What happened to Dai Wei's street coffee venture in the US?

About Time Coffee, the US chain founded by ofo creator Dai Wei, now operates a single store on Madison Avenue in New York after four of its five locations were marked permanently closed. The brand opened its first shops in February 2022 and stalled in under two years, while more than 16 million ofo users in China still wait on deposit refunds tied to roughly 1.5 billion yuan.

The company tried to repeat Luckin's discount-driven playbook abroad but struggled to adapt to local conditions, and its Instagram account went quiet after a September post. For anyone watching street coffee startups, the case raises a plain question: is coffee entrepreneurship a durable trend or a trap when the model depends on outside capital?

ofo founder Dai Wei's second startup project, About Time Coffee, has been reported to be on the verge of shutting down, with only one store left in New York struggling to stay afloat. This coffee chain brand, which once entered the US market with high cost-effectiveness and innovative products, went from expanding to five stores to now having four permanently closed, in less than two years. Dai Wei tried to replicate Luckin's "cash-burning" playbook overseas but encountered difficulties adapting to local conditions. Meanwhile, more than 16 million users in China are still queuing up waiting for their ofo deposits to be refunded, involving an amount as high as 1.5 billion yuan. This cross-industry entrepreneur's failure once again draws public attention back to that unresolved debt and makes people wonder: is coffee entrepreneurship a trend or a trap? Front Street Coffee takes you through an in-depth analysis of the rise and fall of this cross-border startup.

In the first half of this year, the topic of ofo founder Dai Wei starting a business again once trended on Weibo, sparking extensive discussion, and under the posts one could see netizens directing all kinds of remarks at Dai Wei.

Only half a month after news spread that Dai Wei was running a coffee shop in the US, Jiemian News reported that his second startup project was once again nearing the brink of closure, with store expansion completely stalled.

Half a year later, this founder who crossed over from shared bikes to the coffee industry has once again become a focal point of discussion. According to China Entrepreneur, Dai Wei's entrepreneurial attempt in the US has already failed, and his second startup project, About Time Coffee, currently has only one store still operating.

The report pointed out that About Time Coffee currently has only its Madison Avenue store in New York still in operation, while the other four are marked as "permanently closed." In addition, a search on Instagram found that the brand account's last post was published in September, while the most recent photo shared by a consumer was from last year.

As an emerging coffee chain brand, About Time Coffee quickly opened five stores after its debut in February 2022, yet in less than two years only one remained, declining from prosperity at a roller-coaster pace.

It is said that About Time Coffee focuses on a high cost-effectiveness strategy, with product pricing lower than Starbucks, ranging from $3 to $7; it mainly promotes innovative drinks such as pearl coffee and taro coffee, with flavors between coffee and milk tea; and its packaging uses a unique sealed easy-open can design. From these features, it is not hard to see that its target customer group is young American consumers.

In addition, in order to gain more attention, About Time Coffee adopted a "cash-burning" strategy in its early operations, using the slogan "The first five cups are on us" to attract users to download its app, and through the app complete orders and payments, collect user data, and then provide customized discounts and coupons.

This marketing approach is highly similar to Luckin's early way of operating in the Chinese market. It can be said that Dai Wei tried to transplant Luckin's playbook directly to the US, hoping to replicate Luckin's glory in a foreign country.

However, as the old saying goes, "Oranges grown south of the Huai River are oranges, while those grown north of it are trifoliate oranges." The same is true of marketing models. Although Luckin's "template" was effective in the Chinese market, copying it directly to the US market led to incompatibility and made it difficult to integrate with the local business environment.

Dai Wei's plan to use the About Time Coffee chain brand to make a comeback now appears to have completely fallen through, and his second startup has ended in failure.

When media reported at the end of May this year that About Time Coffee had encountered a bottleneck in its cash flow, netizens following the matter were already pessimistic about Dai Wei's second startup, mocking the founder for "never being able to get things done."

Now About Time Coffee, with only one store left, also confirms the netizens' earlier predictions, with comments saying that Dai Wei's "success was merely accidental, and he has no management experience either, so it would be strange if he did not fail," "starting a coffee shop in the US is no different from opening a hot pot restaurant in Sichuan and Chongqing," and "failure was inevitable"...

What more netizens care about is whether their ofo little yellow bike deposits can be refunded, which is also the issue most frequently mentioned whenever Dai Wei appears in media reports.

According to reports, more than 16 million people nationwide are still queuing up waiting for ofo to refund their deposits, with the amount awaiting refund reaching as high as 1.5 billion yuan.

Dai Wei's second startup has failed, and ofo remains heavily in debt. While netizens shout "pay back the money," some also offer Dai Wei advice on how to make money, "Next time start a business selling curry to India," "selling pancakes and fried dough sticks might be more reliable," "better to just find a job," "livestreaming is so popular now, why doesn't he do livestream selling? He should have enough traffic from notoriety by now."

For the large number of users who have not been able to get back their little yellow bike deposits, Dai Wei has long lost their trust. Whether he gives up his entrepreneurial dream or is waiting for the next opportunity to make a comeback is not the focus of users' attention. Users would rather this founder pay off his debts as soon as possible and properly deal with the mess left behind by ofo.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.