Micro laundry abortion, founder self-report failure reflection

The micro-Laundry project has stopped and is currently being cleared. I was shocked when the founder Xiaofeng confirmed the message with me. Just a few weeks ago, I also called Xiao Feng to talk about financing. Later, I visited Rongchang e bag washing and wrote an article "What does o2o bring to the traditional laundry industry" in combination with micro-Laundry. This article was subsequently changed to the headlines by major media. However, in just two weeks, things have changed a lot, and the micro-Laundry project is not guaranteed! I have helped Xiaofeng keep many investors in the project, but the final failure is fixed and cannot be recovered.

Xiaofeng and I met for the second time in songjiazhuang last week. He dragged his suitcase to see me. I'm surprised. Are you leaving Beijing? Xiaofeng smiled and said, "No, my wife's two foreign students did not live during the summer vacation, so I moved out ." He and his wife are very helpful young people who feel steadfast and sedated.

We sat down and exchanged ideas about o2o. Next, let's look at today's topic:Why is the micro-Laundry Project stopped?

"I think there is a lot of laundry space"

Xiaofeng told me that he had four years of experience in management consulting for foreign companies. Due to work reasons, he had to perform suits almost every day, which made him very difficult-to wash clothes in the laundry. After being exposed to the mobile Internet, Xiaofeng's first thought was: Can I use the advantages of the mobile Internet to make laundry easier and more convenient? For this reason, he conducted a special survey in the last three months and found three findings:

1. consumers' habits have changed.Most customers in the laundry industry are high-income and young people, however, the consumption habits of these groups in the current age have rapidly and profoundly changed to the Internet (more and more people are used to solving the needs of clothing, food, housing, and travel through the Internet );

2. The traditional laundry industry has not changed for decades.This industry has always existed in individual business forms: service standards are not uniform, service processes are not transparent, and more importantly, the owners of laundry seem unable to realize the changes in customer behavior in the Internet age, the traditional business model is stubborn and will not change;

3. Laundry is a high-margin industry.If the Internet is used to collect demand and the factory is concentrated for cleaning, the gross profit rate in this industry can be as high as 70% or more!

Based on the above findings, Xiaofeng strengthened his entrepreneurial idea and tried to use the Internet to change the traditional laundry industry. In October 15, 2013, micro-laundry was officially launched on the terminal. Xiaofeng said that one month after the project was launched, some investors found it. At that time, the micro-Laundry project was valued at 20 million.

"I made three important mistakes"

In Xiaofeng's view, micro-Laundry is a very valuable project recognized by the market. However, when the project was valued at 50 million, a serious shareholder internal debt broke out, so that it almost collapsed overnight. Speaking of the cause of failure, Xiaofeng insisted that 99% of the responsibility lies with him. "I have made three important mistakes ":

1. There is a lack of clear cooperation mechanisms in the early stages of entrepreneurship, which leads to emotional decision-making and insufficient objective and rational analysis."At the start-up stage, I did not have an open and transparent cooperation mechanism for partners. When there were internal conflicts, I did not follow any objective criteria and made some wrong decisions very emotionally, which directly led to the departure of the initial partner of the team and weakened the team's strength, it laid a time bomb for the future development of the project." (Xiaofeng's advice: when a company is a startup, a healthy growth gene is very important. especially among partners, the open and transparent rules of discussion are the basis for mutual trust and cooperation. In this regard, I first planted unhealthy genes for the company)

2. The benefits are too modest and lack principles."When there is an internal interest dispute in the team, in order to maintain team harmony and reduce friction, I am usually the first to compromise and give up my own interests (equity) generously ), there is no problem with such a concession, but there is no principle to it. This directly leads to a lack of limits on how to solve the problem in case of internal conflicts, as a result, conflicts are intensified and totally out of control." (Xiaofeng's advice: the interest distribution rules of startups are very important. In this regard, there are a lot of advice from VC on the Internet for reference. I will not repeat it here)

3. Strong reconciliation and stubborn adherence to the right and wrong of things during communication, ignoring people's emotional feelings."I am a very stubborn person. It is true to be stubborn, but unfortunately, my performance is unacceptable to most people, in this way, you cannot get more support for yourself at the moment. "(Xiaofeng's advice: entrepreneurship is a process that turns impossible into a possible thing. To achieve the goal in the case of extreme resource shortage, you need to stick to it, but you also need to be soft enough)

"I want to start a new business in the future"

After such a failure, Xiaofeng had more courage than before. He repeatedly stressed that we must tell everyone about the failure of the micro-Laundry project and give them an explanation. Xiaofeng said that although he lost a lot, he also gained a lot. The biggest benefit is his practical understanding and experience in the service-oriented e-commerce project. He believes that the core of o2o lies in the ultimate user experience: 1. There are two o2o project customers: terminal users and merchants who provide specific service content. They all have Internet-based demands, therefore, o2o projects should be in the form they can accept at the present stage and provide convenient, timely and transparent services to both parties; 2. In o2o projects, if the customer cannot directly solve the problems and needs when opening the app, the APP has no value. 3. For o2o projects, you need to thoroughly understand the entire business ecosystem of the covered area and connect the entire supply chain.

Xiaofeng also told me that he will be involved in the Community o2o startup project. Currently, the project for the second venture has been registered with the company, and the Team is also under construction. The direction is to serve e-commerce in community life, and the Business Plan has been basically complete.

"I hope people will learn from me later"

At the end of the interview, Xiaofeng asked me with great concern: What are you going to do with this article? I said: I will not write your story in detail. I just hope that through your experience, I will give some inspiration to later entrepreneurs, so that they will not take a detour. Xiaofeng gave me a thumbs up.

Thank you, Xiaofeng. We wish you an early success of your new project. It is not easy to start a business, and practitioners need to encourage each other.