主讲人：英语口语教师
硅谷天使投资人Paul Graham给创业者的重要建议
English for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Advice from angel investor Paul Graham
Question： Why start with something minimal?
Answer: Lots of founders mentioned how important it was to launch with the simplest possible thing. You should release fast and iterate. Build the absolute smallest thing that can be considered a complete application and ship it. Doing something "simple" at first glance does not mean you aren't doing something meaningful, defensible, or valuable. Don't worry what people will say. Over-engineering is poison.
问：为什么要从一些小的事情开始?
答： 很多创业者都提到过用最简单的东西创业是多么重要。你应当快速发布产品然后再进行产品迭代。做出可以被当作是完整应用的绝对最小的东西，并且推向市场。
做一些看起来“简单”的事情并不意味着你不是在做有意义、有道理、有价值的事情。不要担心别人会怎么说。过度设计是有害的。
Question : How to engage users?
Answer: Product development is a conversation with the user that doesn't really start till you launch. It's so important to launch fast that it may be better to think of your initial version not as a product, but as a trick for getting users to start talking to you. Think about the initial stages of a startup as a giant experiment. All products should be considered experiments, and those that have a market show promising results extremely quickly. When you let customers tell you what they're after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they find valuable as well what they're willing to pay for.
问题: 如何吸引用户?
答:产品开发是与用户的对话，在你发布之前是不会真正开始的。快速发布非常重要，所以最好不要把你的初始版本当成一个产品，而是当成一个让用户开始与你交谈的策略。把初创公司的初始阶段想象成一个大型实验。所有的产品都应该被认为是实验品，那些有市场的产品很快就会显示出有好的效果。当你让客户告诉你他们想要什么时，他们通常会透露一些惊人的细节，包括他们认为有价值的东西，以及他们愿意为之付出的价格。
Question Eleven: Why it's hard to get users?
Answer: A lot of founders complained about how hard it was to get users. They had no idea how much time and effort needed to go into attaining users. This is a complicated topic. When you can't get users, it's hard to say whether the problem is lack of exposure, or whether the product's simply bad. Getting people to use a new service is incredibly difficult. If you make something where the challenges are mostly technical, you can rely on word of mouth, like Google did. But with other types of startups you may win less by features and more by deals and marketing.
问题:为什么很难发展用户?
答:很多创始人抱怨发展用户很困难。他们不知道需要花多少时间和精力才能获得用户。这是一个复杂的话题。当你找不到用户的时候，很难说问题是缺乏曝光率，还是产品本身不好。让人们使用一项新服务是非常困难的。如果你做的东西主要是技术性的，你可以依靠口碑，就像谷歌所做的那样。但对于其他类型的初创公司，你可能更多地通过交易和市场营销而不是产品特性取胜。
What is the value of community?
Answer: A surprising number of founders said what surprised them most about starting a startup was the value of community. Others were surprised at the value of the startup community in the larger sense: How advantageous it is to live in Silicon Valley, where you can't help but hear all the cutting-edge tech and startup news, and run into useful people constantly. It's amazing how easily you can reach out to people and get immediate feedback.
问题 社区的价值是什么?
答:相当多的创业者表示，创业最让他们感到惊讶的是社区的价值。其他人则对创业社区在更广泛意义上的价值感到惊讶:生活在硅谷是多么有利啊，在那里你会不由自主地听到所有的前沿科技和创业新闻，不断地遇到有用的人。你很容易接触到别人并得到即时的反馈，这是令人惊讶的。
Question: How to choose the right cofounder?
Answer: What people wished they'd paid more attention to when choosing cofounders was character and commitment, not ability. This was particularly true with startups that failed. The reason character is so important is that it's tested more severely than in most other situations. One founder said explicitly that the relationship between founders was more important than ability.
问题 :如何选择合适的合伙人?
答: 人们希望当初在选择联合创始人时多注重的是品格和投入，而不是能力。对于失败的创业公司来说尤其如此。品格之所以如此重要，是因为它在创业中经受的考验比大多数其他情况下都要严格。一位创始人明确表示，创始人之间的关系比能力更重要。
Question：How does failure influence founders?
Answer: The hard part, obviously, is the lows. How hard it is to keep everyone motivated during rough days or weeks, i.e. how low the lows can be. After a while, if a founder doesn't have significant success to cheer him up, it wears him out. The most basic advice to founders is "just don't die," . There's a limit to how much a founder can take. If you get to the point where you can't keep working anymore, it's not the end of the world. Plenty of famous founders have had some failures along the way.
问题:失败如何影响创业者?
答:很明显，最难的部分是低谷期。在艰难的日子或几周内保持每个人的积极性是多么困难，也就是说，低潮可以有多低。过了一段时间，如果一个创始人没有显著的成功让他振作起来，他就会筋疲力尽。对创业者最基本的建议是“活下去”。创始人的承受能力是有限的。如果你到了不能继续工作的地步，那也不是世界末日。很多著名的创业者都经历过失败。
Question: Can doing a startup be fun?
Answer: Several founders said what surprised them most about doing a startup was how fun it was. They think they've left out just how fun it is to do a startup. They are more fulfilled in their work than pretty much any of their friends who did not start companies. They are surprised by how much better it feels to be working on something that is challenging and creative, something they believe in. The best way to put it might be that starting a startup is fun the way a survivalist training course would be fun, if you're into that sort of thing.
问题:创业会很有趣吗?
答:几位创始人表示，创业最让他们感到惊讶的是它的乐趣。他们认为自己忽略了创业的乐趣。他们比没有创业的朋友更有成就感。他们会惊讶地发现，做他们相信的、富有挑战性和创造性的事情，感觉会好得多。最好的解释可能是，如果你喜欢生存训练课程，你就会觉得很有趣，创业也是如此。
Question: What is the key in doing a startup?
Answer: Persistence. A lot of founders were surprised how important persistence was in startups. They were surprised both by the degree of persistence required. Everyone said how determined and resilient you must be. If you are persistent, even problems that seem out of your control seem to work themselves out. Several founders mentioned specifically how much more important persistence was than intelligence.
问题: 创业的关键是什么?
答:坚持。很多创业者都惊讶于坚持对创业的重要性。他们对所需要的坚持程度感到惊讶。每个人都说你必须要有决心、有韧性。如果你坚持不懈，即使是你无法控制的问题 也会迎刃而解。几位创始人特别提到，毅力比智力重要得多。
Question: Why founders have to do lots of little things?
Answer: We often emphasize how rarely startups win simply because they hit on some magic idea. You have to do lots of different things. Never to bet on any one deal or anything to bring you success. It is never a single thing. Everything is just incremental and you just have to keep doing lots of those things until you strike something. The best strategy is to try lots of different things.
问题：为什么创始人要做很多小事?
答:我们经常强调，很少初创公司能仅仅因为想出了某个神奇的点子就获得成功。你必须做很多不同的事情。永远不要押注于任何一项交易或任何通往成功的事情。成功从来不是一件单一的事情。每件事都是渐进的，你必须不断地做这些事情，直到你有所成就。最好的策略是尝试很多不同的事情。
Question：Why should founders change their ideas?
Answer: To benefit from engaging with users you have to be willing to change your idea. Normally if you complain about something being hard, the general advice is to work harder. With a startup, you should find a problem that's easy for you to solve. Fast iteration is the key to success. One reason this advice is so hard to follow is that people don't realize how hard it is to judge startup ideas, particularly their own. Experienced founders learn to keep an open mind. One can never tell what will work. One just have to do whatever seems best at each point.
问题:为什么创业者要改变他们的想法?
回答:为了从与用户接触中获益，你必须愿意改变你的想法。通常，如果你抱怨某事很难，一般的建议是更努力地工作。对于创业公司，你应该找到一个容易解决的问题。快速迭代是成功的关键。这个准则如此难以遵循的一个原因是，人们没有意识到判断初创公司的创意有多难，尤其是他们自己的创意。有经验的创业者学会保持开放的心态。谁也说不准什么办法会奏效。每个人只需要做在每个方面看起来最好的事情。
Question Ten: Why there is no need to worry about competitors?
Answer: Companies that seemed like competitors and threats at first glance usually never were when you really looked at it. Even if they were operating in the same area, they had a different goal. One reason people overreact to competitors is that they overvalue ideas. If ideas really were the key, a competitor with the same idea would be a real threat. But it's usually execution that matters.
问题十:为什么不用担心竞争对手?
答:那些乍一看似乎是竞争对手、有威胁性的公司，通常在你真正关注这些公司的时候，你会发现它们从来都不是你的竞争对手。即使他们在同一地区，他们也有不同的目标。人们对竞争对手反应过度的一个原因是他们高估了创意的价值。如果创意真的是关键，那么拥有同样创意的竞争对手将是一个真正的威胁。但通常重要的是执行。
Question Twelve: Why should a founder expect the worst with deals?
Answer: Deals fall through. That's a constant of the startup world. Startups are powerless, and good startup ideas generally seem wrong. So everyone is nervous about closing deals with you, and you have no way to make them. Never be optimistic about things you can't control. By all means be optimistic about your ability to make something great. But you're asking for trouble if you're optimistic about big companies or investors.
问题:为什么创始人要对交易做最坏的打算?
答:交易失败是创业世界的常态。创业公司缺少影响力，好的创业点子通常看起来是错误的。因此，每个人都对与你达成交易感到紧张，而你没有办法达成交易。永远不要对你无法控制的事情保持乐观。无论如何，要对自己的能力保持乐观的心态。但如果你对大公司或投资者持乐观态度，那你就是在自找麻烦。
Question: Is luck a big factor?
Answer: Yes. With two such random linkages in the path between startups and money, it shouldn't be surprising that luck is a big factor in deals. When we started our startup, I had bought the hype of the startup founder dream: that this is a game of skill. It is, in some ways. Having skill is valuable. But being lucky is the critical ingredient. Actually the best model would be to say that the outcome is the product of skill, determination, and luck. A good way to increase your luck is to expand your network.
问题:运气是一个重要因素吗?
答:是的。初创公司与资金之间存在两种随机联系，因此，运气是促成交易的重要因素也就不足为奇了。当我们开始创业的时候，我相信创业者的梦想:这是一个技能游戏。在某些方面的确如此。拥有技能是有价值的。但运气是关键因素。实际上，最好的模型应该是，取得的结果是技能、决心和运气的乘积。提升运气的一个好办法就是扩大你的人际网络。
