Pan-cultural cafes sell more than just a cup of coffee

Although the coffee culture atmosphere in Tianjin is not as strong as that in southern cities, there are many cafes of different styles. There is such a cafe at 100 Chongqing Road, with an old house, a "pan-cultural circle", a focus on functionality, a unique way of publicity, and a huge team of shareholders. Have pushed it to the forefront of the trend in Tianjin.

Weibo posts to attract 40 shareholders for the cafe

Walking into No. 100, the whole room is full of strong literary flavor in addition to the smell of coffee beans. Li Hui, the founder and one of the shareholders of Cafe 100, is busy wearing an apron. It turns out that shareholders work as waiters in shifts every day. This small cafe has 40 shareholders and holds an average of 20,000 yuan. They are from the business community, from the cultural sector, from academia, media people, freelancers. A team of 40 people formed a small "pan-cultural circle". With this theme, the cafe naturally became literary and artistic.

The news of Li Hui recruiting shareholders for Cafe 100th was initiated on Weibo, and the emergence of anything new will inevitably be questioned. Can you do a good job by recruiting so many people to work together? It's not a liar who rips off money, is it? For questioning, Li Hui's attitude is very clear: the money is not given to me, but for everyone to use it together. I have my main business, and I will not resign to franchise this coffee shop. After raising funds, I will register according to the limited company, and everyone will become the legitimate shareholders of the company, with the shareholders' meeting, the board of directors and professional managers as the decision-making process. All operation models take corporatization as the core and maximize the interests of shareholders as the purpose.

In this way, a week after Li Hui's post was sent, more and more people responded, followed and added fans. The first batch of 40 shareholders who decided to buy shares have also been produced one after another. Some of these people are Li Hui's acquaintance friends, but also have never met online friends, Weibo in the whole recruitment process, played an absolutely leading role.

In March this year, the group gathered online met offline for the first time. Many shareholders also saw online chatting for the first time, but never met. Behind @, Li Hui called that day "the first general meeting of shareholders." he once again briefly expounded his purpose, planning, and goals. Some shareholders proposed that Li Hui must come up with a more complete planning and implementation plan for the cafe before shareholders can feel at ease to invest money and participate. Li Hui said: "shareholders do not just put money in, they also participate in the preparation and operation of the cafe. It does not mean that people give me the money, and I will carry out the operation. I am just an initiator. More precisely, I am a collaborator who is responsible for pooling and implementing the ideas and wishes of all shareholders." The meeting lasted all night and finally clarified the idea that the cafe will adopt the model of "a lot of people invest and a lot of people manage". On that day, everyone was very enthusiastic. "We can raise 800000 yuan, so let's use this as the starting capital for Cafe 100." 800000 yuan is not the amount of investment required by their research, but based on the investment of 20, 000 yuan per person and about 40 people present.

From online to offline, the virtual cafe opened smoothly

The first shareholders' meeting ended in a heated discussion, which not only established the establishment and management model of the cafe, but also discussed a general timetable, but there was no decision on how the shareholders of the cafe were managed and how the system was designed.

Li Hui doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry about when the cafe will actually open. He is psychologically prepared in advance to sort out all the problems in a year. "Li Hui is very capable and has a clear train of thought." Lao Han believes that Li Hui is a very smart person. "among the 40 shareholders, there are bound to be differences. He neither discusses right or wrong first, nor does he move forward for the time being. But slowly comb, slowly communicate, after all, our business model, there are very few in the country. We need such a clear-thinking person to be the informant between our shareholders. "

Lao Han's screen name is "Taihe Desheng". His real name is Han Wei, and he is the boss of an investment company. Lao Han first followed Li Hui's post through a friend. Lao Han is very cautious about investing in No. 100 Coffee. Although he attended the first shareholders' meeting, he did not make it clear at that time that he would take a stake in the coffee shop. "20,000 yuan is nothing to me, but I won't invest in something I'm not optimistic about. if it fails, the news gets out and the investor fails to invest, then the loss will definitely be more than 20,000 yuan." Although he did not make up his mind, with his years of experience in running an investment company, Lao Han put forward a variety of suggestions and guidance in Weibo and many subsequent offline communications. After half a month's consideration, Lao Han finally handed over 20,000 yuan to Li Hui.

After the first meeting, exchanges and gatherings among shareholders have become frequent, and this frequent meeting has also strengthened the understanding and understanding among shareholders and established the board of directors system of the cafe. Lao Han feels that this is the gradual unification of the ID of the online world and their identity in the real world. The Internet brings these people together and gathers resources to do things of common interest. From the Internet to reality, they choose to trust each other, negotiate everything and work hard for the same goal.

In this way, 40 shareholders have been recruited. The oldest shareholder is 50 and the youngest is 26, which can be said to span three generations. "good institutional design + respect for democratic proceedings + mutual trust and tolerance = Cafe 100", this addition equation was put forward by Li Hui. Since the coffee shop has been in trial operation, the shareholders have been in the process of disagreement, compromise and approval. summed up one by one, the consensus of shareholders is as important as the cafe that carries their dreams.

Pan-cultural cafes sell more than just a cup of coffee

On March 27, the cafe entered the "internal test" and began trial operation. Everyone who walks into the cafe stops in front of the shareholder wall, which is full of pictures of the cafe's shareholders. Whenever he is a little upset or tired, Li Hui will go to the smiling shareholder photo wall and look at the smiles from the bottom of his heart. His sense of exhaustion will gradually dissipate and he will feel that what he has done is quite meaningful.

From the beginning of the trial operation of Cafe 100, they launched a "daily clerk" campaign, inviting shareholders to choose a day to serve as a clerk in the cafe in order to enhance shareholders' sense of participation. this is also to give shareholders a chance to experience the contributions of directors. Many shareholders laugh that people who never wash dishes at home will take the initiative to do dishes in cafes, and it is this sense of involvement that connects shareholders with cafes. "as a shareholder of Cafe 100, you are not only an investor, but also a participant and witness." Li Hui said.

Li Hui positioned the cafe as a "pan-cultural" cafe. He said that customers will be selected here, not everyone is welcome, smoking is not allowed here, and board games such as killing the three Kingdoms can not be played after 6 o'clock in the evening. Few people come to drink a cup of coffee here, "so the clerk we need is not an ordinary waiter." Every clerk is at the manager's level and can communicate with customers. " Li Hui's idea is supported by all shareholders.

Li Hui said that the reason for putting forward the idea of cross-border cooperation among dozens of shareholders is that this model has a precedent in other cities, but the urban character of Tianjin may not be so applicable. I did not expect that it would be so strongly supported by people from all walks of life. In less than three months, Cafe 100 opened. "A traditional cafe may focus on coffee production and catering, although it's not wrong. But that's not what we want. We believe that the cafe in the real cultural sense should become a platform, a carrier, a container of fresh thinking, a circle. That's what we want. "

Now, including Li Hui and Lao Han, many shareholders have brought some of the activity resources they have accumulated in the past to cafes. On the opening day of the trial operation, more than 40 shareholders came. Together with the admiring guests, the room was full. Many people liked the layout, style and feeling of Cafe 100 very much, but Li Hui knew very well, "there are a lot of things to adjust. Take your time. We are still crossing the river by feeling the stones."

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com