Wang Han's dream of starting a business is in the time of a cup of coffee.

Speaking of the positioning of Dream chasing Network, du Mengjie is very clear: "A crowdfunding website that focuses on young people's dreams." However, in the early stages of starting a business, he was wavering about the direction of the platform.

Du Mengjie, founder of Dream chasing Network, uses a website to help 50,000 small partners realize their dreams.

Junior Wen wants to have a rock party; Crayon Mushroom wants to open a magic cure house in Dali; and 18-year-old Bao aspires to be an overseas volunteer in Africa. More than 1 million users participated in crowdfunding to pay for the dreams of these ordinary people.

As du Mengjie's angel investor, Wang Han, host of Hunan Satellite TV, is the one who helps him realize his dream. The young boy used a cup of coffee to make Wang Han feel that he was "a man who can do things".

Wang Han and du Mengjie "what you have done is really meaningful and beautiful, and we are willing to move forward with you for the sake of this beauty." This is the reply from Wang Han and his wife Yang Lele when du Mengjie got the angel investment.

Hold on to your dream and meet "angel"

Now when it comes to the positioning of Dream chasing Network, du Mengjie is very clear: "A crowdfunding website that focuses on young people's dreams." However, in the early stages of starting a business, he was wavering about the direction of the platform.

In September 2011, the first edition of Dream chasing online. At first, du Mengjie copied the model of Kickstarter, a crowdfunding website that sprang up in the United States in 2009, with entries covering more than a dozen sections, such as music, film and television, animation, publishing, technology, and so on.

Du Mengjie and his entrepreneurial dream du Mengjie remember that at that time, the only promotion channels were Renren and Weibo, and he often went to major colleges and universities to give lectures. "the progress was slow, and there were few projects. It took me a lot of effort to do only 20 or so projects in half a year."

Looking at the huge and bloated dream-chasing network, du Mengjie began to "lose weight" for it, and he struggled with it several times: no Internet financial crowdfunding, no financial background; no crowdfunding for agricultural products, and most of the teams were young people who had never cooked meals; without technology, the hardware quality could not be guaranteed. Du Mengjie tested it around before he gradually found his way. "since the team are all young people, can Dream Hunting provide the post-90s with an entrance to life and entertainment through crowdfunding?"

After several rounds of trial and error, du Mengjie has a clear goal: "not to be the fattest market, but to be a user group that you know better."

When the direction was set, he began to look for investment.

In 2012, in the winter full of "doomsday" talk, du Mengjie ushered in a "new life".

In a small coffee shop, du Mengjie sat with Hunan TV hosts Wang Han and Yang Lele. "at that time, Brother Han asked me if I had ever thought about failure, asked me what books I liked to read, and asked me a lot of questions that had nothing to do with the product."

An hour and a half passed quickly, and du Mengjie did not know on the spot whether Wang Han would become his angel investor. He even lost sleep because of a message sent by Wang Han's wife Yang Lele that night: "Meng Jie, no matter whether Brother Han and I invest in you or not, we will help you. You are doing a great and valuable thing."

"as soon as I heard it at that time, although my chest was warm, I was very concerned about the sentence 'you will help me whether you vote or not' and obviously did not vote for me. But three days later, I got the news that they said,'We're going to vote for you!'" Wang Han became an angel investor in Dream chasing Network.

In September this year, du Mengjie wrote the details of his meeting with Wang Han in Zhihu.

Wang Han and his wife Yang Lele replied to him: "Meng Jie, although we have only met once, you dare to borrow 300000 yuan to start a business as soon as you graduate, which shows that you have great determination to this career. There are many smart people in this world, many hard-working people, many diligent people, and not a small number of people with backgrounds, but most people are too smart and pursue stability, and not many people are really determined. And determination is often the key to whether one thing can be done in the end. Secondly, your experience of crowdfunding 60,000 yuan around the world after you dropped out of college shows that you are a person with ideas, courage and strong execution, and you are a person who can do things, so we voted for you. "

A close contact with crowdfunding

In du Mengjie's view, the original intention of founding Mengmen.com was a fund-raising experience five years ago, when he began to grope for the word "crowdfunding" before Baidu encyclopedia entries were included.

In 2010, du Mengjie, a junior at Nanjing University of posts and Telecommunications, saw his classmates preparing to go abroad, take the postgraduate entrance examination and look for internships. "I didn't know what I was going to do at that time," du Mengjie said. "there was nothing I wanted."

Du Mengjie went through all the ideas about life in his head, but the word "gap year" he heard a year ago came across at this level.

At the thought of this, he came up with the idea of taking a year off from school: like students in the West, to experience life all over the world and find their own points of interest.

After a whole week, du Mengjie wrote a fundraising letter entitled "suspension from school to study, my gap year", in which he introduced the purpose and itinerary of his study trip. He posted a monologue of nearly 15000 words on his blog and was supported by more than 200 donations.

Du Mengjie in Agra Castle, India, at the end of the letter, he added: "lend me money, whether it is 100 yuan or 10,000 yuan, I promise to pay it back within three years." Du Mengjie said, "I have now returned the loan to 90% of the people, and those who donate anonymously can no longer be contacted."

In the end, du Mengjie raised 60,000 yuan. In his view, the "gap year" was a very new thing at that time, and it resonated with many people, which was the main reason for the success of fund-raising.

A month later, du Mengjie set out with the study trip funds. In the past year, he has met many young people who pursue their dreams like him. "A boy from Slovakia gave up his job as IBM and came to Afghanistan to learn Persian; many programmers in Seattle will follow in Jobs' footsteps on a pilgrimage to India, and most young Westerners are willing to experience cultural differences in isolated places."

After eight months abroad, du Mengjie returned home from the last stop of his study tour in Afghanistan. "the experience of studying abroad has given me some inspiration. Many young people like stability. They are curious about new things, but at the same time they are afraid, or they are always limited by various factors." Thinking about his fund-raising experience, du Mengjie hopes to help more people realize their dreams in this way. "I hope there will be such a platform for young people with ideas and action to realize their dreams."

Use the energy of life well

"one mobile phone, seven days per person, eight cities, 800 photos, an exhibition, excuse me, can I borrow you for a week?" three months ago, Miss Xiqin wrote the dream of "168 hours of drifting Mobile phone Life Film Festival" on Dream chasing website. She wanted to take out a mobile phone, let eight people record their 168 hours of life, and collect these images to hold an exhibition in Beijing. The project has been completed in Guangzhou, the fifth stop.

"among my supporters, I have selected eight partners of different occupations and identities, and those who are not selected will also receive a set of postcards with free delivery!" 22 yuan is the fee for her express delivery from Hong Kong, and it is also the fund-raising amount set by Miss Xiqin for the participants.

In 30 days, Miss Xiqin won the support of 145 people and raised 2787 yuan. She remembers some people who didn't ask for anything in return and left after anonymous support. But it also means that she will have to pay more than 1000 yuan for postcard printing. In her view, the significance of this activity is far greater than money.

From the first stop in Nanjing, Miss Xiqin has been broadcast live on Weibo and moments. She hopes that the power of the image can be transmitted between people.

While helping to realize the landing of each dream, Dream chasing Network will charge a different proportion of service fees according to the number of days of fund-raising of the dream. The fund-raising days set by Miss Xiqin is 30 days, which means she will hand over 5% of the amount raised. For those users who fail to raise money within a specified number of days, Meng.com will return all the fees to the supporters' accounts.

In the four years since du Mengjie started his business, he has seen clearly the domestic crowdfunding environment, from one or two crowdfunding companies at the beginning to hundreds now: equity crowdfunding includes Angel, Music crowdfunding has Lelot.com, Film and Television crowdfunding has Taomeng.com; Taobao, JD.com, Baidu and Youku have also launched crowdfunding platforms.

Seeing the giants flocking to the market, du Mengjie said he was "not worried". "some companies have turned crowdfunding into pre-sales, and we will always be a platform to realize the dreams of ordinary people."

For Mengchuan.com, once it plays the sign of pre-sale, it will get considerable transaction volume and more user participation, but this will undoubtedly make it lose its original characteristics.

Trust mechanism is a common problem faced by crowdfunding websites. In order to solve this "internal worry", du Mengjie also plays the "acquaintance card". Through Mengchuan.com 's App, you can share your dreams with your moments with one click, ask your friends to help raise money, and enhance the trust of crowdfunding.

In September, du Mengjie set up a branch in San Francisco and put two people in charge of the operation of new products in North America, taking the first step towards the goal of "globalization."

"since you have been helping others make their dreams come true, what is your dream?"

Hearing this question, du Mengjie replied simply: "create a global platform to promote human exploration and connection."

Source: China Youth Daily