تدريب Shadowing: He Quit Banking to Sell Bubble Tea — Now It Makes Over $500 Million A Year - تعلم التحدث بالإنجليزية مع YouTube

I decided to quit the corporate life

⏸ متوقف مؤقتاً

السرعة:

211 جمل

إذا كانت الجمل قصيرة أو طويلة جدًا، انقر على Edit لتعديلها.

I decided to quit the corporate life

and a lucrative career in banking to go all in on trying to build Gong Cha.

A funny story was that the CEO asked me to see him and say,

which bank are you going to?

I went, actually, I'm not going to a bank.

So what are you doing?

I'm off to do bubble tea.

And he thought I was absolutely insane.

Yeah, that's where it all started.

This is Martin Berry, founder and chairman of Gong Cha Global.

He's the brain behind the company's global expansion,

growing it from a regional favorite into one of the biggest brewers in the business.

What started as a small tea shop in Taiwan in 1996 has now become a bubble tea empire,

with over 2,000 locations across 30 countries.

When you're struggling to want to start a business,

you think you have to invent the next light bulb.

If you're waiting for the right time,

it's never going to come.

It never feels comfortable to make the step from getting a salary every month to then going and becoming an entrepreneur.

And you need to take the leap of faith and you need to just go for it.

There are three numbers to watch out for in Gong Cha's story.

1996, the year that Wu Zhenhua,

Gong Cha's original founder, opened his first tea shop.

2.5 million, the amount spent by Martin to open his first five stores in Korea,

expanding the business into its fifth market.

And 578 million, the company's system-wide sales in 2024.

This is Founder Effect.

Martin grew up in the countryside near Melbourne.

Since childhood, he's had the entrepreneurial bug.

We didn't necessarily have a lot of money.

So probably one of the funny stories was it was coming Christmas time

and we had these trees just that were around the property that we lived.

And so I quickly mocked up a little ad

and went to the local grocery store and stuck a sign up saying Christmas trees for sale.

And some guy turned up

and I think was a bit shocked at a 10-year-old boy meeting him at this location with a saw in his hand.

So I think I got $10 for selling him a Christmas tree that was publicly owned on the side of the road.

Martin only became more enterprising with age.

When it came time for university,

he didn't have the typical student experience.

At just 19, he stepped into his first full-time corporate role.

And by graduation, he had developed quite the head start.

a university presentation which was meant to be for graduates.

And I snuck into the auditorium

and I was listening to all these companies pitch as to why these graduates should join them.

And so at the end of the presentation I went up to the HR director and said hey listen,

you know, I would love to work with you.

She said, yep, put in your graduate application.

I said actually I'm not a graduate,

I'm a first year, but I'll work for free.

And they said, okay, when you graduate come back and we'll give you a job.

And I was like, no,

why don't you give me a job now and I'll sort out the university.

And I just managed to make it work by studying night school and weekends to complete the degree.

And so I think starting early,

you know, that really helped me a lot.

By 21, I had a degree and a couple of years experience that got me off to a nice start.

By his late 20s, Martin's banking career had skyrocketed.

He had managed multi-trillion dollar balance sheets and worked in offices around the world for companies like Citi,

Barclays and Standard Chartered.

And yet, despite his early success,

Martin's entrepreneurial itch came back.

Times got a bit difficult for me in financial services.

I realized after working hard for quite a long period of time that I didn't really like the corporate system.

I didn't like its lack of entrepreneurialism.

I started to then look around for opportunities to build a business.

Martin experimented with a few business ideas,

but it was in January 2011,

here at Singapore's Vivo City Shopping Centre,

that he discovered the next chapter of his life.

One day we were living in Singapore and I was going for a haircut.

I passed past this store and there's this huge queue of people and I was like,

this looks interesting.

What is this?

Gong cha.

I wonder what gong cha is.

So I decided to join the queue.

Tick number one was, okay this queue's moving quite quickly

so velocity and turnover tick two i get through the queue

and i was quite surprised to see that actually the store is quite small

so tick number two was from a capital expenditure perspective this

mustn't require a lot of money to actually build one

and i start seeing what they're making i thought okay water plus tea leaves

and some ice from a unit economic standpoint tick this must be quite popular

and quite profitable so then i eventually get to to the front of the queue.

I asked them for what their best-selling drinks are.

See, there's only two people working in the store.

And I was just completely blown away by the business model.

I just thought from a financial engineering standpoint, it was incredible.

From there, Martin dove into due diligence and visited several other Gong Cha stores to sample their drinks and observe foot traffic.

He brought the idea to his wife,

who ultimately became the co-founder of Gong Cha Korea.

I went back to my wife and said,

are you familiar with this brand?

She said, yeah, yeah, I drink it now and again.

I was like, do you think this would work in Korea?

She said, actually, you know what?

I think it could.

I went and obviously sampled all the other brands that existed,

100

which largely all came from Taiwan.

101

So I had a huge amount of conviction that Gong Cha was the best tasting and had the best ingredients.

102

In June 2011, Martin flew out to Taiwan where he met Gong Cha's original founder and landed the master franchise rights.

103

At the time, Gong Cha was just in four markets.

104

Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

105

Martin expanded the bubble tea business into its fifth, South Korea.

106

By April 2012, Martin and his wife opened their first Gong Cha store in Hongdae, Korea.

107

And within a few months,

108

they opened four other locations across Korea using a total of about 2.5 million in life savings

109

that the couple had amassed through their banking careers.

110

It was quite terrifying, to be honest.

111

We opened the first store,

112

and if you build it,

113

they will come, does not apply.

114

So my strategy was, I'm gonna put a Gong Cha,

115

the first five stores, next to Starbucks.

116

And if I can get one in 100 people that are going into Starbucks to come and try a Gong Cha,

117

then I've got a business.

118

Thankfully social media was just starting to sort of kick off then.

119

So people would post it on Facebook, post it on Instagram.

120

Come three months into it,

121

we were getting queues on a weekend that sometimes were like 250 people deep.

122

And it was like, it was just manic.

123

Then ironically, I was working behind the counter of one of the stores.

124

And I said to my wife,

125

I said, why is there two older guys in suits sitting in the front of our store?

126

That's not our demographic.

127

Eventually they came up and introduced themselves and they were representing one of the top three department stores in Korea.

128

And next thing you know,

129

they offered us like 30 locations.

130

In June 2012, Martin signed a deal with Hyundai which allowed him to open Gongcha locations within their department stores across Korea.

131

This deal was Martin's first big break in expanding the business.

132

It was literally just over 12 months from launching once we'd got to the 50 stores.

133

So we decided to open up franchising and that's when the business just absolutely boomed.

134

One point we almost became more like a property real estate company,

135

helping people find great locations and helping them develop the stores.

136

So literally from first store to three years later, we had 300 stores.

137

As the business scaled, investors came knocking.

138

In 2014, private equity firm UCK Partners acquired a controlling stake in Gong Cha Korea.

139

Then in 2017, in partnership with UCK Partners,

140

Martin led a reverse acquisition and acquired Royalty Taiwan,

141

the owner of Gong Cha.

142

So all of a sudden,

143

it's starting to take off in different markets,

144

which then just filled the fire for people from the U.S and all over the world saying,

145

we want to take Gong Cha to our market.

146

So then, yeah, we went through a very rapid period of expansion in terms of opening up all new territories,

147

starting to go to the U.S.,

148

starting to go to Mexico.

149

And that's

150

when we started to go from being sort of a regional

151

Asian brand to starting to truly break out with the potential to become a global brand.

152

Today, there are over 2,000 Gong Cha stores across 30 countries globally.

153

In 2024, the business brought in over $570 million in system-wide sales.

154

Helping drive that growth is Paul Reynisch,

155

global CEO of Gong Cha Global,

156

a franchise veteran with almost 30 years of experience at brands like Subway and Burger King.

157

Paul first met Martin in an unexpected way.

158

The irony behind how we actually met each other was

159

that I got back involved in sort of running the business again for a period of time.

160

And I was recruiting the CEO of Asia.

161

And you happened to be a referee for that person.

162

Yeah, I know Danny well, yeah.

163

So that's how we first met each other, wasn't it?

164

I was just fascinated by the business model.

165

You know, I've done this for 30 years in different brands,

166

but Gong Chao is great.

167

You know, the simplicity, the quality,

168

the authenticity, and then the opportunity to get scale globally.

169

I thought, well, hey, that is a franchise concept I know I can sell.

170

What started as a reference call became a partnership, built on shared ambition.

171

You know, wouldn't it be nice to take a brand from Asia and truly make it global?

172

And that was something that excited both of us.

173

While Martin helped spearhead the company's expansion,

174

he recognizes that it was a team effort which turned Gong Chao into the global brand it is today.

175

I'm just a player in this journey.

176

I didn't create it from scratch.

177

I see myself more of a custodian of the brand,

178

and I want to see this brand go on to much bigger things

179

and truly sort of win one for Asia for a change.

180

You know, this life, this brand changed my life, my family's life.

181

I have a duty to help it realize its full potential.

182

And we're sort of just custodians in the journey of that.

183

In 2019, private equity firm TA Associates acquired a majority stake in Gong Cha Global.

184

Marta remains involved as co-founder,

185

chairman and a shareholder today.

186

The journey from corporate to entrepreneurialism is I think 100% of people fantasize about it and very few people actually do it.

187

So I think there's never been a better time for people and it's never been easier.

188

Once you've got a well-baked plan,

189

it's never going to be perfect.

190

and it's time to just go for it and don't look back,

191

you know, and have that fear of failure in your head

192

because it'll drive you to finding ways and solutions to make it work.

193

But yeah, if you aspire to be an entrepreneur,

194

there's no time like now.

195

Today, Martin is building a new venture,

196

Be Me Wellness, a supplement brand,

197

and he runs Launcho Ventures, an AI venture studio.

198

He also has a strong passion for racing and does so professionally alongside his son.

199

I think fortunately for me,

200

you know, I've built my life into a position where I'm in control of a lot of things,

201

but I don't think that's healthy.

202

So I love having something that still scares me.

203

I love being able to challenge myself.

204

So chasing 20-year-olds around a circuit keeps you young,

205

keeps you focused, makes you work hard.

206

You know, my son, who's 16,

207

has been racing in F4,

208

and so it's a passion we share.

209

My dream is that he and I will race at Le Mans 24-hour together one day if I don't get too old,

210

because there's nothing better than getting in a car, no phone, no distractions.

211

I just got to focus and so I find it quite therapeutic as a result.

TRENDING

الأكثر شعبية

ما هي تقنية التظليل الصوتي؟

التظليل الصوتي (Shadowing) تقنية تعلم لغة مدعومة علمياً، طُورت أصلاً لتدريب المترجمين الفوريين المحترفين. الطريقة بسيطة لكنها قوية: تستمع لصوت إنجليزي أصلي وتكرره فوراً بصوت عالٍ — كظل يتبع المتحدث بتأخير 1-2 ثانية. تُظهر الأبحاث تحسناً كبيراً في دقة النطق والتنغيم والإيقاع وربط الأصوات والاستماع والطلاقة.

☕ اشترِ لنا قهوة

يظل ShadowingEnglish مجانيًا بنسبة 100% بفضل دعمكم. تكاليف الخوادم والذكاء الاصطناعي مرتفعة — قهوتكم تبقينا مستمرين! 🙏

التبرع عبر PayPal

ShadowingEnglish.com – تمرين التظليل الصوتي للإنجليزية

تحدث الإنجليزية بطلاقة باستخدام تقنية التظليل الصوتي. استمع لفيديوهات يوتيوب الأصلية، كرر جملة بجملة، وابنِ نطقاً حقيقياً وطلاقة — يستخدمها متعلمو IELTS حول العالم.

تدريب Shadowing: He Quit Banking to Sell Bubble Tea — Now It Makes Over $500 Million A Year - تعلم التحدث بالإنجليزية مع YouTube

الأكثر شعبية

نبذة عن هذه الدرس

المفردات والعبارات الرئيسية

نصائح للممارسة

ما هي تقنية التظليل الصوتي؟

تدريب Shadowing: He Quit Banking to Sell Bubble Tea — Now It Makes Over $500 Million A Year - تعلم التحدث بالإنجليزية مع YouTube

تنزيل التطبيق

نبذة عن هذه الدرس

المفردات والعبارات الرئيسية

نصائح للممارسة

ما هي تقنية التظليل الصوتي؟