Editor's note: This article is from Deepchain Finance (ID: deepchain) , author: Menren. 36氪 is authorized to publish.
Garage Coffee is hidden at the end of Chuangye Street in Zhongguancun. If you don’t pay attention, it is difficult to find it. Compared with the prominent big signs such as 3W Coffee, Dark Horse Academy, and Yanjiyou nearby, it is unusually low-key.
This is not only the world's first entrepreneurial-themed coffee shop, but also the birthplace of the big names in the currency circle, such as Bao Erye, Zhao Dong, Li Xiaolai, Zongge, Yangyang, etc., so it has the name of "Yan'an in the currency circle". Every time I mention the past of the blockchain, I can't get around the garage coffee and Su Di (dì). When Garage Coffee was the most eye-catching, founder Su Di unexpectedly announced his departure.
The birthplace of the currency circle, the "Yan'an" of the blockchain
As a cafe that helps entrepreneurs, Garage Coffee is far from the prosperous 3W coffee on the same street. It was not until the Bitcoin skyrocketed and the currency circle entered the public eye that it was pushed to the forefront.
Garage Coffee's photo wall
Someone once described Garage Coffee as the "Yan'an" of China's blockchain, and this description is indeed appropriate. Because Li Xiaolai, Zhao Dong, Wu Gang, Bao Erye, Zhao Guofeng and many other bigwigs in the currency circle all made their fortunes or got acquainted here. In China, when it comes to bitcoin and blockchain, garage coffee is an inescapable place.
In 2012, Zhao Dong, who had just left Moji Weather, came to Garage Coffee as CTO. In his own words, he thinks garage coffee is very interesting, a place with ideals and feelings. It was here that Zhao Dong started his ups and downs in coin speculation and mining, and in the process he met Wu Gang, Li Xiaolai and others.
Li Xiaolai came to Garage Coffee on the one hand to "preach and teach", and on the other hand, he wanted to build a Bitcoin fund. With everyone's support, the Bit Fund came into being. At the same time, Garage Coffee has also become a gathering place in the currency circle, where everyone discusses various topics of Bitcoin and blockchain, and considers how to speculate and mine to make more money.
Among them is Bao Erye, who later became a celebrity in the currency circle. It turned out that Bao Erye, who had been selling beef in his hometown in Pingyao, Shanxi, encountered a bottleneck in his development. He wanted to come to Beijing to study e-commerce. He heard from a friend that there are many entrepreneurs at Garage Coffee, so he came to Garage Coffee.
Su Di recalled the first time she met Bao Erye and said, "At that time Erbao was really focused on researching how to sell beef better."
Bao Erye recalled his experience at the garage coffee, saying that his wife bought bitcoin after listening to Li Xiaolai's sermon, and he also "entered the pit", and then he opened a mining farm and became a currency circle Huangpu Military Academy. and national events. At that time, he also urged his wife to make a video talk show called "Yangyang Interview" to record the entrepreneurs in the garage coffee, which also became a precious video material for recording the characters in the currency circle at that time.
Different from the enthusiasm of Zhao Dong, Li Xiaolai and other people, Su Di was not optimistic about what these people did at that time. In fact, he also publicly admitted that he had never touched Bitcoin. However, under Li Xiaolai's three-inch tongue, Su Di still accepted Li Xiaolai's suggestion and made Garage Coffee the first brick-and-mortar store in China to accept bitcoin payment.
The incident of Li Xiaolai's foreign assistant buying coffee with bitcoin was also interviewed by CCTV, which to a large extent linked garage coffee and bitcoin and spread widely. Subsequently, many speculators and entrepreneurs who want to engage in related industries came from all over the country.
Among them were Li Lin and Du Jun, the founders of Huobi.com. Li Lin and Du Jun said that they wanted to build a Bitcoin exchange, and asked Zhao Dong and others if they were willing to invest, but Zhao Dong and others were busy with mining at that time and didn't like this project, so they missed out on this project, which would be quite worth it in the future. worthwhile investment.
Under the leadership of Zhao Dong, Li Xiaolai and other people, the historical status of Garage Coffee in the currency circle has been established.
The Utopia of Grassroots Entrepreneurs
The garage coffee is hidden on the second floor of the original Xinding Hotel. The cafe is hundreds of square meters. Except for the bar counter for ordering food, the other space is occupied by rows of desks and chairs. The power strip hangs down from the black ceiling, just in time It hangs above the desk, and each patch panel is connected to multiple computers.
It's more of an open-plan office than a cafe. There is no soothing music and petty bourgeoisie atmosphere of ordinary cafes here, but there are entrepreneurs' hard work and small team discussions. Every day many entrepreneurs come here, order a cup of coffee and work all day.
Garage Coffee was established in April 2011, co-founded by 11 founders including Su Di, and positioned as "entrepreneurship-themed coffee". In fact, the name "Garage" already contains the meaning of "entrepreneurship".
Looking back, David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded HP in a garage; Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in a garage and hand-assembled 50 first-generation Apple computers; Jay Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in his garage; Google's first office was also in the garage...
On the surface, Garage Coffee is a coffee shop, but in fact, it provides business incubation services for early-stage entrepreneurs, helping entrepreneurs sort out projects, form teams, find funds, and connect business cooperation.
Entrepreneurs who come here only need to order a cup of coffee and enjoy a free day of open office environment. Garage coffee is not only a low-cost office space for entrepreneurs, but also a project library for investors. But more importantly, it attracts and brings together more and more people with entrepreneurial dreams.
The founder of the garage, Su Di, also said in an interview, "The most valuable part of the garage is not to provide office space for entrepreneurs, nor to hold events, but to gather the entrepreneur community."
An entrepreneur who has been at Garage Coffee for a long time said that the garage is a place with an entrepreneurial atmosphere, a kind of utopia, a place where all topics of entrepreneurship are respected, and where communication and cooperation are encouraged.
It is reported that as of 2017, Garage Coffee has served hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, connected with thousands of investors, and more than 1,500 start-ups have emerged from Garage Coffee, including Qianfang Technology, Shadow Puppet, Moman Camera, Enterprise Bay, Moji Weather and other well-known start-ups have a total financing of over 10 billion.
The founder leaves on the tuyere
"Obviously a first-class spiritual banner has been turned into a second-class business. Sorry, you guys can play, I won't play anymore." At 3:00 a.m. on March 21, Su Di posted such a sentence in a circle of friends.
Su Di announced his departure from Garage Coffee, which has been established for 7 years, in the form of a statement in the circle of friends. At this time, it was the time when Garage Coffee was the most famous since its establishment. It has become a pilgrimage site for the blockchain industry.
Su Di's departure has long been foreshadowed, and now may be the best time.
In fact, as early as three years ago, on December 15, 2014, the legal person of Beijing Chuangye Road Coffee Co., Ltd. was changed from Su Di to Chen Ge. Su Di also explained this point in the recent circle of friends: "I left the garage three years ago because I couldn't convince all shareholders to stick to pure public welfare."
Su Di, who was born in 1979, has the enthusiasm and boldness of an old Beijinger, and also has idealism and feelings that are different from other businessmen.
An entrepreneur who worked at Garage Coffee a few years ago said that the ethos of Garage Coffee is actually in line with Su Di’s character and pursuit: he hardly regards profit as the primary goal of Garage Coffee; Role, introduce everyone to know, help entrepreneurs.
In Su Di's eyes, Garage Coffee is a spiritual banner for entrepreneurship. He cares more about social value than commercial value. In reality, however, the development of Garage Coffee runs counter to Su Di's original intention and drifts further away.
In 2015, Garage Coffee established Beijing Garage Coffee Incubator Operation Management Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the promotion and operation of Garage Coffee’s national and global makerspaces and innovative incubators.
In addition, Beijing Garage Coffee Investment Management Co., Ltd., Beijing Garage Coffee Internet Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Garage Coffee Data Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Garage Coffee Education Consulting Co., Ltd., and Beijing Garage Coffee Industry Management Co., Ltd. were successively established under the Garage Coffee brand. dozens of companies.
Branches have been established in Xiamen, Haikou, Fuzhou, Dongguan, Chongqing, Xi'an, Shantou, Silicon Valley in the United States, Sydney in Australia and Cape Town in South Africa. The registration time of the above companies is concentrated from 2015 to 2017, that is, after Su Di gave up his legal person status.
"We won't open a branch or set up a fund. Maybe it's just a simple development. The reason why we don't open a branch is because only this one can give it a soul and make it the ultimate in its inner strength. It does not violate the establishment of At the beginning, the idea of gathering startups. The reason why I didn’t do a fund was because I hope that the garage is a pure platform, and everyone here doesn’t have to worry about competition.” Su Di once expressed his views on garage coffee in an interview. .
However, things backfired, and idealism and feelings have never been able to defeat the commercialization requirements of shareholders.
A person familiar with the matter revealed that the garage has opened branches all over the country, earning government subsidies, and also taking shares in the entrepreneurial team. This obviously deviates from the original intention of Garage Coffee, and makes Su Di unbearable.
At the same time that Su Di announced that he was "no longer playing", he also announced that he would donate all his shares worth more than 100 million yuan in Garage Coffee, "My next step is to make a similar but not exactly a museum that records the history of entrepreneurs for the society. A new model of pure pursuit of spiritual extremes. Completely ngoized.”
In April 2011, when Garage Cafe opened, Zhongguancun Chuangye Street was also called Haidian Book City. Under the impact of e-commerce, it was in disrepair. Under the call and promotion of Garage Coffee, the once bleak and deserted book street has gradually gathered more and more entrepreneurs.
In June 2014, Zhongguancun Chuangye Street was officially opened for business, and more than 30 incubators and entrepreneurial service organizations gathered on the street less than 300 meters away. Created as one of the "twin engines" that drive China's economy forward, Zhongguancun Chuangye Street has also ignited a raging fire of entrepreneurship.