Part6多少资金才算太少？太多？作者Marc Andreessen三编辑Rework阅览室整理In this post,I answer these questions:在这篇文章中，我回答这些问题：How much funding for a startup is too little?对于初创公司来说，多少资金才算太少？How much funding for a startup is too much?对于初创公司来说，多少资金才算太多？And how can you know,and what can you do about it?你怎么知道，你能做什么？The first question to ask is,what is the correct,or appropriate,amount offunding for a startup?首先要问的问题是，对于初创公司来说，正确或适当的资金数额是多少？The answer to that question,in my view,is based my theory that a startup's lifecan be divided into two parts-Before Product/Market Fit,and AfterProduct/Market Fit.在我看来，这个问题的答案是基于我的理论，即初创公司的生命可以分为两个部分一产品/市场契合之前和产品/市场契合之后。Before Product/Market Fit,a startup should ideally raise at least enoughmoney to get to Product/Market Fit.在产品/市场契合之前，初创公司最好至少筹集足够的资金来实现产品/市场契合。Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？After Product/Market Fit,a startup should ideally raise at least enough moneyto fully exploit the opportunity in front of it,and then to get to profitability whilestill fully exploiting that opportunity.在产品/市场契合之后，理想情况下，初创公司应该筹集至少足够的资金来充分利用面前的机会，然后在充分利用该机会的同时实现盈利。I will further argue that the definition of "at least enough money"in each caseshould include a substantial amount of extra money beyond your default planso that you can withstand bad surprises.In other words,insurance.This isparticularly true for startups that have not yet achieved Product/Market Fit,since you have no real idea how long that will take.我将进一步指出，在每种情况下，“至少足够的钱"的定义都应该包括超出默认计划的大量额外资金，以便您能够承受糟糕的意外。换句话说，就是保险。对于尚未实现产品/市场契合的初创公司来说尤其如此，因为你不知道这需要多长时间。These answers all sound obvious,but in my experience,a surprising number ofstartups go out to raise funding and do not have an underlying theory of howmuch money they are raising and for precisely what purpose they are raising it.这些答案听起来都很明显，但根据我的经验，数量惊人的初创公司出去筹集资金，却没有一个关于他们筹集多少钱以及筹集资金的确切目的的基本理论。What if you can't raise that much money at once?如果你不能一次筹集到那么多钱怎么办？Obviously,many startups find that they cannot raise enough money at one timeto accomplish these objectives-but I believe this is still the correct underlyingtheory for how much money a startup should raise and around which youshould orient your thinking.显然，许多初创公司发现他们无法一次性筹集足够的资金来实现这些目标，但我相信这仍然是关于初创公司应该筹集多少资金以及你应该围绕其思考的正确基本理论。Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？If you are Before Product/Market Fit and you can't raise enough money in oneshot to get to Product/Market Fit,then you will need get as far as you can oneach round and demonstrate progress towards Product/Market Fit when youraise each new round.如果您处于产品/市场契合之前，并且无法一次性筹集足够的资金来实现产品/市场契合，那么您将需要在每一轮中尽最大努力，并展示产品/市场契合方面的进展，当您筹集每一轮新的资金。If you are After Product/Market Fit and you can't raise enough money in oneshot to fully exploit your opportunity,you have a high-class problem and willprobably-but not definitely-find that it gets continually easier to raise newmoney as you need it.如果你处于产品/市场契合之后，并且无法一次性筹集足够的资金来充分利用你的机会，那么你就会遇到一个高级问题，并且可能（但不是绝对）发现筹集新资金变得越来越容易当你需要它时。What if you don't want to raise that much money at once?如果您不想一次筹集那么多资金怎么办？You can argue you should raise a smaller amount of money at a time,becauseif you are making progress-either BPMF or APMF-you can raise the rest ofthe money you need later,at a higher valuation,and give away less of thecompany.你可能会争辩说你应该一次筹集少量资金，因为如果你正在取得进展一无论是BPMF还是APMF一你可以稍后以更高的估值筹集你需要的其余资金，并捐赠更少的资金。公司。This is the reason some entrepreneurs who can raise a lot of money choose tohold back.这就是一些能够筹集到大量资金的企业家选择退缩的原因。Here's why you shouldn't do that:这就是为什么你不应该这样做：Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？What are the consequences of not raising enough money?筹集不到足够的资金会产生什么后果？Not raising enough money risks the survival of your company,for the followingreasons:由于以下原因，无法筹集足够的资金可能会危及公司的生存：First,you may have-and probably will have-unanticipated setbacks withinyour business.首先，您的业务可能会并且可能会遇到意想不到的挫折。Maybe a new product release slips,or you have unexpected quality issues,orone of your major customers goes bankrupt,or a challenging new competitoremerges,or you get sued by a big company for patent infringement,or youlose a key engineer.也许新产品发布失败，或者您遇到意外的质量问题，或者您的一个主要客户破产，或者一个具有挑战性的新竞争对手出现，或者您因专利侵权而被一家大公司起诉，或者您失去了一位关键工程师。Second,the funding window may not be open when you need more money.其次，当你需要更多资金时，资金窗口可能不会打开。Sometimes investors are highly enthusiastic about funding new businesses,and sometimes they're just not.有时投资者对资助新企业非常热情，有时则不然。When they're not-when the "window is shut",as the saying goes-it is veryhard to convince them otherwise,even though those are many of the besttimes to invest in startups because of the prevailing atmosphere of fear anddread that is holding everyone else back.Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？当他们不这样做时一正如俗话所说，当“窗口关闭”时一很难说服他们否则，尽管由于普遍存在恐惧和恐惧的气氛，这些是投资初创企业的最佳时机这阻碍了其他人。Those of us who were in startups that lived through 2001-2003 know exactlywhat this can be like.我们这些经历过2001年至2003年初创公司的人清楚地知道这会是什么样子。Third,something completely unanticipated,and bad,might happen.第三，可能会发生一些完全出乎意料的、糟糕的事情。Another major terrorist attack is the one that I frankly worry about the most.Asuperbug.All-out war in the Middle East.North Korea demonstrating the abilityto launch a true nuclear-tipped ICBM.Giant flaming meteorites.Such worst-case scenarios will not only close the funding window,they might keep itclosed for a long time.坦率地说，另一起重大恐怖袭击是我最担心的。一个超级细菌。中东全面战争。朝鲜展示了发射真正的核弹头洲际弹道导弹的能力。巨大的燃烧陨石。这种最坏的情况不仅会关闭融资窗口，而且可能会使其关闭很长一段时间。Funny story:it turns out that a lot of Internet business models from the late 90'sthat looked silly at the time actually work really wel-either in their original formor with some tweaking.有趣的故事：事实证明，90年代末的许多互联网商业模式当时看起来很愚蠢，但实际上效果很好一无论是原始形式还是经过一些调整。And there are quite a few startups from the late 90's that are doing just greattoday-examples being OpenTable (which is about to go public)and TellMe(which recently sold itself to Microsoft for $800 million),and my own companyOpsware-which would be bankrupt today if we hadn't raised a ton of moneywhen we could,and instead just did its first $100 million revenue year and has aroughly $1 billion public market value.有不少20世纪90年代未的初创公司如今表现出色，例如OpenTable(即将上市)和TeMe(最近以8亿美元的价格将自己出售给微软)，以及我自己的公司Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？Opsware,它们如果我们没有及时筹集到大量资金，而只是实现了第一个1亿美元的收入，并且拥有大约10亿美元的公开市场价值，那么今天我们就会破产。I'll go so far as to say that the big difference between the startups from that erathat are doing well today versus the ones that no longer exist,is that the formergroup raised a ton of money when they could,and the latter did not.我什至可以说，那个时代的初创公司如今表现良好，与那些已经不复存在的初创公司之间的巨大区别在于，前者在可能的情况下筹集了大量资金，而后者则做到了不是。So how much money should I raise?那么我应该筹集多少钱？In general,as much as you can.一般来说，能做多少就做多少。Without giving away control of your company,and without being insane.既不放弃对公司的控制权，也不发疯。Entrepreneurs who try to play it too aggressive and hold back on raising moneywhen they can because they think they can raise it later occasionally do verywell,but are gambling their whole company on that strategy in addition to allthe normal startup risks.有些企业家试图采取过于激进的策略，并在可以筹集资金的时候犹豫不决，因为他们认为自己可以稍后筹集资金，有时他们会做得很好，但除了所有正常的创业风险外，他们还把整个公司都押在了这一策略上。Suppose you raise a lot of money and you do really well.You'll be really happyand make a lot of money,even if you don't make quite as much money as if youhad rolled the dice and raised less money up front.假设你筹集了很多钱并且做得很好。你会非常高兴并赚很多钱，即使你赚的钱不像你掷骰子并预先筹集的钱更少一样多。Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？Suppose you don't raise a lot of money when you can and it backfires.You loseyour company,and you'll be really,really sad.假设你在可以筹集到大量资金的时候没有筹集到大量资金，结果却适得其反。你失去了你的陪伴，你会非常非常难过。Is it really worth that risk?真的值得冒这样的风险吗？There is one additional consequence to raising a lot of money that you shouldbear in mind,although it is more important for some companies than others.您应该牢记筹集大量资金还有一个额外的后果，尽管这对某些公司来说比其他公司更重要。That is liquidation preference.In the scenario where your company ultimatelygets acquired:the more money you raise from outside investors,the higher theacquisition price has to be for the founders and employees to make money ontop of the initial payout to the investors.这就是清算优先权。在您的公司最终被收购的情况下：您从外部投资者筹集的资金越多，创始人和员工在向投资者支付的初始付款之外赚钱的收购价格就必须越高。In other words,raising a lot of money can make it much harder to effectivelysell your company for less than a very high price,which you may not be able toget when the time comes.换句话说，筹集大量资金可能会使以低于非常高的价格有效出售您的公司变得更加困难，而到了时机成熟时您可能无法获得这一价格。If you are convinced that your company is going to get bought,and you don'tthink the purchase price will be that high,then raising less money is a goodidea purely in terms of optimizing for your own financial outcome.However,that strategy has lots of other risks and will be addressed in anotherentertaining post,to be entitled "Why building to flip is a bad idea".如果您确信您的公司将被收购，并且您认为收购价格不会那么高，那么纯粹就优化您自己的财务成果而言，筹集更少的资金是一个好主意。然而，该策略还有很多其他风Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？险，将在另一篇有趣的文章中讨论，题为“为什么构建翻转是一个坏主意"”。Taking these factors into account,though,in a normal scenario,raising moremoney rather than less usually makes sense,since you are buying yourselfinsurance against both internal and external potential bad events-and that ismore important than worrying too much about dilution or liquidation preference.不过，考虑到这些因素，在正常情况下，筹集更多的资金而不是更少的资金通常是有意义的，因为你是在为自己购买针对内部和外部潜在不良事件的保险一这比过度担心股权稀释或风险更重要。清算优先权。How much money is too much?多少钱太多了？There are downside consequences to raising too much money.筹集过多资金会产生负面影响。I already discussed two of them-possibly incremental dilution (which Idismissed as a real concern in most situations),and possibly excessively highliquidation preference(which should be monitored but not obsessed over).我已经讨论过其中的两个一可能是增量稀释（在大多数情况下我认为这是一个真正的问题)，以及可能过高的清算优先权（应该进行监控，但不要过分沉迷）。The big downside consequence to too much money,though,is culturalcorrosion.然而，过多金钱的巨大负面后果是文化腐蚀。You don't have to be in this industry very long before you run into the startupthat has raised a ton of money and has become infected with a culture ofcomplacency,laziness,and arrogance.你不必在这个行业呆太久，你就会遇到一家筹集了大量资金并感染了自满、懒惰和傲慢文化的初创公司。Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？Raising a ton of money feels really good-you feel like you've done something,that you've accomplished something,that you're successful when a lot of otherpeople weren't.筹集大量资金的感觉真的很好一你感觉自己做了某件事，完成了某件事，当很多人没有成功时，你感觉自己成功了。And of course,none of those things are true.当然，这些事情都不是真的。Raising money is never an accomplishment in and of itself-it just raises thestakes for all the hard work you would have had to do anyway:actually buildingyour business.筹集资金本身并不是一项成就，它只是增加了你无论如何都必须做的所有艰苦工作的风险：真正建立你的企业。Some signs of cultural corrosion caused by raising too much money:筹集过多资金导致文化腐蚀的一些迹象：Hiring too many people-slows everything down and makes it much harderfor you to react and change.You are almost certainly setting yourself up forlayoffs in the future,even if you are successful,because you probablywon't accurately allocate the hiring among functions for what you will reallyneed as your business grows.雇佣太多的人一会减慢一切，让你更难做出反应和改变。即使你成功了，你几乎肯定会在未来面临裁员，因为你可能无法根据业务增长时真正需要的职能准确地分配招聘人员。Lazy management culture-it is easy for a management culture to get setwhere the manager's job is simply to hire people,and then every otheraspect of management suffers,with potentially disastrous long-termconsequences to morale and effectiveness.懒惰的管理文化一管理文化很容易形成这样一种管理文化：经理的工作只是雇然后管理的其他方面都会受到影响，对士气和效率可能造成灾难性的长期后Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？果。Engineering team bloat-another side effect of hiring too many people;it'svery easy for engineering teams to get too large,and it happens very fast.And then the "Mythical Man Month"effect kicks in and everything slows toa crawl,your best people get frustrated and quit,and you're in hugetrouble.工程团队臃肿一雇用过多人员的另一个副作用；工程团队很容易变得太大，而且发生得非常快。然后“神话人月"效应开始出现，一切都变得缓慢，你最好的员工会感到沮丧并辞职，你就会陷入巨大的麻烦。Lack of focus on product and customers-it's a lot easier to not becompletely obsessed with your product and your customers when you havea lot of money in the bank and don't have to worry about your doors closingimminently.缺乏对产品和客户的关注一当你在银行里有很多钱并且不必担心你的大门即将关门时，你就更容易不完全痴迷于你的产品和客户。Too many salespeople too soon-out selling a product that isn't quite readyyet,hasn't yet achieved Product/Market Fit-alienating early adopters andmaking it much harder to go back when the product does get right.太多的销售人员过早地销售尚未准备好、尚未实现产品/市场契合的产品，从而疏远了早期采用者，并且当产品确实合适时，他们更难回头。Product schedule slippage-what's the urgency?We have all this cash!Creating a golden opportunity for a smaller,scrappier startup to come alongand kick your rear.产品进度延误一紧迫性是什么？我们有这么多现金！为一家规模较小、斗志旺盛的初创公司创造一个绝佳的机会，让他们来打败你。So what should you do if you do raise a lot of money?那么，如果你筹集了很多钱，你该怎么办？Part6多少资金扌算太少？太多？