The Internet Startup Story of Tea Man Guo Shuiyong

Guo Shuiyong is one of the Top Ten Outstanding Youths of Wuyishan City, Fujian, a guest lecturer for "My Chinese Dream," and a recipient of the "Fujian Nanping May Fourth Youth Medal." As the general manager of Wuyishan Chuangyezhe Biotechnology Co., Ltd., an employment instructor at the Business School of Wuyi University, and a specially appointed startup mentor by the Youth League Committee of Wuyi University, in recent years he has used the Internet to build his business and has become an outstanding figure among tea merchant e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Hard Startup: Only Those Who Dare to Fight Can Win

Guo Shuiyong, only 25 years old, has a nickname with a somewhat martial-arts flair - "Brother Yong." As the first student in the history of Wuyi University to found a company while still enrolled, Guo Shuiyong's six years of hard work have made him a role model for student entrepreneurship.

At Shunxin Plaza at the intersection near Wuyi University, a large advertisement reading "Warehouse-style Wholesale Tea" for Wuyishan Chuangyezhe Biotechnology Co., Ltd. covers the outer wall of a three-story building. Guo Shuiyong is the owner of the first student-founded company at the university. Starting in his freshman year, through down-to-earth hard work and keen business instincts, he carved out a place for himself among Wuyishan's many tea enterprises.

Guo Shuiyong

"Six years ago this place was still an empty lot with hardly anyone around, mostly bare-shell buildings. People doing business were not optimistic about this area, but I had to rent the storefront because I needed to start a business." Speaking of this, 25-year-old Guo Shuiyong is firm and confident. "To be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do at the time. When I saw a storefront was available for rent, I rented it first and then thought about the business."

This drive unique to Guo Shuiyong is more like a kind of "gambling instinct."

"At the time, the rent for the two-story storefront was only 300 yuan per month. I gathered 10 students interested in starting businesses, divided the storefront's operations into ten parts, and rented out usage rights to them for only 100 yuan a month. Before the store even opened, I had already earned more than three times the profit." Thus, the "Wuyi University Town Information Center" was established, covering tea, advertising design, website construction, wellness and beauty, and other businesses. Not only did Guo Shuiyong not have to pay rent, he also made money. This move was later jokingly called "snaring the wolf with bare hands." What he gained was not just profit; in resolving the frictions and conflicts among the ten businesses, Guo Shuiyong also learned management and negotiation, gradually cultivating his leadership presence.

In fact, this was not Guo Shuiyong's first venture. In 2008, as soon as he enrolled, Guo Shuiyong secretly put 1,500 yuan RMB of living expenses into the stock market without telling his parents, earning his first pot of gold in life. He has never lacked the keen qualities of a new-generation entrepreneur, and his insight allowed him to capture more favorable business opportunities. Information brokerage, accommodation, logistics, tea, e-commerce... countless startup journeys, endless startup stories. He thus became the boldest and most avant-garde entrepreneurial star at Wuyi University.

Talking Tea in Business, Discussing Business Through Tea

Wuyishan is the capital of tea, where everyone talks about tea all the time. Tea can be said to be the startup resource closest to Guo Shuiyong and the easiest for him to use. At the end of 2010, after running multiple projects, he decided to take a different path.

Wuyishan is full of tea enterprises large and small. Guo Shuiyong often came as a tea buyer to taste tea and chat. It was almost impossible to learn the true knowledge of tea directly from tea people, so he could only do it in reverse. This is what is called "doing the opposite": at the same time, while posing as a buyer, he secretly learned about tea. After three months of covert learning, Guo Shuiyong could distinguish tea pricing and even the year of tea picking and processing.

In 2011, Guo Shuiyong formally founded Wuyishan Chuangyezhe Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and hired full-time and part-time employees. He also rented an entire building in Shunxin Plaza as office space, with the large advertisement words "Warehouse-style Tea Wholesale" in bright red.

Guo Shuiyong is good at integrating resources and encourages students interested in entrepreneurship to "start businesses at zero cost" within his company. Using friend networks, the university's students radiate across the country, and tea is sold along with them to every region nationwide. He guides students in learning sales techniques, letting another group of higher performers develop their hometowns as exclusive agency areas. Now, every student in his physical store has sold at least several hundred jin of tea.

Guo Shuiyong treats customers as friends and deals with them in good faith, so he has more and more customers. In 2012, physical wholesale reached 10,000 jin of tea, and by 2013 physical wholesale reached a sales volume of 60,000 jin, the vast majority purchased through e-commerce. Yet e-commerce, Guo Shuiyong's main focus, was not recognized by local tea enterprises six years ago. At that time, all wholesalers refused credit, but he encouraged customers to take goods first and settle payment after selling the tea. In his heart, he was willing to support friends who truly started businesses and kept their word. It is precisely his righteousness and love of making friends that have won him more and more support, with sales growing several times each year.

At a time when medium-sized tea enterprises in Wuyishan have an annual output of only around 3,000 jin, Guo Shuiyong, relying on his own marketing charm and honest operations, went from 0 to 60,000 jin in three years, dozens of times that of medium-sized tea enterprises. He successfully created his own Wuyishan speed and became a startup role model in Wuyishan's tea industry.

With the development of e-commerce, Guo Shuiyong began to think about how to expand his online territory. He began paying attention to Taobao's operating procedures, tea product packaging design, communicating with e-commerce customers about details, and recruiting e-commerce talent.

In March 2013, Guo Shuiyong began his e-commerce journey. He found that the online market was basically full of inferior, cheap products. Some people said this was the foundation and current reality of e-commerce and could not be changed, but Guo Shuiyong insisted on positioning his online store as high-end, subdividing customers, precisely targeting the market, and bringing the advantages of his years of physical retail experience to the extreme according to customer needs. Tea culture has a long history; since ancient times, tea drinking was mostly for literati and nobles, so Guo Shuiyong incorporated elements such as the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, the Yongle Encyclopedia, and imperial jade seals into his design concepts, using ceramics, sandalwood, tin-gold, and other materials to design high-end packaging. On the eve of the 2013 Mid-Autumn Festival, online revenue soared, and total online sales for 2013 reached as high as 3 million yuan.

In early 2014, Guo Shuiyong successfully acquired the Pingchuanfu tea brand. In December 2014, the Pingchuanfu Tmall store officially opened. Now he has become a tea tycoon with one physical store, one tea clubhouse, four Taobao stores, and one Tmall store, less than three years after graduating from university.

As an entrepreneur, Guo Shuiyong has walked this path feeling deeply the hardship and difficulty. Looking back on his entrepreneurial journey, whether facing friends or rivals, he always carries a grateful heart. As for his team, he often says: "Whoever fought the world with me is whoever shares the realm with me." Life has tempered this young man full of positive energy. While achieving success, he hopes to use his own strength to change and help others. He said: "In 2008, I came alone from Zhangzhou to Wuyishan to study, and developed together with Wuyi University and Wuyishan. The more than one hundred talents cultivated through my own company include some who found employment and some who started businesses." He firmly believes that however great one's breadth of mind is, one's achievements will be equally great.