Boba Guys founder on what it's like to fire 400 people, shutter 17 locations in a single day

[Demovictory9]

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Boba-Guys-founder-on-what-it-s-like-to-fire-400-15147048.php

Nine years.

That’s how long it took Andrew Chau and Bin Chen to take Boba Guys from a pop-up in a Mission ramen shop to a veritable bubble tea empire, with 17 locations in seven different cities, including nine in the Bay Area.

Fifteen days.

That’s how long it took for everything to completely fall apart.

This week, Chau and Chen laid off 400 employees, temporarily shuttered all 17 locations and stopped taking a salary just 15 days after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the United States.

The pair spent recent days projecting how many weeks the business can survive from this point, while still cutting rent checks for vacant buildings, unused utilities and insurance.

“I planned up to a 12-week window,” Chau says. “If we don’t see light at the end of the tunnel in May, we need a loan or something because we’re then screwed. Nobody is going to make it through this if we go all the way through Memorial Day.”

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“I’ve never cried so much,” Chau says. “Letting go of my team...”

He trails off, and makes a concerted effort to finish the interview without going back to that place.

“Most small business owners are American dream owners,” he says, including Chau, a first-generation U.S. citizen. “So many of those are broken and dying right now. It’s beyond my company, it’s a whole sector — burrito places, mom and pop shops, they don’t have the same runway or visibility. What’s causing panic and anxiety is uncertainty.”