How to reinvent franchising with tech and transparency

Hangzhou, day 2. 

It’s been raining all day. We’ve had a meeting with our real estate agents and the managers of a big shopping mall, and we’ve done a presentation of our company and our future pizzeria. In China’s business culture, they value modesty. Two laobans (“bosses”) of a huge shopping mall were unpretentious and wore casual suits and no ties. They asked very precise questions about our business model and Dodo IS. I think we all liked what we saw, and maybe now we’ll rent a space belonging to a former bakery. Bakeries are a big hit in China right now. Also, we drank tea from beer glasses.

In the evening, we were at WeWork. The atmosphere was dandy, and the creative community of startuppers here is the potential clientele of our Hangzhou pizzeria. WeWork is planning a big party for residents and guests on Friday, so today they’ve been mounting professional equipment, projectors, laser lighting, and a DJ stage. WeWork doesn’t skimp on money :-) Stand by for a full report.

Also, yesterday evening, I’d been looking for an ATM in the rain. This proved to be an ordeal, as China is almost completely cash-free now. The ATM where I withdrew cash in August has been dismantled already. Two ATMs were out of operation, and two more didn’t accept Visa or Mastercard. I had to walk two kilometers to another neighborhood, and only there I finally got lucky :-)

Soon we’ll know if we are getting premises at the shopping mall. Stay tuned.