Written by Chen Cheng

Three years ago, Meituan’s huge investment in Heytea was condensed into a joke:

Wang Xing said to his assistant: “Go Buy me Heytea.”

After a while, the assistant came back: “Boss, it’s 400 million.”

On April 25, 2018, Heytea acquired Meituan. Its subsidiary Longzhu Capital has raised a huge 400 million yuan in Series B financing.

No one thought that Meituan boss Wang Xing would invest 400 million in this post-90s guy?

11 years ago, 19-year-old Nie Yunchen came to Jiangmen, Guangdong from Jiangxi with his parents to start a business. He opened a mobile phone store.

Competition in offline mobile phone stores was fierce. At that time, there were many counterfeit mobile phones. He often helped others flash their phones for free. Others were too embarrassed to let him service for free, so they would buy some products such as power banks and data cables to show their gratitude. .

The mobile phone store was losing money every month and it was really unsustainable, so he had to close the mobile phone store. When he didn't know what to do, he bought a cup of milk tea one day and drank it very uncomfortable. Suddenly he had an idea, why don't I try to open a milk tea shop?

Unexpectedly, his life would be cheating and singing all the way...

In September 2017, he was selected into the "2017 Hurun 30X30 Entrepreneurial Leaders" list.

On August 2, 2018, he was selected into Forbes China’s 2018 30 Under 30 list.

In December 2019, he was selected into the "2019 Forbes China's 30 Most Influential Social New Retail People" list.

On November 2, 2020, Nie Yunchen ranked 42nd in the "2020 Hurun Post-80s Self-Made Rich List" with a wealth of 4.5 billion yuan.

As a college student who is less than 30 years old, I came to Guangdong from Jiangxi to work. According to normal development logic, it would be great to be able to work in Guangdong and buy a house and start a family with your own efforts. However, he went from a small shop owner who opened a mobile phone store to becoming the head of a 16 billion company in 10 years. What exactly did he go through in his entrepreneurial journey? What are the ups and downs in his entrepreneurial story? What experience does he have in starting a business that can provide reference and inspiration for entrepreneurs?

Nie Yunchen was born in an intellectual family in Jiangxi in 1991. His parents are both supervision engineers. Later, he followed his parents from Jiangxi to Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province.

In 2010, after he graduated from the Administrative Management Department of the Humanities College of Guangdong Vocational College of Science and Technology, he did not choose to find a job. At that time, he only had a college degree and directly chose to start a business.

Opening some recruitment websites, when many companies recruit employees, they write down a bachelor’s degree as their first degree. Thinking about it now, fortunately Nie Yunchen only had a college degree at the time. If his first degree was a bachelor’s degree, he might have applied for it. A job, if you go to work steadily, there will be no story behind it.

Nie Yunchen opened a mobile phone store in Jiangmen City. Because the mobile phone store is located in a relatively remote location, few people come to buy mobile phones, but there are quite a few people who come to flash their phones. At that time, there were many copycat mobile phones, and many customers came over to flash their phones.

Business was not good to begin with, and he was too embarrassed to charge customers for flashing the phone. Nie Yunchen felt very anxious. But then he thought about it. Helping customers flash their phones for free could increase the flow of people in the store and bring some business.

He made a prompt decision and helped customers flash their phones for free. Customers are embarrassed and always buy some mobile phone accessories from his mobile phone store, such as mobile phone power banks, data cables, etc.

In 2011, after the rapid rise of online shopping platforms such as Taobao, people became more and more accustomed to online shopping, which is convenient, fast and cheap. Nie Yunchen's mobile phone store became more and more difficult to operate, so he decided to close the mobile phone store.

It is easy to close a store. What will you do after closing? This incident made Nie Yunchen, who was still a young boy at the time, very anxious and couldn't eat well or sleep well.

One day, he bought a cup of milk tea after dinner. I thought the milk tea would be delicious, but it was very uncomfortable after entering the mouth. It would be better to drink a glass of boiled water to refresh myself.

He did not immediately throw the unpleasant milk tea into the trash can. Instead, he opened the lid of the milk tea cup and stirred the contents of the cup with a straw to see why it tasted so unpleasant.

He discovered that the so-called milk tea was not real tea at all, and there were no fruits. The so-called fruits were actually the taste of fruit powder, and the milk cap was also made from milk cap powder. This kind of milk tea that tastes extremely bad and is not healthy. If you drink it in your stomach, it not only tastes bad, but is also bad for your health, but the business in the store is very good.

He thought to himself: "The threshold for a milk tea shop is not high, why don't I open a milk tea shop? I can make delicious milk tea for customers, and maybe I can make money!"

Opportunities are often prepared for those who are prepared. After Nie Yunchen closed the mobile phone store, he opened a milk tea shop.

Buying a milk tea shop seemed easy. Only after he opened a milk tea shop did he realize how deep the water inside was.