He is still waiting for the next comeback.
Text: "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Deng Shuanglin
Editor|Li Wei
Header image source: Attempt library
In the first half of this year, Ofo founder Dai Wei's coffee startup project in the United States, About Time Coffee, a chain of small coffee shops with red neon signs, opened in Gramercy Park in New York, and soon opened four more stores in downtown Manhattan.
However, the bustle soon came to an end. "China Entrepreneur" learned that Only one store of About Time Coffee is open on Madison Avenue in New York, and the other four stores are all shown to be "permanently closed". A search on Instagram by China Entrepreneur found that the last tweet on the About Time Coffee account was in September, and the last time a consumer posted a picture was last year.
About Time Coffee门店情况。 来源：谷歌地图截图
As early as the end of May this year, it was reported that About Time Coffee's operation had fallen into trouble, the capital chain had encountered a bottleneck, and the entire project was on the verge of shutting down. At that time, About Time Coffee still had four stores in New York.
However, Dai Wei is not the CEO of About Time Coffee, whose CEO is a Chinese-faced woman named Marian Chen. Previously, she revealed to the media that although Dai Wei did not participate in the daily operations, he was actually the "game maker" behind About Time Coffee, helping to form a team and arranging meetings with investors, "He is the one who glues us together".
Dai Wei has indeed helped introduce many large Chinese venture capitals, including IDG Capital, Zhen Fund, and Weili Capital. Zhenge and Weilie have a close relationship with Dai Wei himself, both of whom are old shareholders of ofo, and Dai Wei himself is also an LP (limited partner) of one of the funds of Weili Capital.
Industry insiders analyzed to "China Entrepreneur" that Dai Wei's new entrepreneurial project is likely to leave equity to the old shareholders as compensation, "just like Luo Yonghao's thin red line, compared to the project, venture capital is more important to Dai Wei himself."
Previously, it was reported that Zhen Zheng's investment was "directly invested by Xu Xiaoping", however, a person familiar with the matter told China Entrepreneur: "This project is personally invested and managed by other partners of Zhen Ge, and the specific situation of the project is not clear internally." ”
Five years ago, the headquarters of ofo was jammed with users who came to defend their rights, but this move had no real effect, because ofo had no assets to enforce. So far, under the official Weibo of ofo, many users are still questioning, "When will the money be refunded" and "My deposit has not been refunded, and your boss will take the money to invite Americans to coffee?"
According to "Chinese Entrepreneur", there are still more than 16 million people waiting in line for ofo to refund the deposit, which is divided into two levels: 99 yuan and 199 yuan. Even if it is calculated at 99 yuan per person, the deposit to be refunded is as high as 1.5 billion yuan.
At present, it seems that Dai Wei has little hope of "turning over" with the new project of coffee. Dai Wei's second venture ended in failure again.
Water and soil complaints
Dai Wei, who started as an ofo, is well versed in traffic entrance, and About Time Coffee is certainly not just an ordinary community café.
Dissecting the core of About Time Coffee, it is actually a technology-driven business start-up - from the perspective of the model, users can place orders for their favorite categories in advance in the app, and they can pick them up after arriving at the store, or dine-in, just like Luckin.
About Time Coffee's pricing strategy, target consumer group, and marketing strategy are also very familiar. The price is mainly cost-effective, the unit price is between 3 US dollars ~ 7 US dollars, which is lower than Starbucks; in terms of products, the main pearl coffee, taro coffee and other innovative products, the taste is between coffee and milk tea, and the take-out packaging uses a unique sealed can. It can be seen that its main target group is young people.
About Time Coffee's subsidy play in the early stage is borrowed from Luckin's "burning money" routine - relying on real money subsidies to drive APP downloads, sending SMS promotions to the public, and advertising on the billboard at the entrance of the coffee shop: "Register APP to place an order online, and we will invite the first five cups." ”
Clearly, Dai Wei wanted to replicate Luckin's gameplay in the United States. Marian Chen also confirmed this to the media: "We have a mature model from China, and we sell coffee that tastes better than Starbucks, but cheaper than Starbucks. ”
But this road is difficult to navigate, and the biggest problem facing Dai Wei is how to change Americans' consumption Xi and overcome water and soil dissatisfaction.
In the U.S., where mobile payments currently account for only 15% of total chain sales, Americans still prefer to pay with cash and credit cards. The premise of About Time Coffee's large-scale expansion is to turn Americans' payment Xi into mobile apps, so that it can continue to plan the next step to do traffic entrance and drive business online.
In addition, there are also major problems with the location of About Time Coffee. An American user once complained, "5 stores are all opened in tourist areas, not only is there no business in the busiest morning, but tourists will not enter an anonymous shop to buy coffee." If you open to Greenwich or the East Village, you may still be a little sticky. ”
When starting a business as ofo, Dai Wei tasted the sweetness of capital burning money and expansion, but he fell on his heels because he failed to make a profit. The coffee project of the second venture, Dai Wei obviously still has not escaped his logical circle.
The dream of entrepreneurship does not die
Half a year ago, after Dai Wei's new entrepreneurial project surfaced, many people questioned why Dai Wei, as an "old lai", could still go abroad to start a business?
According to the risk information of the enterprise investigation, since August 2018, Dai Wei has successively received 40 consumption restriction orders, and the amount involved is as high as 60.35 million yuan. According to the recent consumption restriction order issued by the Haidian District People's Court of Beijing, Dai Wei is restricted from choosing second-class or higher cabins on airplanes, soft sleepers on trains, and ships when taking transportation.
However, "Chinese Entrepreneur" learned that restricting high consumption and being listed as a dishonest person subject to execution are two concepts, and at present, Dai Wei has only been "limited in height" due to a large number of enforcement cases of ofo company, and has not yet been listed as a dishonest person subject to execution. He can bypass restricted means of transport and go overseas.
Source: China Attempt Library
According to people close to Dai Wei, Dai Wei has now returned to Beijing. Although he has not appeared in the public eye for a long time, Dai Wei's entrepreneurial heart has never been extinguished.
Previously, some media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Dai Wei has been shuttling between China and the United States to work, first opening a power bank rental startup in Seattle, but the effect is not very good. Later, he co-founded the About Time Coffee chain in New York.
Although the failure of entrepreneurship has been limited to become a "laid-back", Dai Wei has been paying close attention to the business ecology.
When Keep went public, he forwarded it to the circle of friends, and sincerely congratulated him; ChatGPT caused a trend of large models in China, and Dai Wei was also paying attention to it, and when NVIDIA's "strongest AI chip" H200 was released, he sighed: "It's too explosive"; even Luckin and Moutai co-branded, Dai Wei couldn't help but comment: "Wine and coffee, it's too good." ”
Keep and Luckin are both new commercial species born in the same golden age as ofo, and Dai Wei cares about their fate, and perhaps laments his past. But what is certain is that Dai Wei has never given up his entrepreneurial dream, and he is still waiting for the next comeback.
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