The Entrepreneurship behind a Cup of Coffee

Recently, a number of start-up cafes have sprung up in Foshan. The picture is C. C. Coffee Shop.

Entrepreneurial coffee shop is a business incubator in the form of coffee shop as the carrier.

"starting a business is like coffee. You don't know the sweetness until you drink it." Standing in the Croucher of Zen City. In the coffee shop, if you order a cup of coffee, you can see the big characters on the wall one by one. Of course, if in the future, it will attract more people to come here, it must come from such a sentence: "you concentrate on shaking the world, and leave the rest to us."

This is another entrepreneurial coffee shop in Foshan since the beginning of this year. In May, when Premier Li Keqiang came to Zhongguancun in Beijing, sat in 3W Cafe and drank a cup of coffee, the domestic start-up Cafe represented by 3W Coffee attracted a lot of attention. In Foshan, Guangdong, as far away as the south, almost in the three months after that, there was a wave of opening of a number of start-up cafes.

As a business incubator with coffee shop as the carrier, entrepreneurial coffee shop was first seen in Hangzhou, the frontier city of Internet development 8 years ago in China. Since 2007, all kinds of entrepreneurial cafes with the theme of Internet entrepreneurship have gradually appeared in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, and some of them have developed into chain entrepreneurial cafes such as Beta Coffee and 3W Cafe.

However, with the emergence of entrepreneurial cafes, more and more start-up cafes have collapsed in recent years due to the lack of a clear profit model. So, for Foshan, a city dominated by traditional manufacturing, is there still soil for the development of entrepreneurial cafes, and can it help Foshan stir up a new round of entrepreneurial tide?

Hot coffee start-up heat wave

In fact, in the past three months, Foshan has ushered in at least four start-up cafes. For the emergence of a number of entrepreneurial cafes in Foshan, most analysts believe that on the one hand, it benefits from the national top-down call for "mass innovation, mass entrepreneurship". And a lot of data also confirm that Foshan is gradually forming a heat wave of entrepreneurship.

In July, Entrepreneurship Coffee, like the continuous hot weather, scalded Foshan.

"Foshan's first entrepreneurial coffee shop settled in Green Island Lake", "Croucher ushered in Foshan's first entrepreneurial coffee shop" …... Last month, in Chancheng District, Foshan, two newly established cafes, which are only 10 kilometers apart, both boasted that they were the first start-up coffee shop in Foshan.

But what is certain is that they are definitely among the first start-up cafes to appear in Foshan.

On July 15, "boundless Coffee" officially opened in Green Island Lake, Chancheng District. Shi Jianhui, the manager of the coffee shop, which claims to be crowdfunded by more than 30 Foshan entrepreneurs and professional managers, is himself a post-80s entrepreneur. And when he turned around and walked into Wonderless Coffee, he became an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs.

Jia Xi also ushered in the same "turn around". On the second day of the opening of the Wonderless Cafe, located in C.C. Zhang Croucher. The coffee shop is officially open to welcome guests. Jia Xi, who once transformed from the media, chose to serve as C.C. The general manager of the coffee shop.

In fact, in the past three months, Foshan ushered in at least four start-up cafes. Except for the Wonderless Cafe which opened almost at the same time and C.C. Outside the coffee shop. In Nanhai District, Foshan Electronic Commerce Industry Park, located in Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone, ushered in a coffee bar in mid-June, which is known as the first entrepreneurial service organization in Nanhai with coffee bar as its carrier-Chuangxiang Coffee Bar.

In another economically developed Shunde district of Foshan, it is also emphasized that it is a "d + quality living hall" of a start-up coffee shop, which was born in Beijiao, Shunde more than two months ago.

For the emergence of a number of entrepreneurial cafes in Foshan, most analysts believe that on the one hand, it benefits from the national top-down call for "mass innovation, mass entrepreneurship". And a lot of data also confirm that Foshan is gradually forming a heat wave of entrepreneurship.

Statistics from the Foshan Bureau of Industry and Commerce show that under the influence of favorable systems, including the reform of commercial registration in Foshan, the market main body of Foshan has increased from 340000 in 2010 to 440000 at the end of 2014. the number of new enterprises in Foshan has also increased from 13000 in 2010 to 29000 in 2014.

When Li Keqiang drank the coffee in the 3W coffee shop and received top-down encouragement for entrepreneurship across the country this year, entrepreneurship aimed at the "entrepreneurial market" has undoubtedly become a "blue ocean" in the eyes of many people.

What's more, the start-up coffee shop, which can get entrepreneurial services by selling a cup of cheap coffee, first appeared in China in 2007, and has a mature operation model.

Data show that as early as 8 years ago, the opening of Hangzhou "Amoy Coffee" is considered to be the origin of domestic Internet cafes. In the years after that, Beta Coffee, Garage Coffee, 3W Cafe and so on gradually emerged. Today, more than 10 cafes with the theme of Internet entrepreneurship have been opened on the 300-meter Entrepreneurship Street in Zhongguancun, Beijing.

Entrepreneurial incubation Market behind Coffee

Although entrepreneurial cafes have long been mature and successful in cities such as Beijing, because the former is often an open office form, the volume requirements for the coffee shop will be relatively large, generally in an area of thousands of square meters. By contrast, C.C. The total area of the two floors of the coffee shop is only more than 260 square meters. The core advantage lies in the rich financial resources, that is, to provide in-depth services for the projects they are looking for, polish the projects, dock the capital, or at least help them solve the early capital start-up problems.

Whether it is the 3W in Zhongguancun, the garage, or the fledgling start-up coffee shop in Foshan, on the surface, all these do not seem to be much different from ordinary coffee shops.

However, the low turnover rate of these start-up cafes, which often sell coffee at a low price, determines that they definitely do not make a living by selling coffee like a simple coffee shop.

C.C., which has been in business for only half a month. Coffee shop, to some extent, represents a kind of entrepreneurial coffee shop model which is the mainstream in China.

"can the business model of Foshan Open course, which is based on things themselves, still develop?" Jia Xi has been promoting C.C. On his moments for two days in a row. The coffee shop is about to hold the second open course on entrepreneurship. "We hold all kinds of entrepreneurship-related training courses on a regular basis, and we currently plan to hold at least one a week." Jia Xu said.

Similar to many entrepreneurial cafes, C.C. The coffee shop plays the role of a business incubator platform. In addition to holding various project roadshows regularly to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect with the market and venture capital, coffee shops provide services to entrepreneurs through various entrepreneurship training courses. It is also a common practice in many start-up cafes in China.

From the theme delineated by the start-up coffee shop itself, many start-up cafes in China tend to target the Internet field. In fact, even the earliest start-up coffee shop in China also targets Internet start-up projects. "what we hope to create is the first creative coffee office space in Foshan with the 'Internet +' entrepreneurial project as the incubation theme." Jia Xu said.

In his opinion, from the model, C.C. Start-up cafes do have many similarities with many start-up cafes in China, but they also have their own characteristics.

"our core advantage lies in our rich financial resources." Jia Xi said that although entrepreneurial cafes have mature and successful operations in cities such as Beijing, compared with 3W cafes and garage cafes, C.C. The coffee shop is still very different from them. In his view, because the former is often an open office form, so the volume requirements for coffee shops will be relatively large, generally in an area of thousands of square meters, and some office areas will also be used for deep incubation.

By contrast, C.C. The total area of the two floors of the coffee shop is only more than 260 square meters. "so we pay more attention to doing incubation services, that is, we find projects, do in-depth services for it, polish projects, dock capital, or at least help them solve early funding start-up problems."

Based on this position, Jia Xu said, C.C. The coffee shop has formed a "3C certification" system, that is, the certification of projects, the certification of investment institutions and the certification of mentors. Once there are entrepreneurial projects and C.C. Coffee shop cooperation, C.C. The coffee shop may replace the entrepreneurial services provided for the project by taking a small stake in the project.

Corresponding to C.C. The 3C certification system of the coffee shop also has a "3C library", that is, the project library, the investment institution library and the mentor library. Specifically, C.C. The coffee shop adopts a double LP (limited partner) team, a special team is responsible for the operation and management of the coffee shop, while the same team is from the professional financial field, specializing in investment services for the project.

Jia Xie said that at present, with C.C. Coffee shop cooperation has more than 60 certified mentors, including the famous economist he Xiaofeng, Softbank Corp. China Investment Director Pan Zhengrong and so on. In C.C. On the first day of the opening of the coffee shop, 11 start-up projects have chosen to sign incubation cooperation agreements with the startup coffee shop.

The O2O method of Service Manufacturing Industry

As a local, Zhong Jinrong is well aware of Shunde's industrial characteristics and pain points: strong production capacity, but the shortcomings at both ends of the "smile curve" such as product design, market planning, and marketing are obvious. as more and more enterprises transform from manufacturing to creation, a lot of demand will be generated. Therefore, with C.C. The entrepreneurial coffee shop is mainly different from the incubation of the "Internet +" project, and the response of d + to entrepreneurship is more inclined to provide a perfect service system around the designers, enterprises and local manufacturing industry of the park.

Compared with C.C. The Venture Cafe, located 25 kilometers away in Beijiao, Shunde, also hopes to build a Foshan version of the "garage" and "3W"d + quality Life Hall". It has been open quietly for more than two months.

Every time after 2pm, the flow of people in the d + quality Life Hall will increase. From time to time, guests who dress casually and have no lack of personality will order a cappuccino with a Macbook and stay for a few hours. D + relies on the Guangdong Industrial Design City, which is the "national science and technology business incubator" and "provincial small business start-up base", and its more than 2000 designers.

In addition to coffee, roasting is also one of the main elements of the restaurant. In a national entrepreneurial competition, Zhong Jinrong, the head of d + and the creative director of east wing design, met the head of the wheat stack, was attracted by his concept of health preservation and baking, and soon reached a cooperation. Prior to this, the brand, founded by four students from Southern Medical University, has won honors in a number of domestic entrepreneurial competitions and won the support of venture capitalists.

"the predecessor here is an exhibition hall of original design products, which we initially hoped to achieve marketization, but then we found that there was a lack of a scene for designers to interact with consumers." Zhong Jinrong believes that fashionable consumption elements such as coffee shops and baking can make up for this and play a role in introducing the flow of people.

As a local, Zhong Jinrong is well aware of Shunde's industrial characteristics and pain points: strong production capacity, but the shortcomings at both ends of the "smile curve" such as product design, market planning, and marketing are obvious. as more and more enterprises transform from manufacturing to creation, a lot of demand will be generated.

Therefore, with C.C. The entrepreneurial coffee shop is mainly different from the incubation of the "Internet +" project, and the response of d + to entrepreneurship is more inclined to provide a perfect service system around the designers, enterprises and local manufacturing industry of the park.

Behind d+, supported by Guangdong Industrial Design Association, enterprises have the demand of product design, and can find rich team resources here. On the other hand, designers have good ideas, and they can also incubate and land through docking with project investors and manufacturing enterprises. In addition, the elegant environment of the coffee shop itself has also become a platform for excellent design products to display, experience and trade. "dice, which means design home, hopes to pry up the development of the whole industrial chain through design." Zhong Jinrong said.

In addition to the oncoming "literary style", what attracts more attention is the "gadgets" that can be seen everywhere. Portable clothes dryers, book-shaped tape recorders, and a variety of teacup utensils of different shapes, most of these creative products come from enterprises in the industrial design city. If customers are interested, the staff here will also come forward to explain and demonstrate.

"this high-end health-preserving teapot is a product that we have successfully incubated based on the creativity of a Taiwanese designer. It has three patents and has been highly praised for exhibitors abroad, but it has been difficult to find a channel to promote it in the mainland." Liao Weihua, another partner of d+, said that by helping it promote on the e-commerce platform, d+ priced 599 yuan, successfully sold more than 10,000 units since June, and successfully raised more than 100,000 yuan on Taobao crowdfunding.

Through Internet crowdfunding to build up product marketing channels and connect online and offline resources is another major way to play d+ in the future. At present, d + has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Taobao crowdfunding, and the mature project products incubated on this platform will be connected to the Taobao crowdfunding platform. Just this month, five projects have confirmed their intention to cooperate, and three of them have been successfully launched.

For the future, Zhong Jinrong hopes that d + can move towards the path of O2O. Internet + 's era and the terminal are inseparable, after the Internet can not replace offline, offline can not replace online, the key lies in the integration of resources. "

Focus

What is the "soil" of the Venture Cafe in Foshan?

Although he claims to have been taking garage, 3W, beta and other models as the object of his efforts, Zhong Jinrong also admitted that when the startup coffee shop landed in Foshan, it needed to highlight local characteristics.

"first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are rich in capital, talents, projects and other resources, so these start-up coffee will have an advantage in doing Internet and investment projects. By contrast, Shunde will be relatively weak in these aspects. however, it has great advantages in promoting project landing and creative industrialization." Zhong Jinrong told reporters that at present, the hard power of Shunde industry is strong enough, and there is an urgent need to enhance the level of soft power, that is, to build a service system at both ends of the smile curve around the upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

In Liao Weihua's view, as the start-up coffee project relies on the park, Guangdong Industrial Design City has also faced certain bottlenecks, not just passively to receive orders, but to take the initiative to dock with the market.

To this end, the d + quality Life Pavilion combines its profit model with solving the "pain points" of the local industry. In addition to relying on the income of daily retail and some commercial activities, both Zhong Jinrong and Liao Weihua attach more importance to the full-chain industrial service platform built by d +, such as design, planning, market, and so on, to obtain benefit share. "simply being a coffee shop does not make any money, and it may also lose money, but the market segment of industrial upgrading behind it is very considerable."

Unlike most start-up cafes that attach importance to venture capital, d + is relatively cautious about capital. In Zhong Jinrong's view, the core elements of venture capital are capital and circle. Relying on the resources of the provincial industrial design association, d + can solve the problems in the circle. Venture capitalists often think from the perspective of investors and may hope to achieve a return in the short term, but he, who is a designer, knows very well that if some good ideas and designs are acted in haste, they may in turn restrict the development of the project.

"it is only in its infancy, and the core thing is the need to build a service system." Zhong Jinrong revealed that earlier, some venture capital institutions had thrown hydrangeas to him, but he preferred to join not only simple investors, but like-minded industry partners.

Jia Xi also holds the same view. For start-up cafes, it is nothing more than project resources and venture capital resources. In order to ensure that C. Coffee shops can better help start-up projects to dock investment, Jia said, C.C. The coffee shop is also preparing its own fund and is currently in the fund-raising stage.

"of course, it is also difficult to find high-quality entrepreneurial projects." Jia Xixi said frankly that in the early stage of the start-up coffee shop, the area looking for entrepreneurial projects will be extended to the Pearl River Delta.

Like starting a business, these start-up cafes are still new in Foshan, and the end result is whether it is bitter or sweet, which still needs to be further tasted and digested by entrepreneurs.

Article: Nanfang Daily reporter Ye Jiechun Luo Zhanxian intern Deng Liqin

The picture is shown by C.C. Provided by the coffee shop