Once upon a time, Zhang Junjie was just an obscure ordinary person, but now the enterprise he holds has achieved an annual revenue of 20 billion. His meteoric rise is astonishing.

At the Tyrant Tea Princess press conference held on May 21st, Zhang Junjie once again entered the public eye after a long absence. The latest business data he disclosed was heart-stirring: in 2023, Tyrant Tea Princess achieved a total sales GMV of 10.8 billion yuan, and in the first quarter of 2024, their sales GMV climbed to 5.8 billion yuan. Internally, they expect the revenue for the whole year of 2024 to exceed 20 billion yuan, achieving a significant doubling of growth. Yet, what surprised the audience even more was Zhang Junjie's declaration that he anticipates this year's sales to surpass the international coffee chain giant, Starbucks.

It's worth mentioning that at the end of 2022, the number of Tyrant Tea Princess stores had just surpassed 1000. In just one and a half years, this number has leapt to as many as 4500. However, beneath the applause and cheers at the press conference, Zhang Junjie was brought to tears. In front of thousands of live spectators and five million online consumers, he was unable to hold back his sobs.

In private occasions, he shared the reason behind his name, Zhang Junjie, which is derived from the meaning of "those who understand the times are outstanding." It can't help but remind people of the founder of Pop Mart, Wang Ning, who like Zhang, came from an ordinary background, struggled on the fringes, and made a successful turnaround against all odds.

As early as 2010, at the age of 17, Zhang Junjie joined a chain brand named "Da Wei Milk Tea" as an employee. Through hard work, he was promoted from a clerk to a store manager, regional supervisor, and eventually became the operation manager for the Yunnan region. Three years later, he took over a franchise that was up for transfer due to poor management. With limited financial resources, Zhang Junjie made an additional offer of ten thousand yuan, with a promise to pay one year later, thus taking over the shop.

The milk tea shop was lackluster mainly due to its poor location. To turn things around, Zhang Junjie opened up two new sales channels: the first was to innovatively introduce a call-in takeaway service; at a time when there were no delivery platforms, he took the initiative to distribute flyers and carve out a market. The second was to set up a sales point next to a small store beside a primary school one kilometer away. Despite repeated communication rejections, he eventually convinced the store owner with his actions and achievements, boosting the milk tea shop's daily turnover to eight or nine thousand yuan.

Leveraging his previous experience, Zhang Junjie once planned to create his own tea drink brand. Although it did not materialize due to various reasons, his passion and dream did not die. Later, during his employment at a robotics company in Shanghai, inspired by the expansion of HEYTEA and Lele Tea, he decided that not entering the tea drink market would be a missed opportunity. Thus, he collaborated with a friend from the tea drink industry whom he met at a Shanghai food exhibition. After careful selection, they chose the resonant and popular brand name "Tyrant Tea Princess" and embarked on the creation of a new chapter in their careers together.

A group of enthusiastic young people pooled together over a million in funds, and rented a 40 square meter attic in Kunming for a monthly rent of 2500 yuan (later, they purchased the attic as a precious memory). They visited more than 50 famous chain tea brands across the country, proposing to learn from each brand's strengths, and eventually created their first product—Tea King Princess.

The founding process of Tea King Princess is quite legendary. XVC founder Hu Boyu learned during his first communication with Tea King Princess founder Zhang Junjie that Zhang had not received formal basic education, was a wanderer from age 10 to 17, and couldn't read or write before the age of 18. It was during his apprenticeship at a milk tea shop, since he couldn't remember the names of the milk teas, that he began to teach himself Pinyin. Even when making a signboard for XVC, there were some characters he had to substitute with Pinyin.

People close to Zhang Junjie confided to Waves that many of the professional contents in the catering industry were unfamiliar to Zhang, but once explained, he could quickly understand and master them. He would also proactively ask about the meaning of idioms he didn't understand and try to use them in his next conversation, though sometimes he would get it wrong. Initially skeptical about how Zhang acquired information, Hu Boyu was surprised to find after a late-night talk that Zhang's understanding of business models and insight into management even surpassed that of most CEOs he knew. Zhang could instantly provide well-considered answers, encompassing short-term and medium-long-term competitive strategies and high-level personnel arrangements for the company's future development.

Illustratively, the rise of Tea King Princess demonstrates that the duration of one's formal education doesn't directly determine their ability to make wise decisions or build an efficient organizational structure. Consumer investors, who have been in touch with several fresh tea drink brand founders, believe that Zhang Junjie is one of the most ambitious among them, focused on growing and expanding the business. A CEO of a tea drink brand commented that while most people tend to be conservative, Zhang displayed boldness by continuing to expand during the pandemic after Tea King Princess became the number one brand in Yunnan, even when the foundation was not yet solid. No matter the circumstance, he always had the courage to start again.

The career trajectory of Zhang Junjie can be described as legendary. Starting from working in a milk tea shop in 2010, by 2017 he had founded Tea King Princess, transforming from an illiterate apprentice to the owner of his own tea drink brand in just seven short years. Another seven years later, Tea King Princess grew from a small shop on Kunming May 1st Road to a chain with 4500 stores spread across China and overseas. His story, without exaggeration, has become the Chinese version of "The Pursuit of Happyness."

Looking back to 2017, Zhang Junjie met with investors holding a "not-so-well-written" business plan which contained three core visions: "To become a brand known to all young people in China," "To be the best choice for physical investors and entrepreneurs in China," and "To become Tea King Princess present in 100 countries around the world." Based on these three visions, he asked a design company if they could realize his great idea for a lower fee, even willing to exchange 5% of equity for 150,000 yuan in design fees.

Sarcastic remarks had no effect on him - if you cannot even afford 150,000, how can you talk about expanding to 100 countries?

More than one investor familiar with the situation of Overlord Tea Princess revealed to the undertow Waves that Overlord Tea Princess may seek an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the United States this year. Meanwhile, a company employee also mentioned Zhang Junjie's plan for an IPO at the annual meeting.

This entrepreneur from Yunnan has overcome more difficulties than most, with only seven years of entrepreneurial experience that has already been quite spectacular. Now, this young man born in 1993 has just celebrated his 31st birthday and in his career, it seems as though everything has just begun.