it entered overseas markets, but set up a legal person in Japan to invest and operate on its own. According to my experience, this approach is expensive and laborious, but it is easy to grasp the direction. It can be seen that Freeman not only attaches importance to every step and detail of coffee production, but also insists on the ideal operator. This is his characteristic. Perhaps because this style is similar to Jobs, Blue bottle is regarded as the Apple of the coffee industry.

Blue bottle can be called the leader of today's personalized boutique coffee shops, it has walked out of the pattern of regional boutique coffee chain, striding towards internationalization, the future development and trend will be a major indicator of the third wave of coffee. Although whether it can sweep the world like Apple and become the leading boutique brand in the coffee industry remains to be seen, at least it has broken the spell that personalized stores are not easy to chain. I think the future depends on whether Freeman and Blue bottle's management team can "never forget the original intention", continue to adhere to his enthusiasm and persistence for coffee, and keep the pure soul of Blue bottle. Scale, refinement and personalization are the two ends of the balance, and how to strike a balance is the biggest challenge.

Taiwan's boutique coffee is popular, and there are many independent cafes with characteristics and pay attention to coffee quality and flavor. In recent years, there have been many coffee chain franchises that emphasize on-site baking and hand-brewing, mainly take-out. Because the price is about half that of boutique coffee shops, the development speed is very fast, this model has its market space, but it is easy to be imitated, the competition threshold is not high, and quality control is not easy. The ups and downs of operating conditions will be greater than those of Starbucks or Danti with seating areas, and the operating risk is relatively high. Coffee shops are already a very diversified industry with high price flexibility. If you want to operate for a long time, you still have to figure out why you exist. If you only focus on making money, you may not be able to do so for a long time.