保罗•格雷厄姆使很多创业公司深受触动。
这种触动不是感情上的触动（尽管有些创始人把自己的成功在很大程度上归功于他），而是与影响力有关。因为硅谷没有几个人敢说他们接触、建议和投资过的初创公司数量比格雷厄姆更多。确实，自2005年以来，他与妻子杰西卡•利文斯顿、特雷弗•布莱克维尔和罗伯特•塔潘•莫里斯共同创建的Y Combinator创业孵化器已经目睹了632家创业公司进进出出，其中包括Dropbox、Airbnb和在线支付平台Stripe。
上周，格雷厄姆宣布辞去Y Combinator总裁职务，把权杖交给了合伙人萨姆•阿尔特曼。格雷厄姆将以兼职身份继续为Y Combinator的创业公司提供建议，但停止了日常管理工作，比如审查申请和会见申请者。“我把所有时间都花在了那些破事上，”格雷厄姆在今年的旧金山科技创业盛会LAUNCH Festival上曾经这样半开玩笑地说过这样一句话。
格雷厄姆还根据管理Y Combinator的九年经验，在离别时提供了几条创业的大原则。
找个联合创始人……
拥有多位创始人的企业更有可能成功，因为每位联合创始人可能拥有不同的长处。格雷厄姆把苹果公司（Apple）作为明显的例子：史蒂夫•乔布斯是营销高手，而专注于技术的史蒂夫•沃兹尼亚克完全不用去关心销售的事情。这就是格雷厄姆常常告诉Y Combinator申请者去找个联合创始人的原因。实际上，Dropbox 公司CEO德鲁•休斯顿2007年申请Y Combinator投资时，格雷厄姆就是向他提供了这条建议。据推测，休斯顿应该是接受了这个建议，此后不到两周时间便招募了麻省理工学院（MIT）的同班同学阿莱希•菲尔多西。7年后的今天，Dropbox在最近一轮融资中募得3.5亿美元，公司估值已经达到了100亿美元。格雷厄姆回忆说，这个数字远远高于休斯顿在进入Y Combinator的早期日子里愿意接受的Dropbox卖价。格雷厄姆回忆说：“那时他愿意接受的Dropbox卖价肯定低于1,000万美元，甚至有可能低于100万或200万美元。”
但要找个你真正喜欢的联合创始人……
这是基本原则？当然。但你会吃惊地发现，很多创业公司的创始人并不明白这一点。就三家最成功的Y Combinator创业公司（Airbnb、Dropbox和Stripe）而言，格雷厄姆和工作人员接受它们申请的决定在很大程度上依据的是联合创始人本身以及他们相处是否融洽（当然，有个好创意没有坏处）。如果他们相处不融洽呢？这很容易看出来，Y Combinator面谈时间只有可怜的8到10分钟。格雷厄姆说：“如果一位联合创始人向我们推介时，另一位却在翻白眼。这就是确凿无疑的信号。”
专注于明确具体的用户子集……
长时间投身创投的人通常都曾投资过一家拥有好创意、但从未真正腾飞的创业公司。对于格雷厄姆来说，那就是Etherpad。Appjet在2008年11月发布了这款应用。格雷厄姆接受了这家创业公司的申请，因为他“非常喜欢这个创意”。从本质上来说，Etherpad是Google Docs的竞争对手：这款功能丰富、基于网络的文档编辑器可以让多位用户展开协作，对文档进行实时撰写和编辑（谷歌在2009年底收购了这款软件）。问题在于，这个产品缺乏焦点。格雷厄姆说：“他们应该让人们意识到，‘嘿，这个不只是实时输入。’”
格雷厄姆说，增长的秘诀不是广泛撒网，而是“小范围的密集开火”。首先专注于一个用户子集，满足他们的需求。格雷厄姆再次以苹果为例：苹果公司的第一款个人电脑Apple I只生产了200台，但在上市销售的头10个月里售出了175台，大部分卖给了计算机爱好者。格雷厄姆解释说：“你必须知道第一批用户是谁，和他们坐下来，办个聚会，把注意力放到他们身上。”（财富中文网）
译者：千牛絮
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| Paul Graham has touched a lot of startups.
Not in the sappy, sentimental way -- though some founders may largely credit him for their success -- but where influence is concerned. Because few in the Valley can claim they have interacted with, advised, and funded as many early-stage businesses as Graham has. Indeed, Y Combinator, the startup incubator he co-founded with wife Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell, and Robert Tappan Morris, has seen 632 startups come and go since 2005, including Dropbox, Airbnb, and online payments platform Stripe.
Last week, Graham announced he was stepping down as Y Combinator President, handing the reins off to partner Sam Altman. In doing so, Graham will still offer advice part-time to YC startups but cease day-to-day administrative tasks like poring over applications and interviewing applicants. "I spend all the time on that crap," Graham half-joked onstage at this year's LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco.
Graham also offered some parting general startup advice, culled from nine years of running YC.
Get a co-founder ...
Businesses are more likely to succeed with more than one founder, because each co-founder may bring different strengths. Graham used Apple (AAPL) as an easy example: Steve Jobs was a pro with sales while the tech-focused Steve Wozniak couldn't have cared less. That's why Graham usually tells YC applicants to get a co-founder. In fact, that's exactly the advice he offered Dropbox CEO Drew Houston when he applied for YC in 2007. Houston supposedly did just that, recruiting MIT classmate Arash Ferdowsi in two weeks. Now, seven years later, Dropbox has raised $350 million in its latest round with a valuation of $10 billion, far less than the amount Graham recalls Houston would have been willing to sell Dropbox for in the early YC days. "The answer was definitely under $10 million -- it might have been under a $1 million or $2 million," he recalled.
But get a co-founder you actually like ...
Basic? Sure. But you'd be surprised how many startup founders actually don't gel. With YC's three most successful startups -- Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe -- much of Graham and crew's acceptance decision was based on the co-founders themselves and how well they got along. (Of course, a promising idea didn't hurt.) And if they don't? Well, that's easy to tell quickly enough, even during a YC interview, which spans a pithy eight to 10 minutes. "One guy literally rolled his eyes when his co-founder was talking and pitching us -- a surefire tell," Graham said.
Focus on a specific subset of users ...
Longtime startup investors usually have one startup that had a nifty idea but never quite took off. For Graham, it's Etherpad. Released in November 2008 by Appjet, Graham accepted the startup into YCombinator because he "liked the idea so much." Essentially, Etherpad was a Google Docs (GOOG) competitor: a feature-rich, web-based text editor that let multiple users collaborate, write, and edit documents in real-time. (Google acquired the software in late 2009.) Problem was, the product lacked focus. "They should have launched it as one thing and let people realize, 'Hey this is much more than real-time typing,'" Graham offered.
Instead of a catch-all approach, Graham said the secret to growth is starting a "small, intense fire" -- first focus on a subset of users and meet their needs. Again, Graham brought up Apple as an example: The company produced just 200 units of its first personal computer, the Apple I, but sold 175 of them within the first 10 months on sale, largely to computer hobbyists. Explained Graham: "You've got to know who those first users are, sit with them, have a party, and focus on them." |
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