Start-up Coffee looking for "Chengdu partner"

An exclusive interview with Ma Lin, founder of ten coffee.

There are private rooms in the coffee shop for entrepreneurial teams.

Chengdu founder started his own business for three times and opened a coffee shop to build a platform for young people to realize their dreams.

Play selfies with the mayor and be a mentor at Jingrong Hui training camp. Ma Lin, founder of "very Coffee", is now one of the most powerful creators in Chengdu.

On the 9th, the first phase of Jingrong training Camp, the most important landing project of Jingrong Hui, opened, and Ma Lin was invited to become the mentor of that day. How to write a business plan? "A thick book is not as good as a thin piece of paper." Watching Ma Lin share his entrepreneurial experience passionately on the stage, more than 100 novice entrepreneurs nodded and their pens galloped quickly on the paper.

After 8 years of entrepreneurial exploration, from the original green novice to selling the first cup of "entrepreneurial coffee" in Chengdu, Ma Lin has become the idol of entrepreneurial novice. To start a business, one is to do what you are good at; the other is to have a strong heart, not a glass heart. "fresh graduates had better work for two years before starting a business." This is his most sincere advice to entrepreneurs.

Start a business for the first time

Borrowed 320000 yuan to start a company, but the products were still not sold.

Looking back on his first business eight years ago, Ma Lin said he had stepped on a big minefield with one foot-doing something he was not good at.

Ma Lin, from Henan Province, graduated from Southwest Jiaotong University. Because high school likes to play games, I naturally choose to major in computer science. "only this major is closest to the game." He confessed. Luckier than most people, after graduation, he successfully joined the top game team in China-NetEase Game headquarters in Guangzhou.

After working in NetEase for two years, the young Ma Lin has become a standard millionaire in the eyes of his classmates. The monthly salary is several times higher than that of the students who graduated in the same period. At this time, Marlin is brewing another new change.

"after working in NetEase for two years, I also have some knowledge, contacts and skills. At that time, I was preoccupied with starting a business. " Ma Lin said that in October 2007, he borrowed 100000 yuan from his parents.

Return to one's own business

In order to raise money, Yinchaiyang became a professional manager.

After holding out hard for half a year, Ma Lin thought that even survival would be a problem if he went on like this. So he found four or five more people and started his old job.

"at that time, online games were very popular, but the development cost of large-scale games was too high. We just want to do some low-cost web games. " In this way, on the one hand, the company relies on the money earned by web games to maintain its business. On the other hand, he went to Beijing alone to find financing for his dynamic password protector.

At this time, just before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games. Chinese people are immersed in an atmosphere of national celebration, and Ma Lin is the only one who is empty. "when I meet an investor, I will keep telling him about the dynamic password protector, how awesome the technology is, and how much potential it has in the future." Ma Lin said he was focused on finding investment in dynamic password protectors, while the boss of a real estate company in Beijing took a fancy to his years of experience in the gaming industry.

In this way, by mistake, with a large investment in Beijing boss game development, Ma Lin went back. On the return trip, he said he flew first class for the first time in his life. "although it is different from the original idea. Anyway, I finally got the financing. " Ma Lin said that when he finished his first startup project, there was less than 10, 000 yuan left in the account of the 320000 yuan borrowed at that time.

However, Ma Lin resigned after working as a professional manager for his boss in Beijing for two years. The reason is that I still want to start my own business. This time, after playing hard in more than half of China, Ma Lin returned to Chengdu. Two months later, he got a $3 million investment from a friend of a friend, re-entered the gaming industry and started his second business.

"as a creative industry, the hot mobile game market, the ups and downs of fate is a bit like gambling. Some people get wind and water overnight, while others close their doors overnight. " Ma Lin said that fortunately, his mobile game company is running smoothly, and the agency fee once exceeded 5 million yuan.

Find the right pain point

A cup of coffee is an opportunity here.

After two ups and downs of starting a business, Ma Lin himself summed up his gains and losses. First, you must do what you are good at. Second, starting a business must have a strong heart.

Perhaps it was this heartbreaking perception in starting a business that inspired him to start a business three times. At the end of 2012, at a gathering of friends, Ma Lin happened to talk about that there are so many entrepreneurs in Chengdu, but there is not a start-up cafe.

Entrepreneurial Cafe is a service platform intertwined with coffee and entrepreneurship, which originated from Silicon Valley in the United States. Investors and entrepreneurs, talent headhunters and even government agencies and financial institutions haunt cafes, looking for opportunities to cooperate with each other. Many big Internet companies drink in cafes. The more famous start-up cafes in China are "Garage Coffee" from Beijing and "3W Coffee" from Guangzhou.

Following this model, the first store named "very Coffee" opened in 2012. Entrepreneurs spend 18 yuan here, order a cup of coffee and sit all day. On a regular basis, cafes undertake large-scale exchange activities, with funds, projects and policies colliding together. The entrepreneur got the financing here. Investors can also find "Chengdu partners" and good projects here.

In the 10th Cafe on the third floor of Building 9 in area An of the Software Park, a reporter from the West China Metropolis Daily saw magazines on the bookshelf, graffiti on the blackboard and posters on the wall. More than 1500 square meters of coffee shop, every corner can find "entrepreneurship", "dream" or related symbols. In the cafe, young people who start their own businesses in twos and threes are facing the computer, sometimes talking and thinking.

Ma Lin recalled that when the event was held for the first time, there were only a dozen people. Today, Ten Coffee is becoming more and more popular among entrepreneurs and investors, and now it is held by at least 300 people.

Now, Marlin is running around the country non-stop. This year, 10% Coffee will also open branches in Chongqing, Changsha and other places. I hope I can copy the experience of Chengdu.

Start-up cafes do not make a profit by selling coffee, how can ten coffees stay in business?

Ma Lin said that at present, the cafe basically achieves a balanced revenue, and ten coffees will consider using the most reasonable way to develop themselves. If you want to buy a piece of sugar, I can just sell you a piece of sugar, and I can give you a beautiful jar as a souvenir. The buyer is very happy, and the seller is not at a loss. This is the most ideal development model for very coffee.

West China Metropolis Daily reporter Zhang Xiling trainee reporter Lei Kui photographer Lu Jia