The deputy mayor resigned and opened a cafe. It's too late to start a business.

Gu Jianwei is organizing a salon at 3W Cafe. Photo by Xie Feijun

1 interior view of the cafe. Provided by Gu Jianwei

Our reporter Xie Feijun

October 25 is the sixth day of the official opening of Wuxi 3W Cafe. Because a deputy district governor resigned to open the coffee shop, one hundred people had the same question: why?

Gu Jianwei is a native of Wuxi. For the first 40 years of his life, he could be labeled as a winner all the way: he was admitted to the Department of political Science of Peking University from a key local high school in Wuxi, returned to Wuxi after graduating from a bachelor's degree, started as a street clerk at the most basic level, and became one of the youngest department cadres in Wuxi. Therefore, when he chose to resign as deputy mayor of Beitang District in Wuxi, many people did not understand it for a time.

"from the point of view of outsiders, my resignation from such a position seems to be a kind of abandonment in itself, but in fact, a civil servant is a 'migrant worker' identity. At the age of 40, I wanted to start a business from the bottom of my heart, and I felt that happiness and love should be the only measure. Therefore, in my mind, there is no abandonment in this process, or even a choice. " In an in-depth dialogue with the resigned vice mayor of Wuxi, he gave a frank answer to the "why" that everyone wanted to ask.

"not simple" cafe

At 10:00 on the morning of October 22nd, Gu Jianwei went to the cafe at the appointed time, and Gu Jianwei's last job was not finished-- interviewing the financial staff of the cafe.

In the cafe, some designers are still making local fine-tuning arrangements for the interior, and the guests who talk about things in twos and threes are distributed in an area of 500 square meters.

The interview was conducted in the form of small talk, but Gu Jianwei's white vertical striped shirt with black trousers, coupled with an unsmiling look at first glance, made him feel dignified.

During the interview, Gu Jianwei's mobile phone gave off continuous vibrations at intervals of three to five minutes, and he kept pinching it off. When the sound of the partial decoration of the cafe affected the conversation, he asked the staff to move a set of tables and chairs to the lotus pond outside the cafe.

This is a personal change brought about by the change of identity-he has changed his habit of working in a separate office, working in a cafe and without a fixed area.

"I am still me, and I am not a different person because of the change of identity. Although many familiar old colleagues and friends feel suddenly, they are not surprised. " He summed up the changes in his work in this way.

On the business card, Gu Jianwei is the CEO of Wuxi Chuangke Space Incubator Co., Ltd. This is the new company he set up after he resigned in July this year. Prior to that, he worked in government departments for 17 years, serving four districts in Wuxi, namely, Chongan District, Binhu District, Nanchang District and Beitang District, involved in investment promotion, finance, industry, tertiary industry and other fields.

"I am an atypical civil servant. I can constantly change jobs and come into contact with new jobs. It is very rare for government departments here to find a second one." His extensive interest in new things and experience accumulated in his work make him feel that he can help more entrepreneurs.

Because of his work, Gu Jianwei came into contact with mass entrepreneurship and innovation long before Premier Li Keqiang publicly issued the call for "mass entrepreneurship and innovation." The identity switch he has experienced now has laid the foundation for him to better understand both the government and entrepreneurs.

"mass entrepreneurship and innovation seems to be advocated by the government, but it is actually a trend of the times, and the government conforms to this trend." In Gu Jianwei's view, the government is aware of this change, knows the urgency of industrial upgrading, and understands that the upgrading of consumption needs impetus. "but in the specific operation, it is necessary for the government to change its role as a service provider and a provider of the environment, and return the master status to the society."

"A lot of people agree with me. Consulting, resources and capital are all services that entrepreneurs need. Many friends in related fields around me have a high recognition of my resignation and start a business, and they are also willing to participate in providing free or low-cost professional services for entrepreneurs. "

Therefore, what he is doing now is not simply to open a cafe, but to create an ecological circle of innovation and entrepreneurship in Wuxi. His partners include well-known investors, successful entrepreneurs of listed Internet companies, and column editors of well-known media. His team is not simple. At present, the members who are in place are senior civil servants who have resigned from the system like him, the boss of Wuxi, a central enterprise, and "a middle-level cadre of a telecommunications company who has been 'poached' to provide front desk service."

So many "can" people gather in a cafe for one goal, to become the most professional provider of entrepreneurship and innovation services in the Yangtze River Delta region, "not only to provide services to entrepreneurs, but also to export the relevant elements of creator services to the government, the park and other entrepreneur spaces. We hope to combine the space of Wuxi to provide a better entrepreneurial environment for entrepreneurs in Wuxi.

"Wuxi has a good environment, good transportation and low cost in the same city. Although the scale of Wuxi city is small, its industrial depth is very solid. In the new round of transformation and development, Wuxi still has many new opportunities. We have great confidence in the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in Wuxi. " Gu Jianwei said.

"older" entrepreneurs

Gu Jianwei soon discovered that in this round of entrepreneurial craze, "post-70s" entrepreneurs are already older.

"when you get older, you will inevitably adhere to your own inherent thinking and slightly outdated practices. In this respect, young people have a natural advantage. They are seldom influenced by their stereotypes and seldom worry about their livelihood, and interest is a valuable asset to them. In this cafe, I hope to combine the experience of entrepreneurs and the advantages of resources with the creativity and drive of young people. I hope to combine my advantages with the advantages of young people. "

Since submitting his resignation letter at the beginning of the year, Gu Jianwei has been exposed to his personal favorite part of things-talking to entrepreneurial teams, listening, understanding their difficulties, and then helping them solve problems.

"some young entrepreneurial teams will be immature, such as impetuous mentality, ability, resources and set goals do not match, there is no open mind and standard organizational structure." In his view, one of the most taboo things about entrepreneurial teams is to fall into a self-state and feel better and better.

"A team's learning ability and attitude directly determine whether they can come out of the ego, recognize the world, grasp the direction, and explore the path. Sometimes, starting a business requires constant adjustment. "

There used to be a typical project, "moving cars on the code", which tried to solve the problem of random parking occupying public passageways. "in the past, the car owner put at most a phone number on the front of the car, and the number was exposed. 'moving the car on the code' advocated putting a QR code in a conspicuous place in the car, and the delayed person could notify the owner at the first time after scanning it. It looks good, doesn't it? But in terms of commercial value, there is no focus. " Gu Jianwei stressed three "needs": the need to establish technical barriers, the need to strengthen business logic, and the need to better serve the masses through service institutions. "now, this project is launched jointly with car maintenance units and insurance units."

Another example is the project "snail run", which directly changes the direction of driving force. "Snail running" was originally a research and development company that makes jogging shoes and insoles. Such a product needs a lot of money to open up the market and cultivate brands in the traditional way. After a "consultation", Gu Jianwei suggested that it be defined as an Internet product because jogging and marathons are a major trend. Jogging people can be cut into the first place, and their pain points and emotions need to be paid attention to. "through the establishment of a community, let future users participate in the interaction with R & D in advance, request direct feedback to R & D, and establish emotional ties. This can bring the optimization of the product cut-in path by cutting into the potential consumer population. "

Gu Jianwei basically talked about all the projects that entered the cafe. He tried to use his "flattened brain neural network" to serve every professional team.

His many labels have attracted a lot of customers. Just a few days after its opening, the cafe has gradually entered a good situation of "talking and laughing with great scholars"--

Zhang Ruyong, general manager of Wuxi branch of a famous recruitment company, has been showing up in the cafe these days, saying that he will take his staff to work here for a long time in the future. His idea is very simple: the start-up projects and enterprises that will be born here will need all kinds of talents.

Chen Dong, general manager of a local new energy technology company in Wuxi, thought he could try to develop a new product after chatting with Gu Jianwei. They discussed making an auxiliary capacitor to give the car battery a chance to restart at the last minute, which is technically achievable, and such small pieces can be developed for enterprise products through the afterloading market of the maintenance shop.

Xu Jianjun, the boss of an O2O (Online To Offline) project that combines offline business opportunities with the Internet, is also a post-70s generation. He has spent seven or eight years developing little by little with his own money, constantly optimizing a "finding a job" APP to solve the problem of the use of "fragmentation" time among social groups. It is said that the O2O project dies quickly, but Xu Jianjun is famous for his soundness. Now that he has heard that it is possible to get venture capital with a good idea, he is still willing to go to the cafe of the "head of the district" to see if there are more possibilities.

40 years old, "if you don't start a business, it's too late."

Some of the people who went to the cafe already knew Gu Jianwei, while others got to know him through introduction. During the conversation, some people called him "Gu District" and others called him "Boss Gu", and he accepted them all.

As for the label of "the youngest department-level cadre in Wuxi", he cautiously added that the word "one" needed to be added. For his previous promotion, he stressed "chance": "I am actually a person who likes to do things but is not very good at reading other people's minds, and growing up in the system is very accidental."

Because of this, when many people feel that his life is taking a great turn, he personally does not think so. "in the final analysis, a civil servant is a migrant worker, even if there is a certain position, I do not think it is anything special, nothing can not be given up."

Of course, such a change is not easy for others to understand. "there have been resistance and arguments at home." At this time, Gu Jianwei had the art of "taking care of the district mayor". During the argument, my parents smashed a glass dining table at home that was of poor quality. Later, they bought a new wooden table, and they all liked it and cherished it more than I did. I told my mother that the glass table was broken and the wooden table was coming. " What moved Gu Jianwei was that his family was unwilling at first, but in the end they all chose to support it. "it's the same with my mother and my wife."

Why on earth are you determined to resign and start a business at the age of 40? "if you just want to make some money, there's no difference between entrepreneurship and employment, which is safer. So the question here is: when measuring, do you put the value of life in it or make money in it? I regard entrepreneurship as a journey in my life. "

Gu Jianwei describes the nature of entrepreneurship in this way: entrepreneurs should consider whether they have solved the problems that society needs to solve, whether they have the ability to do it, and why they want to start a business.

Corresponding to himself, he thinks that people are often bound by existing ideas. if they do not use their own perceptual cognition to talk to society and themselves, there will be distance over a long period of time, thus forming a wrong judgment.

"when people are able to support themselves, happiness and love should be the only yardstick. To find something in your heart, first of all, you are happy and you like it. If you can be liked by others, it will be even better. "

As for the 40-year-old node, it is "too late to start a business". He looked at Bantang residual lotus. After a moment of silence, he switched to another tone: "at the age of 40, a very close college classmate and a very familiar high school classmate left because of bone cancer and a heart attack." To some extent, this is a reminder. In fact, everyone's destination is the same. If we don't pursue it from now on, there may even be no tomorrow. "

Gu Jianwei said frankly that there are all kinds of voices on the Internet about his resignation and entrepreneurship. Some people say that he is "corrupt", while others say that "opening a coffee shop has washed the money white." "I think these are all inevitable reactions after the news comes out. The deputy district governor resigned. Why? As long as there is no reason, it will always be concerned and questioned. I'm not going to retort. It's more important to do my own thing at my own pace. "

Reporter's notes

The cafe is just a carrier.

Enter the word "Gu Jianwei" on Baidu, and Baidu encyclopedia still shows that the Wuxi native, born in June 1975, is "now the deputy mayor of Beitang District and a member of the party group of the district government", but in fact, in his own words, he, who resigned in July this year, has spread "three times" on the Internet-from the initial Wechat official account, to local media, and then to the intervention of domestic mainstream media.

Today, Gu Jianwei's main energy is chatting with all kinds of entrepreneurial teams. Because of his special growth experience and understanding of society, he is familiar with policies, can make more reasonable judgments than ordinary entrepreneurs, and is easy to give people a sense of trust. Therefore, his existence is a link in itself, connecting various elements of innovation and entrepreneurship in Wuxi.

The cafe is pushing 50 crowdfunding cards recently. More than half of the 20,000 yuan cards have been sold, mostly local entrepreneurs. In addition to having coffee all the year round, there will also be an annual private board meeting, an opportunity to organize a large-scale event in a cafe and a chance to meet and communicate with many entrepreneurs. For entrepreneurs, the group involved in entrepreneurship, behind the hidden pressure of transformation, what they need is learning, and then investment.

Gu Jianwei said bluntly that the coffee shop is only a carrier, and the unlimited coffee refill service will be launched in the follow-up, and its own revenue is not valued.

How do you make money? Targeting service income, specifically, information consulting, resource docking, investment and financing returns, including investment shares, partial priority investment rights …...

Some people say that the government is also working on a service system for entrepreneurs. But what Gu Jianwei and his team want to try is to get fees with more efficient services. Some people say that this kind of business should be done in big cities. However, Gu Jianwei feels that since he was born and raised here, since he is familiar with the industrial reality and positioning of Wuxi, he can find opportunities in the localization of the real economy.

During the chat, I can feel the initial stereotype slowly fade-the essence of Gu Jianwei, 40, who resigned and went to sea, is to use the "flattening" thinking cultivated by his unique experience in this space called a cafe. Try your best to maximize all kinds of entrepreneurial possibilities.

In his cafe, all the possibilities continue.