Many people's Cafe-Democratic Management Model

This is a cafe with an average age of 25 and co-funded by 79 people; it promotes a democratic management model and they position the business model as an offline SNS.

Interview with Entrepreneurship magazine / Zheng Jiangbo Xia Hongwen / Xia Hong

Mosquito er Niu (net name) may not have thought of the idea that popped up within an hour when she posted a post entitled "Let's open a coffee shop with 2000 yuan" on Douban.com on January 6. a group of people who had never met each other would participate with interest; the store really opened in Beijing in early September.

The shop, which has a business area of more than 200 square meters and is called "Cafe for many people", has 79 shareholders, all of whom are Douban netizens. These people include company employees, company bosses, civil servants, as well as photography enthusiasts and antique business operators and so on. For shareholders who join voluntarily, the amount of money for each share varies from 2000 to 20,000 yuan. After repeated site selection, the cafe finally opened in Beili, Shaoyaoju, Beijing, a semi-basement not far from the Modern Chinese Literature Museum.

"the key point is that" a lot of people "will drive together," a lot of people "will invest money, and" a lot of people "will participate. It must be "a lot of people" rather than "very few" or "a few people". We want to realize the dream of "a lot of people" through cafes! " At the beginning of the year, Mosquito er Niu wanted to open a coffee shop, but she couldn't come up with a lot of money. could she think of opening a coffee shop with "a lot of owners"?

She feels that most of the young people in their 20s who want to open cafes should be in a similar situation. At the moment, it is difficult to come up with hundreds of thousands or millions of funds; they also lack the courage to quit their jobs and dare to take investment risks alone. Her idea is, can we gather a little bit of money, a little bit of time, a lot of money, a lot of time to open a cafe?

In late September, shortly after the cafe opened, the conversation with the mosquito girl took place in the shop that smelled of paint. The ice planer near the corner of the bar made a shrill noise from time to time. Sitting in the corner of a white couch, the petite mosquito girl clearly emphasized to the Entrepreneurship reporter the idea of managing and running a cafe with many people in a "democratic" way.

"I am opposed to centralization of power." she does not want and does not want to have a major shareholder who has an overwhelming advantage in decision-making like a traditional company. Based on this consideration, the maximum amount of money invested by shareholders cannot exceed 20,000 yuan.

Shareholders who contribute 2000 yuan have one vote at the shareholders' meeting, while shareholders who contribute 20, 000 yuan can not join the board of directors because they have 10 votes at the shareholders' meeting. "it has to be elected, just like the United States is running for president." It all depends on how the candidates move the "voters" and get public recognition.

The caf é 's preparatory team was set up in March and began running for board membership two months later. A shareholder who contributed 2000 yuan and Douban ID called "Coffee beans for many people" was an enthusiastic participant in the entrepreneurial plan, but he happened to be out of town and could only entrust his campaign speech to another shareholder to read on his behalf. After reading, the shareholder showed the speech document of "A lot of people's Coffee beans" to the 40 or so people present. "it is done very carefully, and the headers and footers are very standardized, which gives people the impression that he is really very attentive." Mosquito er Niu was impressed by the shareholder who was not present and was elected to the board of directors because of her "sincerity".

Two years ago, the 24-year-old mosquito er Niu came to Beijing as a graduate student from a university in her hometown, Anhui, and applied to a training institution of a state ministry, a job still in sports management.

"I've always been a good boy." When Mosquito Erniu was a graduate student in NGO; when she was in college, she chose to major in sociology. She felt that her experiences and majors on campus might imperceptibly make her feel the importance of personal rights and rights.

There is no one-size-fits-all core leader in the cafe, major decisions are made by shareholder votes; boards play the role of supervisors and decision-makers in day-to-day affairs. "Democracy, democracy, or democracy is the supreme principle of our survival." "profit is the basis for the survival of the cafe, is our goal, but not the only goal." From preparation to operation, the list of registered shareholders, financing and work progress of the cafe are publicized online in great detail.

The one-year-old boyfriend of the big mosquito girl, a lawyer, said that the mode of operation of many people's cafes is actually offline SNS. Fairness, openness, democracy, freedom, cooperation, sharing and other words are the core values that the store has always emphasized, whether in online copywriting or offline operations.

"it's just a piece of land, and now each of us wants to plant things on it, some people may want to grow corn, some people may want to grow other things, that's all, you can plant whatever you want to plant here." Mosquito er Niu called the cafe an interactive and open platform.

With a bit of idealistic mode of operation, after the mosquito er Niu will post, it is not without doubt. Netizens who have "logged off" Douban ID wrote in the post:

"when there are too many people, the contradiction becomes more irreconcilable. After more than five people, there are differences, basically can not be coordinated to the satisfaction of all. Contradictions can only accumulate, and then someone will say, "I / I quit." what is the calculation at this time? Those who invest 2000 will take back 2000 yuan of things? "

"I have heard too many stories about three monks who have no water to drink." When the store did not open, netizens named "cancelled" were not optimistic about this exploratory business plan in the model, thinking that it was a dream that was too well thought out but did not hit the ground. His view is that if you have to raise money to open a store in this way, you can only pay dividends to shareholders, but the right to operate and make decisions still have to be controlled by a few people.

When the number of shareholders was 50, Mosquito Erniu explained in the copywriter that the cafe of many people is a lot of people rather than a few or a few. Otherwise, it loses its meaning. "I don't believe that if there are too many people, there will be chaos. There will be no problem for 800 million people to vote in the Indian general election. If our 50 shareholders go to vote, there will certainly be a problem."

The exit mechanism agreed between the cafe and its shareholders is that after buying shares, it is not allowed to withdraw its capital and has to transfer its shares. Mosquito two girls are not sure whether they can make a profit.

To this end, in the shareholder registration post, in addition to listing the willingness to contribute, the amount of investment and other items that need to be filled out, she also added a special item, "whether she is psychologically prepared to lose money." Many investors said that this is acceptable, that the investment is not large, will not feel much pressure, "can lose all money", "as another kind of" venture capital "," loss is small, as long as you are happy. " Among these shareholders with an average age of 25, some people think that they are involved because they think it is cool to realize their dreams and like their creative mode of operation; others say that it is to "join the fun", "test the water", "to make new friends", "to get some freedom" …...

More people expressed their support for the business plan. On the day the post was posted on January 6, nearly 20 people were in the group to discuss the location issue; two days later, many people's cafes soared by 200 members in Douban's group; and on January 11, about 20 netizens indicated that they would pay for shares or have the intention to buy shares.

Since then, many people's cafes have set up registration groups, site selection groups, publicity groups, and event planning groups. On April 1, the preparatory group began its formal fund-raising activities, and as of June 12, a total of 410000 yuan had been raised. The process and equipment group, legal and financial group, decoration and purchase group, operation and market group are also set up.

Some people here have questioned on the Internet whether this is illegal fund-raising. Is it a clever fraud?

But 410000 yuan of start-up capital is a stranger, one by one passbooks to another stranger, that is, the initiator mosquito er Niu hands. Some shareholders, without even seeing her face, sent the passbook by express.

"I will certainly not abscond with money," but in order to make things more credible and make these new shareholders have a greater sense of security, the group of Douban in the cafe will post in time to publicize every sum of money. The passbook of the shareholders is the deposit of the shares, and the password is in the hands of the shareholders. "the passbook is just a certificate to buy shares. I don't want this password until the day I use the money."

From the post calling on everyone to participate in the business plan, to the preparation, and to push forward step by step until the cafe opened, she felt that this was the result of mutual trust. A shareholder's passbook was sent by his mother. The shareholder's mother runs a company of her own and is familiar with all kinds of business. When she handed the passbook to the mosquito er Niu, she warned, "this is too unsafe. what if someone buys a share but withdraws the money without authorization?"

She suggests that everyone sign a power of attorney and other provisions stipulating that they can't move the money for a certain period of time. But for the more than 70 shareholders in front of Mosquito Erniu, she felt that it was a heavy workload to do it alone, and the passbooks of some shareholders were mailed. The matter has been stranded. By the time she opened, she found that there was neither a short account nor anyone quietly transferring money. "my assumption about human nature is that they are all good and kind."

In countless cafes in Beijing, many people's cafes are not very special in terms of decoration, but this entrepreneurial model has attracted the attention of some people.

Zhou Hang, founder and chairman of Yidao car, said, "this is an interesting business story, and SNS has begun to profoundly change the existing life and business model." The mechanism of credit, self-organization and self-growth based on some common ground and social relationship, self-reproduction and replication once verified to be feasible. This is a good little example. "

Weibo netizen Mo Kegg wrote, "perhaps what is important is not only the development of the business model, but also the testing ground for 'democratic decision-making' and another case for customers and producers."

For Mosquito Erniu and more than 70 shareholders, the cafe still faces some problems after opening, none of whom have ever run a cafe. The coffee, dishes, raw materials and services in the store are related to the "products". "it's a challenge to learn." After paying a total of 120000 yuan in rent for half a year, after deducting the expenses of decoration and equipment purchase, Mosquito er Niu said that she had enough money on hand to run the cafe for three months. "We still don't have a bottom line up to now whether we can survive or not. After all, there is still too much work to be done. "

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com