"Six years ago, Yoon was a Stanford research scientist shuttling between California and Beijing, studying the faint radiation left over from the Big Bang. While in Beijing, he matched with Shu Yu on Tinder. They bonded over a shared love of tea. When the pandemic grounded flights in 2020, Yoon caught a plane out of California. After a decade at Stanford, he decided it was time to start over."
"Yoon said the couple avoided outside investors, instead raising about 1.5 million yuan, or around $200,000, from friends in the first four months of 2024, offering ownership stakes in return. Nearly half of that money went toward renovations and equipment, he said. In October, they secured an interest-free loan of 300,000 yuan and took out another 150,000 yuan earlier this year."
"Born in Seoul and raised in Los Angeles, Yoon studied astrophysics at UC Berkeley and earned a Ph.D. at Caltech before joining Stanford in 2010. His move to Beijing wasn't just about leaving academia. "The main reason for the physical move was to be with my partner," he said, adding that the career shift "had probably been brewing for a few years.""
Ki Won Yoon trained as an astrophysicist, earning a Ph.D. and working at Stanford while shuttling between California and Beijing to study cosmic microwave background radiation. He met Shu Yu in Beijing and they bonded over tea, later launching an online store for boutique teas and teaware. The couple expanded the business toward fermenting and serving kombucha and converted a Vietnamese restaurant space with a coveted food license into a café. They avoided outside investors, raising about 1.5 million yuan from friends, supplemented by interest-free and other loans, and invested heavily in renovations and equipment.
Read at Business Insider
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