Case study: 1898 Cafe through what mode to play Chinese-style crowdfunding?

The core value of these simple rules is to enable cafe shareholders to integrate investors, consumers and promoters, participate equally and actively contribute wisdom, resources and strength to the organization to achieve good expectation management and risk control. As the sponsors hold large consumption cards, in addition to their own consumption, out of the spirit of ownership and a strong sense of pride, they will take the initiative to promote cafes and achieve automatic word-of-mouth transmission. This trinity identity can unify the supply side and the demand side, and the cafe not only raises operating funds, but also targets a group of initial consumers; it not only leads to internal activity, but also increases popularity and operating income. As a result, the business risk in the start-up period is greatly reduced.

In this regard, Professor Zhao Hongrui, dean of the School of Law of Harbin Institute of Technology, and his collaborators once wrote articles that spoke highly of:

The "co-founders" with equal contributions are equally granted three "privileges": equal "shareholder" status, consumable "equity" funds, and entrepreneurial atmosphere with nearby resources.

In fact, it has broken through the bottlenecks of the three major enterprise mechanisms, namely, the lack of independent consumption of equity funds, the lack of equal status of shareholders, and the inability of creative isolation to communicate frankly. To put it simply, the "shareholder" is both a "shareholder" and a "member", and the shopkeeper alone has bridged the discordant game situation between shareholders and customers that often emerged in the past. This example of "crowdfunding" ushered in the 2.0 era of "crowdfunding model".

3 shareholder structure: inventory of resources, optimization of structure, establishment of ecology

One of the core features of the 1898 crowdfunding model is to create a value network and ecosystem based on project positioning. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to take an inventory of resources according to the theme positioning, sort out their own advantages and disadvantages and the resources needed for future development, and carefully select investors according to the needs of resources to optimize the shareholder structure.

The basic orientation of 1898 Cafe is "Peking University Alumni Entrepreneurship Home". In order to create an efficient entrepreneurial ecology, 1898 Cafe has optimized its structure from the dimensions of co-founder's age, department specialty, industry, enterprise development stage and so on. 200 places seem like a lot, but they are scarce in terms of several dimensions.

In terms of specialties and industries, the co-founders cover almost all faculties and majors since Peking University level 1977, and comprehensively cover many industries and fields, such as finance, mobile Internet, new energy, new media, education, law, high technology, and so on. Emerging industries and traditional industries match each other. The co-founders have no shortage of well-known alumni, such as Sun Taoran, founder of Lakala, Wang Pu, founder of Peking University, Zhao Wenquan, chairman of Blue cursor, Liu Jia, chairman of Jiamei Stomatology, etc.

In terms of age, about 70% of the sponsors are "post-70s". Most of the post-70s alumni are on the rise in their careers, and although they have made some achievements, they have a very strong motivation to continue to develop and rise, and they are willing to actively seek space for cooperation, thus driving the vitality of the whole circle. At the same time, absorb some post-50s and post-60s successful entrepreneurs to carry the banner and enhance their influence, as well as a small number of particularly outstanding post-80s and post-90s entrepreneurial alumni.

From the perspective of start-up stage and resources, most of the shareholders are representative figures in various industries. By integrating them, the cafe actually stores all the resources needed at all stages of starting a business, so that the platform can serve entrepreneurial alumni to the maximum extent possible.

From the characteristics of the participants, shareholders have a strong motivation to promote their own career development; need to expand their network of people; willing to share or participate in alumni activities, hoping to interact and cooperate with alumni. On the contrary, those whose careers are in a very stable state, lack enterprising spirit and need for cooperation, and only pay but do not participate in interactive sharing are not ideal candidates for shareholders.

Based on the clear theme positioning to select shareholders, the participants will have natural relevance and interaction, thus forming a value network and business ecology. In the business environment where China's legal system is imperfect and lacks the spirit of contract, the trust relationship within the circle is extremely valuable, which usually produces greater credit value than the actual contract, which greatly improves the convenience of internal cooperation and reduces communication costs and transaction risks.

Similarly, in the soil of Chinese culture that pays attention to human feelings and face, the cost of breaking faith within the acquaintance circle is also extremely high, and people are particularly concerned about their reputation in the circle. The spread of negative evaluation of the parties in the circle not only brings tremendous psychological pressure to individuals, but also affects their survival and development in the industry. This potential mechanism will create strong psychological constraints on the participants, making the cooperation within the circle more reliable and easier.

4 access mode: internal recommendation, batch development, executive committee voting

In terms of shareholder access, 1898 Cafe adopts a two-way selection mechanism of internal recommendation, batch development and executive committee voting to ensure the quality of the shareholder circle. Cafes according to their own positioning to optimize the shareholder structure, adhere to the principle of strict screening, not willing to pay to become shareholders.

First of all, develop shareholders through the recommendation of insiders, that is, let the people in front decide the people behind, and obtain the recommendation endorsement of existing shareholders before they are eligible to apply for membership.

To identify a suitable leader according to the circle position, you should be able to spend more time and energy on promoting crowdfunding projects. Then, with the promotion of the leader, about 10 core sponsors are identified, and each sponsor recommends three or five interested and qualified friends to participate (in order to avoid factionalization, the number recommended by each sponsor should not exceed 10). After 50 sponsors have been identified, the amount of funds raised can basically cover the previous site rental, decoration, personnel and other costs, the project can consider the formal start of investment, at the same time can continue to recommend investors to join.

This crowdfunding model is not by the leader to find one or two hundred people, but through layers of recommendations to achieve.

The reasons for this approach are:

1. Layer upon layer recommendation makes each sponsor become a network node in the circle, and each participant has an acquaintance endorsement, thus forming a value network that is relatively close and easy to interact and cooperate.

2. To recommend acquaintances to join, you need to explain this model clearly to acquaintances, which itself is a process of self-thinking and self-education, which enables friends to understand, identify with and participate in sincerity through communication.

3. The process of recommendation by the sponsors and the level of the recommended people also prove the strength, influence and appeal of the sponsors to a certain extent, which objectively plays a screening role and ensures the quality of the circle. it is conducive to the healthy development of crowdfunding organizations in the future.

Secondly, the applicant recommended by the sponsors must be voted by the Executive Committee, with half of the votes approved or rejected by one vote. This model pays attention to "preconception", and the previous shareholders are willing to recommend it because the applicant will bring value to the circle. At the same time, through the vote of the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee will examine the value of the applicant to the circle on behalf of all shareholders. This interactive mechanism ensures that those who enter the circle are high-quality resources, interactive value and space for cooperation.

Third, recruit shareholders by the way of batch premium. Coffee shop to open as a node before and after two batches of recruitment, before the opening is the first batch, the amount of investment is 30,000 yuan, after the opening is the second batch, the amount of capital is 50,000 yuan. The reason why there is a premium for batch recruitment is that it is risky and difficult to set up in the early stage, and the participants invest more and contribute more. Once the cafe opens successfully, its reputation, influence and circle value will become increasingly prominent, and the value and enthusiasm of participation in the later stage will become higher and higher.

After defining the shareholder access rules to enable shareholders to form an ecological network with complementary resources, it is also necessary to establish an effective organizational structure and incentive mechanism to ensure the activity of shareholders and organizational vitality.

5 organizational structure: two-tier decenter structure of platform organization

As a platform, 1898 Cafe needs to serve double "customers": 200shareholders and coffee shop consumers. To this end, a simple and unique dual structure has been set up in organizational management.

Similar to the traditional corporate system, 1898 Cafe has an executive committee, a rotating chairman, a board of supervisors and a team of professional managers.

The executive committee, which is equivalent to the board of directors, is made up of prestigious shareholders part-time and is the highest authority of the entire cafe organization. The day-to-day management and major affairs of the cafe are decided by the executive committee. The executive committee is elected by shareholders, needs to pay the necessary time and energy to participate in the relevant work, is willing to serve you, and rotates regularly. The rotating chairman is equivalent to the chairman and is elected by the executive committee; the board of supervisors is also composed of part-time shareholders and is responsible for the supervision and management of the whole cafe.

The team of professional managers is composed of full-time staff who focus on the day-to-day operation and management of the cafe and are responsible to the rotating chairman and the executive committee. Coffee shop management is not the core of shareholders' concern, but mainly by the rotating chairman, the representative of the executive committee, to connect with the team of professional managers.

Unlike traditional companies, 1898 Cafe has a separate secretariat. The Secretariat must have full-time staff and part-time staff to participate. Its core function is to serve shareholders, help shareholders to dock resources, promote cooperation among shareholders, assist shareholders to carry out activities, and promote the development of shareholders' cause. In fact, in such a resource platform, the money contributed by shareholders can easily be earned back.

As a new type of social organization, the biggest difference between this organizational structure model and traditional cafes and other crowdfunding models is that there is a special shareholder service platform on top of the management platform. The core of shareholders' concern is to build a clearly defined circle of resources, and then seek cooperation and development space based on their own business, rather than raising money to run cafes to make money. The funds raised, cafes, teahouses or other forms are only the means and conditions to achieve this end, not the end itself. This model enhances the effect of interaction and the value of the circle, and people who realize the value of the circle naturally have great enthusiasm to participate.

Many people believe that 1898 Cafe has created a social platform, and shareholders do not care about whether the cafe is good or bad, so it is difficult for the cafe to run well. This is actually a misunderstanding. Although the operation of the cafe is not the core of shareholders' concern, it does not mean that it is not important. In fact, the executive committee and the rotating chairman, who represent shareholders, have very high requirements for the professional manager team, which is the same as the performance requirements for the professional operation team in any ordinary cafe.

The core mission of the 1898 coffee shop model is to form a valuable circle with efficient interaction. The two-tier organizational structure design not only ensures the satisfaction of the core aspirations of shareholders, but also puts forward strict requirements for the business performance of professional managers. In order to form a healthy and sustainable operating mechanism.

Such an organizational structure, coupled with the decentralized design of complete average shares, realizes the equal participation, democratic sharing, cooperation and mutual benefit of shareholders, forms a networked form of self-organization, and embodies the essence of the spirit of the Internet. Under simple basic rules, organizations grow and evolve freely. Going to the center actually forms a dynamic and distributed center, that is, according to different industries, different fields, and different projects, each shareholder can initiate and organize various activities and carry out all kinds of cooperation according to his own characteristics, expertise and will. therefore, everyone's enthusiasm is strong, and the degree of activity within the circle is high.

6 continuous activation: efficient continuous interaction and free incubation

Chinese people have many circles, why do they have a soft spot for a certain circle? How to maintain the lasting vitality of the circle, constantly activate resources, and avoid rapid silence? This has become an important problem to be faced after the establishment of the circle.

First of all, it is necessary to develop the rules of the game that people are willing to respond to, so as to achieve continuous interaction. 1898 Coffee's shareholder duty system is a typical example. 1898 every shareholder is required to work an one-day shift in a cafe every year, serving tea as a waiter in the morning, meeting with classmates, friends or customers in the afternoon to chat about business, and leading a theme activity in the evening. Instead, they find it interesting to ask these bosses to serve dishes. On this day, they can get their old friends together to improve their emotional communication. This not only improves everyone's sense of participation and sense of belonging, but also objectively plays the effect of expanding publicity and promoting consumption. At the same time, Chinese people love face, and shareholders also have a sense of comparison. Anyone who has a high turnover and a large number of people participating in activities on duty will feel very proud, which will naturally inspire everyone to contribute to the cafe. In fact, activities are the lifeblood of cafes, with two to three hundred more formal events held in the venue of cafe 1898 every year.

Similarly, 1898 Coffee has also set up professional committees such as Innovation Incubator to mobilize resources to contribute to the platform. The more time shareholders invest, the more affectionate they are to the project and circle, the stronger the stickiness of the organization, and the greater the value to shareholders.

Second, form a self-organizing exchange and incubator. The unique charm of 1898 Cafe is that from the beginning of its birth, it has formed a different form of organization, becoming a self-organization of self-growth and self-governance, and an efficient incubator and exchange. At the end of 2014, 1898 Cafe was approved as the "Zhongguancun Innovation Incubator" and soon won the "Zhongguancun Outstanding Entrepreneurship Service Organization Award".

Within the 1898 Cafe, it is very common for shareholders to cooperate or form a small circle. Each shareholder, as a node, can be freely combined in this network of one or two hundred people to become a "association of free men". At the same time, the development direction and shareholder service function of the cafe are decided by the shareholders themselves according to the rules, so there is a lot of room for imagination. For example, 1898 investment and financing club was spontaneously set up among shareholders, and a large number of investment and financing lectures and roadshows were carried out, which led to many business and cooperation opportunities. Qingqingshu Animation's "Kuiba III" crowdfunding raised tens of millions in a short time only in the roadshow organized by the 1898 Investment and financing Club.

There is a good foundation of trust among the shareholders of the cafe. Through various activities, it docks the financing and investment needs of alumni, promotes in-depth exchanges and cooperation between alumni, and achieves win-win results. In the context of Chinese culture, these games skillfully meet the psychological needs of the participants and stimulate their enthusiasm for participation, thus ensuring the successful effect of the model.

Many alumni say that since the establishment of the 1898 Cafe, they have seen more classmates and friends in the past few months than in the past 20 years. What can we talk about after the meeting? Talk about ideas, talk about cooperation, talk about business, these are the great benefits of offline entities. In addition, when there are many awesome people in the circle who often come to the cafe, many people want to meet and communicate with them, so they often come here. The obvious feeling is that alumni are becoming more and more active, communicating, sharing and cooperating more and more.

7 risk control: internal risk control mechanism and expectation management

1898 the crowdfunding model operates under the existing legal framework, and the core grasps the following points:

First, recruit shareholders only for acquaintances and do not accept money from strangers. Through the recommendation and endorsement of acquaintances, it not only reduces transaction costs, but also selects reliable shareholders, but also avoids the legal risk of raising funds publicly from strangers.

Second, the number should not exceed 200. According to the provisions of China's Company Law, the number of sponsors for the establishment of a joint stock limited company shall not exceed 200. At present, 200 people are the legal bottom line that needs to be paid great attention to in doing equity crowdfunding under the current legal framework.

Third, the amount of capital raised is large, the selection of shareholders is strict, and the investors have the ability to identify and bear risks and do not promise returns. The failure rate of starting a business is already very high, and if the crowdfunded projects are not so good, the risk is even greater. At present, crowdfunding is in its infancy, crowdfunding investors must be people who can identify and bear risks. If there are large-scale problems, it will have a huge negative impact on the crowdfunding industry.

1898 crowdfunding model has a reasonable positioning and management of shareholders' expectations. The operation of the coffee shop itself is very difficult to make a big profit, so in the expected management of shareholders, it does not promise that shareholders can get a return from the operating income of the coffee shop, but only promises that the coffee shop will not close down for three years. Within three years, shareholders will basically spend all the money on the card. In this way, the shareholders will feel that it is worth it. With physical cafes, it greatly increases the opportunities for shareholders to interact offline, because they have their own venues and consumption cards, so they will not feel wasted. Crowdfunding must not, in order to attract investment, exaggerate the plan and promise conditions that are difficult to achieve.

Chinese crowdfunding has a strong ability of self-repair, self-correction and self-adaptation. If dozens or even one or two hundred crowdfunding investors jointly review the project, the major risks will basically be eliminated. At the same time, when there is a problem with the project, the investor will provide advice and help solve the problem.

Crowdfunding projects have more shareholders, legal and financial issues should be paid great attention to, and professionals should be involved in assessing risks and feasibility as soon as possible. Take collecting money as the node, we should release the risk through running-in in the early stage, and move forward quickly after collecting the money. The mentality of collecting money and confiscating money is different. Once the money is collected, the sponsors and the project operation team will face great psychological pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to repeatedly run-in and eliminate risks before collecting money, so that these prospective investors can reach a consensus on the main issues. Regulated and transparent finance can give everyone clear confidence and avoid internal differences and unnecessary frictions.

After the contract is signed and the funds are in place, the project will enter the period of landing and operation as stipulated in the contract. In accordance with the requirements of the long-term mechanism of the continuous operation of the project, we should regularly follow up the progress of the project, inform and feedback information to shareholders, and conduct regular meetings and communication to enhance shareholders' confidence. 1898 A financial report will be given to shareholders every year, and the executive committee can audit the accounts at any time. If shareholders want to audit the accounts, they can entrust an executive committee to check them. At the same time, for the difficulties and problems encountered in the process of project promotion, shareholders should also provide resource support, form a mechanism similar to the external board of directors, and make concerted efforts.

The exit mechanism needs to be carefully considered and clearly agreed. To set up the exit mechanism, we need to pay attention to the exit time and return arrangement, and the difficulty lies in the value evaluation. Whether the investment cycle is fixed or not, and how to calculate the return at different time nodes are all important issues that need to be considered and negotiated. Generally speaking, there is a period of remorse after the investment, and 1898 provides for an unconditional refund within three months.

8 core features: crowdfunding of acquaintances first and then funding

One of the core features of the "1898 crowdfunding model" is the circle of acquaintances. In China's cultural and legal environment, crowdfunding for strangers has high legal and moral hazard, low trust and poor interaction and cooperation, which is also an important reason for the failure of many crowdfunding projects. To this end, 1898 Cafe adopts a unique mechanism to ensure the quality of the circle.

Although the word "crowdfunding" is translated from English, it has a new connotation which is different from the original meaning of English in the Chinese context. In Chinese, "Zhong" means "many people", and "chip" means gathering. Crowdfunding, as the name implies, is "mass fundraising". The things raised are not limited to funds, but any valuable resources, which can be divided into three categories: material resources (funds, assets, etc.), human resources (ability, wisdom, etc.) and social resources (customers, contacts, circles, etc.).

The so-called Chinese crowdfunding is a new way of raising people, wisdom and fund-raising based on the circle of acquaintances.

In essence, there are two core features that distinguish Chinese crowdfunding from Western crowdfunding:

(1) the mainstream of Western-style crowdfunding is online platform crowdfunding for strangers, while Chinese-style crowdfunding is crowdfunding for acquaintances and pays more attention to offline interaction.

(2) the purpose of Western-style crowdfunding is fund-raising; the core of Chinese-style crowdfunding is fund-raisers, which is more valuable than simple fund-raising by matching and locking resources needed for the future development of the project in advance.

There is an old saying in China that can express the connotation of crowdfunding simply and directly, that is, those who have money contribute money and contribute forcefully. Here, money and power represent material resources and non-material resources (talent, wisdom, connections and other resources). But this is not enough. Only by changing it on this basis can we better reflect the connotation of Chinese-style crowdfunding-not only to contribute money, but also to contribute.

And all this is essentially a fund-raiser. People are the foundation of everything. People in place, resources docking, strong alliance, nothing can not be done!

The core of Western-style crowdfunding is "fund-raising", mainly as a way of financing, while the core of Chinese-style crowdfunding is "fund-raisers", not only financing, but also intellectual and resource financing, of which financing is not the most important. the most valuable is the investment of the investor's time, emotion, wisdom, contacts and other resources. Therefore, the core of Chinese crowdfunding consideration is how to get investors to bring in time, relationships and resources.

Chinese crowdfunding is a new method of crowdfunding under the background of Chinese culture, which not only embodies the essence and essence of crowdfunding thinking, but also embodies the spirit of the Internet era.

9 prototype value: sustainable, replicable, evolvable

1898 Cafe has quickly set off a wave of Chinese-style crowdfunding, attracting a large number of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and managers who want to carry out crowdfunding practice. more and more crowdfunding projects, ideas and ideas are surging in the community.

Many people believe that the success of 1898 Cafe is due to the halo and resource advantages of Peking University, and its success is difficult to replicate. In fact, just as there are no two identical leaves in the world, each specific case has its own characteristics and can not be completely copied, but the logic behind it is the same and can be used for reference and replication. 1898 the crowdfunding logic system behind the cafe is complete, self-consistent and effective, does not rely on Peking University resources, and has a strong replicability.

With Yang Yong as the chief architect, he has successively operated benchmarking cases in several areas, proving the replicability of the 1898 cafe model. Financier Coffee, a quadrangle cafe with hundreds of millions of crowdfunding, has become a luxury upgrade of 1898 Cafe, strongly proving that the 1898 Cafe model can be replicated. Crowdfunding China's first children's oral hospital-Beijing Pediatric Oral Prevention Hospital (Jiamei Children's Stomatological Hospital), achieved the perfect landing of equity crowdfunding. Fancy quality, its founder Wan Gege was admitted by the first phase of Jack Ma Lakeside University, through equity crowdfunding instead of VC, to achieve the great-leap-forward development of the enterprise. On the shore of the East Lake in Wuhan, through crowdfunding to restore the "Jingxin Academy", Hubei entrepreneurs have realized the integration of resources and the development of groups. "Yang Yong Talent IPO" has become the first single talent crowdfunding in the world, opening a new era.

After more than a year of development, many people learn from this model to start a business, and even fall to the ground, blossom and bear fruit overseas. As an overseas representative of Chinese-style crowdfunding, "1029 Cafe" in Vancouver is a crowdfunding cafe based on 1898 Cafe to build a platform centered on Vancouver and linking venture capital resources between China and Canada and the United States. It is in line with the value aspirations of overseas Chinese to uphold the Confucian business culture and build a high-quality circle.

Each case of Chinese crowdfunding has its own characteristics, but it remains the same, and the operating logic behind it is consistent, but it has different operational evolution according to the characteristics of different cases.

As a typical representative of Chinese crowdfunding, the 1898 cafe model is the result of its accumulated strength under China's unique cultural soil, which is not only the reason why it was born in China, but also the reason why it plays a huge demonstration effect.

In the future, the Chinese crowdfunding represented by 1898 Cafe will have more room for imagination.