必读：创业怎么找合伙人

Y Combinator 缔造者的建议：创业先找合伙人作者: JP Mangalindan时间: 2014 年 02 月 27 日 来源: 财富中文网位置： 商业硅谷著名的创业孵化器 Y Combinator 的联合创始人格雷厄姆在离职之际，为创业新手们提供了几条创业必须遵守的大原则，而第一条就是：要创业，先找到联合创始人吧。转贴到： 微信 新浪微博 关注 腾讯微博 人人网 豆瓣Y Combinator 联合创始人保罗格雷厄姆辞去总裁职务。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 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 years 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 couldnt have cared less. Thats why Graham usually tells YC applicants to get a co-founder. In fact, thats 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 .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Basic? Sure. But youd be surprised how many startup founders actually dont gel. With YCs three most successful startups - Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe - much of Graham and crews acceptance decision was based on the co-founders themselves and how well they got along. (Of course, a promising idea didnt hurt.) And if they dont? Well, thats 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, its 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 com