Saturnbird
三顿半咖啡
Saturnbird (三顿半) is a Chinese specialty coffee brand founded in 2015 in Changsha by Wu Jun, who serves as founder and CEO . Its signature product is freeze-dried instant coffee in small cup packaging — unlike traditional instant coffee that only dissolves in hot water, its powder dissolves in cold water or milk while retaining more flavor — a category it effectively defined by migrating freeze-drying technology from medical applications into coffee, per FreeS Fund's account . Priced under 10 RMB per serving, it grew fast among young consumers: in the 2019 Double 11, four-year-old Saturnbird became the first domestic brand to top Tmall's coffee category, overtaking Nestlé, and by the 2020 618 festival it outsold both Nestlé and Starbucks in instant beverages . FreeS Fund (峰瑞资本) made the brand's first institutional investment in H2 2018 / January 2019 (Pre-A), followed by rounds led by Tiantu Capital and Sequoia China; by its March 2020 Series B, Saturnbird was valued at roughly 800 million RMB . The brand later expanded into freeze-dried tea, oat milk, and planned coffee-liquid products .
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Coverage
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What Exactly Is "The Big Fool"? "The big fool" — this phrase has been making the rounds in Chinese tech and investment circles lately. But what does it actually mean? In the context of China's startup and venture capital ecosystem, "the big fool" (大傻子, or sometimes used more playfully as 大冤种) typically refers to the last investor or buyer who gets stuck holding an overvalued asset when a bubble bursts. It's the greater fool theory in action — but with a distinctly Chinese flavor of self-deprecating humor. The term gained traction as valuations in sectors like consumer brands, SaaS, and even certain corners of AI became divorced from fundamentals. Founders joke about needing to find "the big fool" to close their next round. Investors privately warn each other not to become "the big fool" in deals where due diligence reveals more red flags than they can ignore. There's also a softer usage: the earnest operator who keeps grinding in a broken market, believing in fundamentals while others chase hype. In this sense, "the big fool" carries a whiff of tragic admiration — the person doing the hard, unglam
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May is May — and with it, infinite possibilities.
