Why do entrepreneurs like to drink coffee?

At a face-to-face forum between government departments and entrepreneurs, the regional leader asked the entrepreneurs "what they need most", and the entrepreneurs answered unexpectedly: "can we open a Starbucks in the park?"

What entrepreneurs want is not Starbucks, but the cafe culture that Starbucks represents. Why do entrepreneurs like cafes? What's the secret behind the cafe? The reporter came to Yangpu District University Road, which is known as "a cafe street" to find out.

Coffee is just a medium.

University Road, about 800 meters long, has more than 40 cafes and creative restaurants, and it is still growing. In August, another Do Coffee opened for trial business.

In the eyes of entrepreneurs, cafes are an essential place to breed new ideas, and many teams stay all afternoon. Entrepreneurs are familiar with the variety and taste of each cafe. Zhao Bin, CEO of Zhaoyan Network, has returned from Silicon Valley to start a business, and the university road is an important factor. "several Americans came to Shanghai to visit the company and found that there was the latest American 'ice drop coffee' on University Road, and they immediately fell in love with it."

Why do entrepreneurs like to drink coffee? "Coffee is just a medium that allows people to sit down and collide and interact. Create new things together through the exchange of values, resources and information. " Yao Jingxing, developer of Creator Space, said. Du Juan, general manager of Yangpu Zhi Venture Investment Development Co., Ltd., believes that the Internet and Wechat can never replace face-to-face communication between people, and the university road has just prepared enough carriers for the collision of ideas.

"Cafe Street" has become a brainstorming and creative workshop for entrepreneurs, as well as a "storm" for investors and entrepreneurial teams to brainstorm. This alone is the envy of other science and technology parks in the city. Many parks are planned according to the idea of industrial areas, not to mention cafes, that is, there is a lack of living facilities. "how can closed buildings attract entrepreneurs?" Here, we also have the office space needed by enterprises at different stages: the smallest is the space for mass creation, or you can rent a desk; for a larger one, you can go to the Chuangzhi Square on both sides of University Road. LOFT;, which is about 80 square meters, is the enterprise center and science and technology center of the creative world, with an area ranging from hundreds, thousands to tens of thousands of square meters. In other words, one path condenses the life cycle of the enterprise.

Having coffee doesn't mean you can start a business.

"Cafe Street" is not formed spontaneously, it is a road specially opened up in the planning of the creative world. One end is connected to Fudan and Caida, and the other to the park, connecting knowledge and industry. The prosperity of the university road is not achieved overnight. Ten years ago, few students were willing to start their own business. although they had first-class hardware, they did not have a target audience, and the creative world was deserted. College Road became a street of sports brand discount stores because of its lack of popularity.

The original intention did not give up because of this. The creative world began to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. For example, set up incubators, build IPO Club Entrepreneurship Cafe, organize various entrepreneurial salons and activities, and even offer entrepreneurship courses in colleges and universities. Today, ten years later, college students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm has increased from 2% to 20%.

At this time, entrepreneurial outsourcing services are needed, including enterprise registration, investment and financing services, legal services, accounting services and so on. "if University Road is to become an entrepreneurial street, it is crucial to let entrepreneurs and all kinds of entrepreneurial resources converge and merge on this road to produce chemical reactions. And one of the effective ways to trigger this integration is cafes and restaurants. " Yang Ling, general manager of Shanghai Cloud Computing Innovation Base, said.

In order to make the atmosphere of University Road stronger and really become a place for entrepreneurs to communicate, with the efforts of relevant departments in Yangpu District, Wujiaochang Street and Ryan Group, University Road Cafe was the first to be allowed to open across doors in 2012, and the format was adjusted and upgraded. "in order to do business across the door, there were a lot of special meetings in the district." A person who experienced it recalled. Innovation is to make the impossible possible.

Coffee Street, why do you have to come?

When there are cafes and incubators on the street, how can entrepreneurs "have to come"? The prototype of University Road is in Silicon Valley, and there is a university road next to Stanford University, which is the birthplace of a number of well-known IT companies and a number of famous venture capital firms. Take a look at the Silicon Valley experience. Silicon Valley is a mecca for entrepreneurs, and the world's top entrepreneurs make a pilgrimage here every once in a while. Because only in Silicon Valley can entrepreneurs get "supplies".

Entrepreneurs need at least three kinds of supplies. First, capital supply, that is, science and technology financial services; second, information supply, that is, potential cooperation opportunities and ideas; third, industrial supply, that is, upstream and downstream partners. "University Road is to be an innovative gas station, and efforts should be made to provide these three supplies." Yang Ling said.

The function of the government is to create an environment. In fact, it is the enterprises that can really "cheer" for entrepreneurs, including upstream and downstream enterprises, as well as enterprises that provide all kinds of services. Such being the case, the only way to focus on the university road is to focus on the industry, attract the "right people" and make the target group "must go." After industrial research, Yangpu focuses on the fields of IT, cloud computing and big data, focusing on innovation in related fields. A number of big data companies have settled down one after another, and more similar enterprises have come one after another. University Road has become a highland with a high concentration of entrepreneurs in subdivided fields, and quickly forms the core competitiveness. From the cafe street, to the entrepreneurial service street, to the industrial agglomeration street, the innovative and entrepreneurial atmosphere of University Road today condenses Yangpu's years of exploration.

With the release of policies such as the 22 opinions of the Science and Technology Innovation Center, University Road has also become a sample of the upgraded entrepreneurial park, and cafes have become the "standard" of the new park.

"next, if the university road is to become the innovation axis of the creative world and even Shanghai, it will also gather more 'mass creative space' and service organizations with different systems and directions, and the creators will have more choices. Let here really become an incubator, exchange and display place for entrepreneurs' inspiration." Guan Yuanfa, chairman of Yangpu Science and Technology Innovation Company, said.