Part3但我不认识任何投资家作者Marc Andreessen编辑Rework阅览室整理In my last post in this series,When the VCs say "no",I discussed what to doonce you have been turned down for venture funding for the first time.在本系列的最后一篇文章《当风险投资家说“不"时》中，我讨论了一旦你第一次被拒绝风险投资后该怎么做。However,this presupposes you've been able to pitch VCs in the firstplace.What if you have a startup for which you'd like to raise venturefunding,but you don't know any VCs?然而，这首先假设你已经能够向风险投资人推销。如果您想为一家初创公司筹集风险投资，但您不认识任何风险投资人，该怎么办？I can certainly sympathize with this problem-when I was in college working onMosaic at the University of lllinois,the term "venture capital"might as well havebeen "klaatu barada nikto"for all I knew.I had never met a venture capitalist,noventure capitalist had ever talked to me,and I wouldn't have recognized one ifI'd stumbled over his checkbook on the sidewalk.Without Jim Clark,I'm not atall certain I would have been able to raise money to start a company likeNetscape,had it even occured to me to start a company in the first place.我当然可以同情这个问题一当我在伊利诺伊大学从事马赛克研究时，据我所知，“风险投资"一词可能是"klaatu barada nikto”。我从未见过风险投资家，也没有一个风险投资家与我交谈过，如果我在人行道上偶然发现他的支票簿，我也不会认出他。如果没有吉姆·克拉克，我根本不确定自己能否筹集到资金来创办像Netscape这样的公司，即使我一开始就想创办一家公司。The starting point for raising money from VCs when you don't know any VCs isto realize that VCs work mostly through referrals-they hear about a promisingstartup or entrepreneur from someone they have worked with before,likePart3但我不认识任何投资家another entrepreneur,an executive or engineer at one of the startups they havefunded,or an angel investor with whom they have previously co-invested当你不认识任何风投公司时，从风投公司筹集资金的出发点是要意识到风投公司主要通过推荐来运作一他们从以前共事过的人那里听说有前途的初创公司或企业家，比如另一位企业家、高管或工程师他们资助的一家初创公司，或者他们之前共同投资过的天使投资人。The reason for this is simply the math:any individual VC can only fund a fewcompanies per year,and for every one she funds,she probably meets with 15or 20,and there are hundreds more that would like to meet with her that shedoesn't possibly have time to meet with.She has to rely on her network to helpher screen the hundreds down to 15 or 20,so she can spend her time findingthe right one out of the 15 or 20.原因很简单：任何个人风险投资人每年只能资助几家公司，而她资助的每一家公司，她可能都会与15或20家公司会面，而且还有数百家公司愿意与她会面。不可能有时间见面。她必须依靠她的网络来帮助她筛选数百个，减少到15或20个，这样她就可以花时间从15或20个中找到合适的一个。Therefore,submitting a business plan "over the transom",or unsolicited,to aventure firm is likely to amount to just as much as submitting a screenplay "overthe transom"to a Hollywood talent agency-that is,precisely nothing因此，"越过横梁”或主动向风险投资公司提交商业计划可能就相当于“越过横梁"向好莱坞人才经纪公司提交剧本，也就是说，什么都不是。So the primary trick becomes getting yourself into a position where you'reone of the 15 or 20 a particular venture capitalist is meeting with based onreferrals from her network,not one of the hundreds of people who don't comerecommended by anyone and whom she has no intention of meeting.因此，主要的技巧就是让自己成为某个风险投资家根据她的网络推荐而会见的5或20个人中的一员，而不是数百名没有得到任何人推荐的人中的一员。她无意与谁见面。But before you think about doing that,the first order of business is to(paraphrasing for a family audience)"have your stuff together"-create anddevelop your plan,your presentation,and your supporting materials so thatwhen you do meet with a VC,you impress her right out of the gate as bringingPart3但我不认识任何投资家her a fundable startup founded by someone who knows what he-that's you-is doing.但在你考虑这样做之前，首要任务是（对家庭观众来说）“把你的东西放在一起”创建和制定你的计划、你的演示和你的支持材料，这样当你与一个人见面时风险投资家，你给她留下了深刻的印象，因为你为她带来了一家由一个知道他（也就是你）在做什么的人创立的可资助的初创公司。My recommendation is to read up on all the things you should do to puttogether a really effective business plan and presentation,and then pretendyou have already been turned down once-then go back to my lastpost and gothrough all the different things you should anticipate and fix before you actuallydo walk through the door.我的建议是仔细阅读你应该做的所有事情，以制定一个真正有效的商业计划和演示文稿，然后假装你已经被拒绝过一次，然后回到我的上一篇文章并仔细检查你想要的所有不同的事情。在你真正走进门之前应该预见并修复。One of the reason VCs only meet with startups through their networks isbecause too many of the hundreds of other startups that they could meet withcome across as amateurish and uninformed,and therefore not fundable,whenthey do take meetings with them.So you have a big opportunity to cut throughthe noise by making a great first impression-which requires really thinkingthings through ahead of time and doing all the hard work up front to reallymake your pitch and plan a masterpiece.风险投资人只通过他们的网络与初创公司会面的原因之一是，当他们与他们会面时，他们可以见到的数百家其他初创公司中有太多人显得业余且无知，因此无法获得资助。因此，你有一个很好的机会通过留下良好的第一印象来消除噪音一这需要提前认真思考并做好所有艰苦的工作，才能真正使你的宣传和计划成为杰作。Working backwards from that,the best thing you can walk in with is a workingproduct.Or,if you can't get to a working product without raising venturefunding,then at least a beta or prototype of some form-a web site that worksbut hasn't launched,or a software mockup with partial functionality,or something.And of course it's even better if you walk in with existing"traction"of some form-customers,beta customers,some evidence ofadoption by Internet users,whatever is appropriate for your particular startup.Part3但我不认识任何投资家反过来看，你能拿到的最好的东西就是一个可以工作的产品。或者，如果你无法在不筹集风险资金的情况下获得可用的产品，那么至少需要某种形式的测试版或原型一一个可以运行但尚未启动的网站，或者具有部分功能的软件模型，等等。当然，如果你带着某种形式的现有“吸引力”一客户、测试版客户、互联网用户采用的一些证据，以及任何适合你的特定初创公司的东西，那就更好了。With a working product that could be the foundation of a fundable startup,youhave a much better chance of getting funded once you do get in the door.Backto my rule of thumb from the last post:when in doubt,work on the product.有了一个可以成为可资助初创公司基础的工作产品，一旦你进入了大门，你就有更好的机会获得资助。回到上一篇文章中我的经验法则：如有疑问，请研究产品。Failing a working product and ideally customers or users,be sure to have asfleshed out a presentation as you possibly can-including mockups,screenshots,market analyses,customer research such as interviews with realprospects,and the like.如果产品无法正常工作，最好是客户或用户，请务必尽可能充实演示文稿，包括模型、屏幕截图、市场分析、客户研究（例如与真实潜在客户的访谈）等。Don't bother with a long detailed written business plan.Most VCs will eitherfund a startup based on a fleshed out Powerpoint presentation of about 20slides,or they won't fund it at all.Corollary:any VC who requires a longdetailed written business plan is probably not the right VC to be working with.不要为冗长详细的书面商业计划而烦恼。大多数风险投资公司要么会根据大约20张幻灯片的详细Powerpoint演示文稿来资助一家初创公司，要么根本不会资助它。推论：任何需要详细书面商业计划的风险投资人可能都不是合适的合作伙伴。Next:qualify,qualify,qualify.Do extensive research on venture capitalists andfind the ones who focus on the sector relevant to your startup.It is completelycounterproductive to everyone involved for you to pitch a health care VC on aconsumer Internet startup,or vice versa.Individual VCs are usually quitefocused in the kinds of companies they are looking for,and identifying thoseVCs and screening out all the others is absolutely key.Part3但我不认识任何投资家下一步：合格，合格，合格。对风险投资家进行广泛的研究，找到那些专注于与您的初创企业相关的领域的人。如果你向消费者互联网初创公司推销医疗保健风险投资，这对所有参与者来说都是完全适得其反的，反之亦然。个别风投通常非常关注他们正在寻找的公司类型，识别这些风投并筛选出所有其他风投绝对是关键。Now,on to developing contacts:现在，开始发展联系：The best way to develop contacts with VCs,in my opinion,is to work at aventure-backed startup,kick butt,get promoted,and network the wholeway.在我看来，与风险投资人建立联系的最佳方式是在一家风险投资支持的初创公司工作，一路踢下去，获得晋升，并建立人际网络。If you can't get hired by a venture-backed startup right now,work at a well-regarded large tech company that employs a lot of people like Google or Apple,gain experience,and then go to work at a venture-backed startup,kick butt,get promoted,and network the whole way.如果你现在无法被风投支持的初创公司聘用，那么可以在一家知名的大型科技公司工作，该公司雇佣了很多人，比如谷歌或苹果，获得经验，然后去风投支持的初创公司工作，踢屁股，升职，并一路建立人际网络。And if you can't get hired by a well-regarded large tech company,go get abachelor's or master's degree at a major research university from which well-regarded large tech companies regularly recruit,then work at a well-regardedlarge tech company that employs a lot of people like Google or Apple,gainexperience,and then go to work at a venture-backed startup,kick butt,getpromoted,and network the whole way.如果你无法被一家知名的大型科技公司聘用，那就去一所著名的大型科技公司定期招聘的主要研究型大学获得学士或硕士学位，然后在一家知名的大型科技公司工作它雇佣了很多像谷歌或苹果这样的人，获得经验，然后去一家风险投资支持的初创公司工作，一路走来，获得晋升，并建立人际网络。Part3但我不认识任何投资家I sound like I'm joking,but I'm completely serious-this is the path taken bymany venture-backed entrepreneurs I know.我听起来像是在开玩笑，但我是认真的一这是我认识的许多风险投资支持的企业家所走的路。Some alternate techniques that don't take quite as long:一些不需要很长时间的替代技术：If you're still in school,immediately transfer to,or plan on going to graduateschool at,a large research university with well-known connections to theventure capital community,like Stanford or MIT.如果你还在上学，请立即转学到或计划去一所与风险投资界有知名联系的大型研究型大学（例如斯坦福大学或麻省理工学院）读研究生。Graduate students at Stanford are directly responsible for such companies asSun,Cisco,Yahoo,and Google,so needless to say,Silicon Valley VCs arecontinually on the prowl on the Stanford engineering campus for the next JerryYang or Larry Page.斯坦福大学的研究生直接负责Sun、思科、雅虎和谷歌等公司，因此不用说，硅谷的风险投资家们一直在斯坦福工程园区寻找下一个杨致远或拉里佩奇。(In contrast,the University of Illinois,where I went to school,is mostly prowledby mutant cold-weather cows.)(相比之下，我就读的伊利诺伊大学大部分都是变异的寒冷天气奶牛。)Alternately,jump all over Y Combinator.This program,created by entrepreneurPaul Graham and his partners,funds early-stage startups in an organizedprogram in Silicon Valley and Boston and then makes sure the good ones get infront of venture capitalists for follow-on funding.It's a great idea and a hugeopportunity for the people who participate in it.或者，跳过Y Combinator该计划由企业家保罗·格雷厄姆(Paul Graham)及其合作伙伴创建，通过在硅谷和波士顿组织的计划为早期初创企业提供资金，然后确保优秀的初创企业能够获得风险投资家的后续融资。对于参与其中的人来说，这是一个好主意，也是一个巨大的机会。Part3但我不认识任何投资家Read VC blogs-read them all,and read them veryvery carefully.VCs whoblog are doing entrepreneurs a huge service both in conveying highly usefulinformation as well as frequently putting themselves out there to be contactedby entrepreneurs in various ways including email,comments,and evenuploaded podcasts.Each VC is different in terms of how she wants to engagewith people online,but by all means read as many VC blogs as you can andinteract with as many of them as you can in appropriate ways.阅读VC博客一全部阅读，并且非常非常仔细地阅读。写博客的风险投资家为企业家提供了巨大的服务，既传达了非常有用的信息，又经常让企业家以各种方式与他们联系，包括电子邮件、评论，甚至上传的播客。每个风险投资人希望如何在网上与人们互动，但无论如何都要阅读尽可能多的风险投资人博客，并以适当的方式与尽可能多的人互动。See the list of VC bloggers on my home_page,as well as on the home pages ofvarious of those bloggers.请参阅我的主页以及各个博主的主页上的VC博主列表。At the very least you will start to get a really good sense of which VCs who blogare interested in which kinds of companies.至少你会开始真正了解哪些博客的风险投资家对哪种类型的公司感兴趣。At best,a VC blogger may encourage her readers to communicate with her invarious ways,including soliciting email pitches in certain startup categories ofinterest to her..最好的情况是，风险投资博主可能会鼓励她的读者以各种方式与她交流，包括征求她感兴趣的某些初创类别的电子邮件推介。Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures has even gone so far as to encourageentrepreneurs to record and upload audio pitches for new ventures so he canlisten to them on his IPod.I don't know if he's still doing that,but it's worthreading his blog and finding out.Union Square Ventures的弗雷德：威尔逊(Fred Wilson)甚至鼓励企业家为新企业录制并上传音频推介，以便他可以在Pod上收听。我不知道他是否还在这样做，但值得阅读他的博客并找出答案。Part3但我不认识任何投资家Along those lines,some VCs are aggressive early adopters of new forms ofcommunication and interaction-current examples being Facebook and Twitter.Observationally,when a VC is exploring a new communiation medium likeFacebook or Twitter,she can be more interested in interacting with variouspeople over that new medium than she might otherwise be.So,when such anew thing comes out-like,hint hint,Facebook or Twitter-jump all over it,seewhich VCs are using it,and interact with them that way-sensibly,of course.沿着这些思路，一些风险投资公司是新的沟通和互动形式的积极早期采用者一当前的例子是Facebook和Twitter。据观察，当风险投资人正在探索Facebook或Twtr等新的交流媒体时，她可能比其他情况下更有兴趣通过该新媒体与各种人互动。因此，当这样的新事物出现时一比如Facebook或Twitter-一请跳过去，看看哪些风险投资家正在使用它，并以这种方式与他们互动一当然，这是明智的。More generally,it's a good idea for entrepreneurs who are looking for fundingto blog-about their startup,about interesting things going on,about their pointof view.This puts an entrepreneur in the flow of conversation,which can leadto interaction with VCs through the normal medium of blogging.And,when aVC does decide to take a look at you and your company,she can read yourblog to get a sense of who you are and how you think.It's another greatopportunity to put forward a fantastic first impression.更一般地说，对于正在寻求资金的企业家来说，写博客是一个好主意一关于他们的初创公司，关于正在发生的有趣的事情，关于他们的观点。这让企业家处于对话的流程中，从而可以通过博客的正常媒介与风险投资家进行互动。而且，当风险投资家确实决定了解您和您的公司时，她可以阅读您的博客以了解您是谁以及您的想法。这是另一个给人留下良好第一印象的好机会。Finally,if you are a programmer,I highly encourage you,if you have time,to create or contribute to a meaningful open source project.The open sourcemovement is an amazing opportunity for programmers all over the world to notonly build useful software that lots of people can use,but also build their ownreputations completely apart from whatever day jobs they happen to have.Being able to email a VC and say,"I'm the creator of open source program Xwhich has 50,000 users worldwide,and I want to tell you about my newstartup"is a lot more effective than your normal pitch.最后，如果您是一名程序员，如果您有时间，我强烈鼓励您创建或为有意义的开源项目做出贡献。开源运动对Part3但我不认识任何投资家于世界各地的程序员来说是一个绝佳的机会，他们不仅可以构建可供很多人使用的有用软件，而且还可以在与他们从事的日常工作无关的情况下建立自己的声誉。能够向风险投资人发送电子邮件并说：“我是开源程序X的创建者，该程序在全球拥有50,000名用户，我想向您介绍我的新创业公司"，这比您的正常推销要有效得多。If you engage in a set of these techniques over time,you should be able tointeract with at least a few VCs in ways that they find useful and that might leadto further conversations about funding,or even introductions to other VCs如果你随着时间的推移采用了一系列这些技术，你应该能够以他们认为有用的方式与至少一些风险投资家进行互动，这可能会导致有关融资的进一步对话，甚至介绍给其他风险投资家。I'm personally hoping that the next Google comes out of a VC being sent anemail pitch after the entrepreneur read that VC's blog.Then every VC on theplanet will suddenly start blogging,overnight.我个人希望下一个谷歌会出现在一位风投者读完该风投的博客后，向风投发送一封电子邮件的情况下。然后，地球上的每一位风险投资家都会在一夜之间突然开始写博客。If none of those ideas work for you:如果这些想法都不适合您：Your alternatives in reverse(declining)order of preference for funding are,inmy view:angel funding,bootstrapping via consulting contracts or earlycustomers,keeping your day job and working on your startup in your sparetime,and credit card debt.在我看来，你对资金偏好的相反（下降）顺序是：天使融资、通过咨询合同或早期客户引导、保留你的日常工作并在业余时间致力于你的初创公司，以及信用卡债务。Angel funding-funding from individuals who like to invest small amounts ofmoney in early-stage startups,often before VCs come in-can be a great wayto go since good angels know good VCs and will be eager to introduce you tothem so that your company goes on to be successful for the angel as well asfor you.Part3但我不认识任何投资家天使投资一来自那些喜欢在早期创业公司投资少量资金的个人的资金，通常是在风险投资进入之前一可能是一个很好的选择，因为优秀的天使投资人了解优秀的风险投资，并且会渴望将你介绍给他们，这样您的公司将继续为天使和您取得成功。This of course begs the question of how to raise angel money,which is anothertopic altogether！这当然引出了如何筹集天使资金的问题，这完全是另一个话题！I am not encouraging the other three alternatives-bootstrapping,working onit part time,or credit card debt.Each has serious problems.But,it is easy toname highly successful entrepreneurs who have followed each of those paths,so they are worth noting.我并不鼓励其他三种选择一自力更生、兼职工作或信用卡债务。每个人都有严重的问题。但是，很容易说出走上每条道路的非常成功的企业家的名字，因此他们值得注意。Closing link:关闭链接：Finally,be sure to read this page on Sequoia Capital's web site.最后，请务必阅读红杉资本网站上的此页面。Sequoia is one of the very best venture firms in the world,and has fundedmany companies that you have heard of including Oracle,Apple,Yahoo,andGoogle.红杉资本是世界上最好的风险投资公司之一，它资助了许多你听说过的公司，包括甲骨文、苹果、雅虎和谷歌。On that page,Sequoia does entrepreneurs everywhere a huge service by firstlisting the criteria that they look for in a startup,then the recommendedstructure for your pitch presentation,and then finally actually asks for pitches"over the transom".在该页面上，红杉资本为世界各地的企业家提供了一项巨大的服务，首先列出了他们在初创公司中寻找的标准，然后列出了您的推介演示的推荐结构，最后实际上要求“越Part3但我不认识任何投资家