(This story is part of a series of profiles on innovative e-commerceentrepreneurs who were candidates for Alibaba Group’s 2011 Global Top 10 Netrepreneurs awards contest.)
The Li family has always run some business or another. When the boys were young, their father, Li Zenggang, was a restaurateur and club owner. He wasn’t home much, working until 4 a.m. every day, running a club in Yancheng, a second-tier city in Jiangsu province. The place had everything local bosses needed to unwind–karaoke, cards, a bath and even a pool. But his two sons didn’t grow up minding the cash register or washing dishes like children raised in some family restaurants. Instead, when the boys were young, their parents encouraged them to focus on their studies.
That homework paid off when the eldest son brought the family out of the bricks-and-mortar world and into the Internet age. These days they all work together, running an online barbecue shop led by the No. 1 son, 30-year-old Li Ye. While his father was a traditional businessman, opening an online business was a natural step for Li, who first used the Web in 1998. “Online business people in China are all around my age,” Li says. “My generation grew up with the Internet.”
The business is headquartered in a squat, faded red cement building near Gongqing Forest Park in North Shanghai. From the street, it almost looks like a restaurant. There’s a 10-foot-long photo menu just outside the door, advertising what you can order from the site: skewers of mutton, beef and chicken, and more local fare like grilled niangao (a sticky rice cake) or if you prefer, a selection of seasoned squid, tendons and ligaments. Inside, the walls of the simple office are stacked high with foam coolers in preparation for an upcoming group discount promotion. The place radiates with the warm scent of cumin, chili powder, fennel and pepper.
Li’s dad is the business’ barbecue master. His club went bankrupt in 2001, forcing his son to drop out of school and go to work, first at a computer mall and later dabbling in online ventures like selling World of Warcraft points on eBay. Meanwhile the father opened a small barbecue restaurant in Yancheng. Like any restaurant, the hours were grueling, but it helped Li’s dad get back on his feet and helped his son return to college with a new sense of purpose. “If I wanted to move up management, I knew a degree was essential.” Li says. “And I wanted to learn something related to the Internet.”
He studied multimedia and design at a university in Shanghai, but when he tells the story of his education, it sounds more like he got an MBA. After school, he worked on an array of business projects with his classmates. They sold on eBay and on Taobao. They started a stand-alone shopping site. “I only slept four hours a day then,” Li says.
The barbecue restaurant back home in Yancheng was going strong, but the family wanted to be together. So Li’s parents and little brother moved to Shanghai. It was time to start a new business. Based on the success of his after school business ventures, Li’s confidence in e-commerce was high. “It’s cheap to start an Internet business, and it’s easy to set it up without outside investors,” Li says. His parents and five former classmates agreed with him, and together they started YesBBQ in 2008.
Grilling at home is nowhere near as popular in China as it is in the West. So the company targets a market segment somewhere between catering and a grocery delivery service. Most of their customers are companies or large groups that meet in parks to grill. They rent or buy the grill, and order the food and spices. Most customers like to cook for themselves, but if they want someone to tend the BBQ, they can hire Li’s dad for a few hours. This combination of large group orders and added services pushes the company’s average order size over $400.
That first year Li says they grossed more than $73,000. This year, he says they expect to gross more than $235,000. “We take almost no salary,” Li says. “We reinvest most of the profits.”
In the startup phase, Li says the biggest management challenges wererelated to inventoryand logistics. Now the company maintains several coolers around the city for storing fresh food and has an army of 30-60 college interns (depending on the season) who are ready to complete any delivery by subway within two hours.
Li hopes the business will soon be profitable enough for his parents to retire. But for now his dad’s pretty happy with his new dotcom job. “I can work four to five hours and make more than $230,” Li Zenggang says.
Asked what he learned when he went from the restaurant business to e-commerce, the elder Li’s answer didn’t have anything to do with technology. “Our family is a good team,” he says. “We’re united.” There’s nothing like a barbecue to bring people together.
