Incubators under the tide of cafes

On the afternoon of December 4, the weather was slightly colder, while the coffee on the fifth floor of Building A3, Digital Technology Park, Shenzhen High-tech Zone, was filled with a warm atmosphere.

Walk into the starting point coffee, is an open office area, each desk is equipped with Internet cables and sockets, small groups of young entrepreneurs come together to work and communicate. Under the soft light and relaxed music, it is filled with the smell of freedom and sharing.

Here, the time Weekly reporter met Huang Qinghua, founder of Shenzhen Union of everything Co., Ltd. ("Union of everything"). As the founder of the "star company" who grew up at the beginning of Coffee, Huang Qinghua is often visited by the media for interviews. His company name was registered with the help of starting Point Coffee, and his company's "remote Guardian" project is making rapid progress.

About a year and a half ago, the 33-year-old Huang Qinghua quit his last job and went to start a coffee business alone. Today, the company has grown into a team of more than 20 people. "many of the members were later met and summoned at the starting point coffee."

Huang Qinghua told time Weekly that the coffee shop gave him not only that, but also that the free office platform provided by Qiqi Coffee helped him save a lot of investment in the early months of starting a business, and provided a lot of training resources and R & D facilities for the development of his company.

In June this year, UWF received round A financing in less than a year, which can be said to be an "outstanding graduate" of starting Coffee. However, Huang Qinghua does not want to leave the starting point coffee, "We still hope to stay in this park in the future."

Today, cafes such as garages, 3W, beta and starting point have become a stronghold for entrepreneurs and investors in start-up parks across the country.

Stand at the forefront of the entrepreneurial chain

Huang Tsinghua has grown rapidly in Qidian Coffee, which entered Qidian Coffee in July last year, registered in September, received 500000 yuan in Angel Round financing from Bitcoin Fund in November, received Series A financing in June this year, and plans to conduct Series B financing in the second quarter of next year.

The Alliance of everything is focused on mobile intelligent security, and the supporting resources related to coffee from the starting point have brought a lot of convenience to Huang Qinghua. Including electronic information products collaborative interconnection national engineering laboratory, Internet of things information technology industry public service platform and cloud computing inspection public service platform, all provide product testing and display services for the starting point coffee start-up team.

Huang Qinghua took the time reporter to where he sat when he first started his business last year, when he was still struggling alone, and now he has two separate offices in the incubator. According to Huang Qinghua, a reporter from time Weekly, the current valuation of the Union of everything is more than 30 million.

Companies that hatch coffee from the starting point have in principle a requirement to graduate within two years. Huang Qinghua told time Weekly: "We graduated when we got round A financing, but we will still stay here."

Qiqi Coffee, initiated by Shenzhen National High-tech Industry Innovation Center and funded by Shenzhen IT venture capitalists, established an entrepreneurial exchange platform that officially opened in July 2012. Among them, the Innovation Center owns about 20% of the shares.

For entrepreneurs, as long as they order a cup of coffee every day, they can enjoy a day's free seats and free WI-FI to work in the start-up coffee shop, which greatly saves start-up costs. In addition, the coffee shop will help customers register companies and provide financing docking, backstage support and other supporting services.

As for the original intention of starting Coffee, Wang Chuan told time Weekly that there was no such environment in Shenzhen. at that time, the cost of starting a business was relatively high, many entrepreneurs could not stay, and the leaders of the innovation center felt it necessary to do something. so he initiated the establishment of starting Coffee.

According to Wang Chuan, the main development direction of Qiqi Coffee in the future is the incubator business. Due to the back to the innovation center, the starting point coffee from the open desk, to the independent office, to later stationed in the entrepreneurial park office building, the whole business incubation chain is very perfect. In the future, enterprises hatched by Qichen Coffee will give priority to staying in the park.

The atmosphere of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou is the strongest.

With cafes as the carrier, it has become a trend to build entrepreneurial office, industry exchange and capital docking platforms for entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurial cafes mostly focus on the Internet and IT, especially in cities with strong entrepreneurial atmosphere, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and so on.

In June 2009, the first Internet-themed coffee shop, Beta Coffee, founded by veteran Internet personage White Raven, opened in Hangzhou, attracting the attention of many people in the circle. Subsequently, start-up coffee shops such as garage coffee, 3W coffee and starting point coffee appeared successively.

According to time Weekly reporter incomplete statistics, at present, Beijing already has garage coffee, 3W coffee, must help coffee, thousand fathom coffee, Beta coffee, Binggo coffee and Founder's Coffee and other seven, mostly located near Zhongguancun. The Venture Cafe in Shanghai has Aita Coffee, Micro Coffee, IC Coffee, Bibang Coffee and IPO Club, which was established on October 31 this year.

Shenzhen Entrepreneurship Cafe also has 5 cafes, including Beta, 3W, starting Point, Umbrella Friends and Yungu founder, etc., most of which are located near the Science and Technology Park. There is only one Beta Coffee in Guangzhou. Besides beta, Fuyun Coffee and UU Coffee have also been established in Hangzhou. Relatively speaking, the entrepreneurial atmosphere is not so strong in cities, and there are few or no entrepreneurial cafes.

Zheng Yujie, founder of Yungu founder Coffee, told time Weekly that the number of entrepreneurial cafes reflects the local entrepreneurial atmosphere. In cities with strong entrepreneurial atmosphere, there are more entrepreneurial cafes. In addition, the current phenomenon of entrepreneurial coffee shops in China reflects the rise of the wave of high-tech entrepreneurship in China.

According to the statistics of investment in China, from 2008 to 2013, in terms of distribution, Beijing ranked first with 36%, followed by 17% in Shanghai, 12% in Guangdong, 8% and 6% in Zhejiang and Jiangsu respectively, and 21% in the rest.

"in garage coffee, investors come to communicate with entrepreneurs from time to time, resulting in collisions of ideas and matching cooperation." Garage coffee CEO Jinzisen told time Weekly.

According to Jin Zisen to the time Weekly reporter, such as the magic camera, Zhou Botong and other applications are originally from the garage coffee. Ma Jiajia, who was named "one of the pioneer entrepreneurs of the post-90s generation" in 2012, also often soaks in garage coffee. In addition, Didi Taxi's first technical cooperation program was also completed in the garage coffee.

"Garage Coffee itself is a big salon, and we have specially set up a member club to communicate with the resident entrepreneurial team, understand the relevant needs and trends, and help integrate the relevant recommendation information. and according to its needs into some related event planning themes, through the activities of mutual communication, communication, expression to produce a variety of aggregation effects." Jin Zisen told time Weekly.

I don't care if my business is losing money.

Although the original intention of setting up start-up cafes is good, most start-up cafes are not profitable, and it is an immediate problem for operators to avoid losses if they want to continue to operate.

Dong Jianqiang, founder of the China Entrepreneurship Coffee Alliance, told time Weekly that in the domestic start-up coffee shops, only 20% made a small profit, 40% barely made ends meet, and 40% were in a cash flow loss state.

"shareholders don't expect start-up cafes to make money." Wang Chuan told time Weekly that at present, the cash flow of coffee from the starting point has been balanced, but from the financial statements, it is still a loss.

Dong Jianqiang told time Weekly that the profitability of all cafes is not strong, while the productivity and passenger flow of start-up cafes are relatively less than ordinary cafes, which are determined by market segmentation and service characteristics.

Although they are all positioned as start-up cafes, the mode of operation and the main source of income are different. The source of profit mainly includes catering itself, venue service fees, investment income, business incubation, etc., and the profit model mainly focuses on the key income in these aspects.

Garage coffee mainly provides low-cost office space for entrepreneurs, whose income is mainly subsidized by the government; in addition, there is also member service fee income.

Positioning the starting point of business incubation coffee, the source of income mainly depends on the incubation area to charge lower fees for entrepreneurial teams, while 3W coffee earns more income from holding activities in the early stage, but later also started a business incubation program. For example, Beta Coffee's shareholders are mostly seniors and young entrepreneurs in the Internet field, traditional media, financial investment, and its positioning is mainly for exchanges in the Internet circle. at present, there are physical coffee shops in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

Wang Chuan told time Weekly: "many shareholders of entrepreneurial cafes pay more attention to the resources of the platform." Because many shareholders are originally engaged in investment, and start-up cafes provide entrepreneurs with a communication platform at the same time, look for excellent investment projects to invest, investment projects make money, cafes do not care if they lose money. "

Source: time Weekly author: Xiang Yimei