Nie Yunchen, founder of HEYTEA

Author | Qiu Chuji

Source | Qiu Chuji

(WeChat public account ID: qiuchuji1993)

Heytea, which is sought after by thousands of girls, has received financing again!

Recently, HeyTea has just completed a new round of financing of US$500 million. Investors include Black Ant Capital, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Temasek, L Catterton and Richu Capital. After this round of financing, HeyTea’s valuation reached an unprecedented 60 billion yuan, setting a new financing valuation record for new tea drinks in China.

It is worth mentioning that although HeyTea has not yet been listed, its valuation is more than twice that of its largest domestic competitor Nayuki Tea, which at the end of June Just listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As the founder of Heytea, Nie Yunchen has just entered his thirties this year. According to this round of valuation calculations, his net worth has exceeded 15 billion yuan, and Nie Yunchen has become the first person born in the 1990s in China.

From a small shop on the street in Jiangmen, a small town in Guangdong, to now more than 800 stores in more than 60 cities at home and abroad, Nie Yunchen has made a miracle out of a seemingly ordinary business. .

And what is the secret behind this miracle? Nie Yunchen’s words may give us a glimpse:

“I only care about the biggest things and the smallest things. The biggest thing is the brand strategy, and the smallest things are the details. to some banners, decorations and text details”

1

Sell mobile phones and get. The first pot of gold in life

In 1991, Nie Yunchen was born in an ordinary family in Rongtang Town, Fengcheng, Jiangxi. Before graduating from junior high school, he followed his parents to Jiangmen, Guangdong.

The move from a backward small town in Jiangxi to a developed small town in Guangdong gave Nie Yunchen a big impact. At that time, he was still young and determined to carve out his own world in this economic hotspot.

Due to the poor foundation of studying in Jiangxi earlier, despite his efforts to make up for it, Nie Yunchen was only admitted to one college in Guangzhou during the final college entrance examination: Guangdong Vocational College of Science and Technology. And studied administration and management in the School of Humanities of the school.

Nie Yunchen was once speechless when he studied administration in a technical vocational school. But he quickly adjusted and actively dealt with his college life in the next year.

Nie Yunchen’s parents are both supervisory engineers, who are responsible for the supervision of project construction. They are rigorous and practical in dealing with people and do not tolerate any irregularities. A slight mistake.

However, Nie Yunchen is not a person who can "step by step".

2010 is a critical year for the development of domestic smartphones. The epoch-making iPhone 4 is on the market, HTC dominates the market, and Nokia is barely shining its last light.

At that time, 19-year-old Nie Yunchen had just graduated from school. Influenced by his idol Steve Jobs, he decided to sell mobile phones.

Nie Yunchen’s mobile phone store opened in Guangzhou. His initial wishful thinking was very clear: Not only could he sell mobile phones by opening a mobile phone store, but he could also make double money by jailbreaking and flashing his phones. The cost was low and there was less inventory pressure. The future was bright for him.

But not long after he opened his business, he encountered Waterloo.

Because the location is too remote, there are only a few passers-by, not to mention the customers who enter the store to make purchases.

Forced into a corner, he decided to give it a try: help customers flash their phones and jailbreak software for free!

“The customer doesn’t come, it’s not his fault, it’s our fault, we didn’t let him know about us.