Mar 8, 2026
Martin Berry is living the entrepreneur’s dream. He quit his 9-to-5 job and made the leap into starting a business. Now, he helps run a global company that has generated more than $500 million in systemwide sales in a year.
“If you’re waiting for the right time, it’s never going to come,” he told CNBC’s Make It in a story published Feb. 15 (1). “It never feels comfortable to make the step from getting a salary every month to then going and becoming an entrepreneur. And you need to take the leap of faith. And you need to just go for it.”
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A former banker, Berry first encountered the bubble tea franchise Gong Cha in a Singapore mall in 2011, according to Make It. The brand was founded in 1996 by Wu Zhenhua in Taiwan, and grew into a regional favorite.
Berry saw potential to expand the brand, and flew to Taiwan where he met the founder and talked his way into gaining master franchise rights. It was the first step of a journey that would lead to ownership of the company as it turned into a global powerhouse.
Taking the plunge
In April 2012, Berry and his wife opened the first Gong Cha location in South Korea, expanding the company’s reach to its fifth market. Within a few months, Make It reports, Berry and his wife opened four more bubble tea shops across Korea, spending about $2.5 million of their own life savings to do so.
“It was quite terrifying to be honest,” Berry said. But he had a plan.
“My strategy was, I’m going to put a Gong Cha, the first five stores, next to Starbucks, and if I can get 1 in 100 people that are going into Starbucks to come and try a Gong Cha, then I’ve got a business.”
Gong Cha became a hit, and before long, Berry says, lineups of hundreds of people were forming on weekends. By June 2012, Berry signed a deal to open dozens of locations in department stores across the country.
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That represented Berry’s big break, Make It reports, leading to the opening up of franchising and business exploding. Within three years of opening their first shop, Berry says, there were 300 locations.
Investors also came knocking. In 2014, a private equity firm acquired a controlling stake in Gong Cha Korea, run by Berry and his wife, according to Make It, and in 2017, in partnership with that equity firm, Berry acquired Royal Tea Taiwan, the owner of Gong Cha.
Berry presently serves as the chairman of Gong Cha Global, and following a period of rapid expansion, Gong Cha now has more than 2,100 shops in 28 markets (2). The company generated $578 million in systemwide sales in 2024, according to Make It.
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Protect yourself
A story like Martin Berry’s is inspiring, and would-be entrepreneurs can learn from his story the importance of both taking a leap and of having a keen eye for a great business opportunity.
In fairness, Berry’s lucrative background in financial services honed his experience and helped give him the start-up capital to make his dream a reality. Not all entrepreneurs have so much in their favor. But starting a small business still comes with its fair share of risks.
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 1994, about 20% of businesses fail within their first year of opening. Weighing the risks of starting a small business can hinge on whether the costs will put you in a precarious financial situation. And if you aren’t able to secure funding, or funding doesn’t end up covering your costs, you can find yourself in the red.
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Many small business owners may choose to maintain a primary job for these reasons. Taking a leap like Berry and saying goodbye to your 9-to-5 is a dream for many, but given today’s tough job market, and the financial pressures of economic uncertainty and inflation, that choice becomes difficult for aspiring entrepreneurs.
If you are unsure about whether your small business is solid enough for you to make a career pivot, seek out resources to help you analyze your financial situation. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) website has a tool that connects small business owners to local counselors.
If you are just starting out with your small business,the SBA has more tools including information on market research and writing a business plan, as well as information on applying for funding.
To protect your assets when starting a small business, it’s important to look into the different types of incorporation and liability protections available to you. You should also learn about keeping your business finances separate from your personal finances and how to stay compliant with local business and tax laws.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CNBC Make It (1); Gong Cha (2)
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Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
