為《駭客與畫家》寫"譯者序"，遇到一個棘手的問題。
"應該如何介紹Paul Graham，才能讓中國讀者瞭解，這是一個在美國網際網路界如日中天的教父級人物？"
正在發愁的時候，老天幫忙，讓我看到了上個月《福布斯》雜誌有一篇Paul Graham長篇專訪，寫得非常棒，是迄今最佳的關於他的介紹。
這麼難得的材料，怎麼能錯過呢！我把全文翻譯了出來，打算跟出版社溝通，收入《駭客與畫家》的中譯本。
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Paul Graham：撼動矽谷的人
The Disruptor In The Valley
作者：Christopher Steiner
譯者：阮一峰
原載2010年11月8日的《Forbes》雜誌
Justin Kan and Emmett Shear watched their first startup, an online calendar called Kiko, implode when Google decided to do the same thing in 2006. They sold Kiko's scraps on eBay for $258,000 and wondered what to do with their lives. So the pair did the only thing they could think of: They went to see Paul Graham at his house in Cambridge, Mass., near Harvard Square. Graham sat them down and helped bang out a plan to create Justin.tv, now the Web's biggest portal for live video, with 31 million users a month and staked with $7.2 million of venture capital.
Justin Kan和Emmett Shear的第一個創業專案Kiko，是一個線上日曆。2006年，Google也推出了同樣的產品，他們就知道自己的專案完了。於是，他們把Kiko拿到eBay上拍賣，賣出了25.8萬美元。他們拿著這筆錢，不知道下一步做什麼。想來想去，他們覺得最好的辦法，還是去馬薩諸塞州的劍橋市找Paul Graham。在哈佛廣場旁邊Paul Graham的家裡，他們見到了他。Paul Graham讓他們坐下來，幫忙一起想出了一個新的創業專案Justin.tv。如今，Justin.tv成了全世界最大的影片直播入口網站，拿到了720萬美元的風險投資，一個月的使用者人數高達3100萬。
Justin.tv is hardly the first, nor the last, company Graham has sent sprinting. Graham is the father of Y Combinator, a startup-rearing juggernaut that's part incubator, part drill sergeant and part liaison to the investor class. Y Combinator--a computer term for a program that runs other programs--has fired up 200 companies since 2005, jarred the balance of power between entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley's elite money, and chiseled a new paradigm for launching technology companies. Graham's formula: Get up and running (bugs and all), gather feedback, tweak and grow.
在Paul Graham推動的創業公司之中，Justin.tv不是第一個，更不是最後一個。他創辦了Y Combinator，把扶植創業公司當成自己的使命。Y Combinator（簡稱YC）是一個孵化器，也是一個教導員，還是一個與投資人聯絡的中介。這個名字來自一個計算機術語，意思是啟動其他程式的程式。自從2005至今，YC已經幫助建立了多達200家創業公司，改寫了創業家和矽谷投資者之間的舊秩序，塑造了建立技術公司的新正規化。Paul Graham的創業公式就是：搭建原型、上線運營（別管bug）、收集反饋、調整產品、成長壯大。
YC's three-month boot camp for startups, run twice a year in Mountain View, Calif., attracts 1,000 applicants for roughly 40 spots. Graduates are expected to emerge with a working product, customers and revenue. They also get a crack at pitching their ideas to investors on Demo Day, an event that lures venture capital's Sand Hill Road crowd and every prominent angel investor in the Valley.
YC為創業公司舉辦為期三個月的訓練營，每年在加州的山景城辦兩次，每次吸引大約1000個申請者，從中挑出40個入選者。正常情況下，訓練營結束時，學員會拿出一個能夠執行的產品，有自己的客戶和收入。他們還能在"展示日"（ Demo Day）上向投資者推銷自己的產品。那一天，沙丘路（注：矽谷的一條公路，以風險投資公司聚集聞名）上的風險投資家和所有著名的矽谷天使投資人，都會蜂擁而至。
YC puts up $11,000, plus $3,000 per founder, for each company in return for a piece of pure equity of around 5%. That equity could be worth real money should the companies take off. A high price for founders, perhaps, until you see scores of venture capitalists and angel investors jousting to pay handsome premiums for companies bearing the YC stamp. Of the 36 startups in YC's recent class, ended in August, 30 have raised fresh capital, many of them over $1 million.
YC向每一個入選專案提供1.1萬美元的啟動資金，外加每個專案成員3000美元的津貼，交換條件是專案5%左右的股份。如果專案成功，5%的股份會非常值錢。那些YC入選專案的創始人，可能現在還意識不到，直到一批批風險投資家和天使投資人競相提供誘人的入股請求，他們才會醒悟，5%的股份是很高的代價。今年8月，YC最新孵化出的36家創業公司，有30家得到了風險投資，很多都超過了100萬美元。
"We didn't mean to invent this new model," says Graham, who at 45 has sandy hair and a youthful earnestness. "It all happened by accident."
"我們本來並沒有打算發明這種新模式，"Paul Graham說。他今年45歲，長著一頭淺棕色的頭髮，聲音聽上去充滿了年輕人的真誠，"這一切完全出於偶然。"
The accident was a summer program Graham started in 2005 for college students who were tinkering with business ideas. Instead of working a boring internship at a big company, Graham's pitch went, win $5,000 to work on your startup in Cambridge with guidance from Graham and his friend, MIT professor Robert Morris--two guys who launched Viaweb, a maker of software that built storefronts online, and sold it to Yahoo for $50 million in 1998.
這個"偶然"指的是2005年Paul Graham旨在幫助那些有創業念頭的大學生的一個暑期專案。他勸說他們不要去大公司當枯燥的實習生，而是在劍橋市創辦自己的公司，他們會從他和他的朋友----麻省理工學院計算機教授Robert Morris----那裡得到5000美元資助和悉心指導。Paul Graham和Robert Morris曾經一起創辦了Viaweb，那是一個幫助人們搭建網上商店的網際網路軟體，1998年被Yahoo以5000萬美元的價格收購。
"It was supposed to be a throwaway project for these students," recalls Graham. "By the end of the summer we were like,"'Whoa, we've got something here!'"
"那個暑期的校園專案只是一次性的安排，並沒有長遠打算，"Paul Graham回憶道。"可是等到結束的時候，我們的感受就像是'哇，不可思議，我們找到寶了！'"
Graham received 400 applications for the summer program. Of the 8 he accepted, 4 had blossomed into serious ventures by the end of the summer: Loopt, a social-mapping ser vice, now with 4 million users; Reddit, a user-aggregated news site acquired by Condé Nast in 2006; TextPayMe, a mobile payment service bought by Amazon in 2006; and Kiko, thwarted by Google.
那年暑假，Paul Graham收到了400份申請表。他挑了8個，到了暑假結束時，其中有4個已經做得非常像樣了。社會化地理服務網站Loopt，目前有400萬使用者；使用者聚合的新聞網站Reddit，2006年被大型出版集團Condé Nast收購；移動支付服務網站TextPayMe，2006年被Amazon收購；線上日曆網站Kiko，在本文開頭已經提到了，由於Google推出同類產品而半途夭折。
Y Combinator's influence in Silicon Valley has burgeoned ever since. Some refer to its growing network of graduates as the YC mafia. They protect their own, collaborate and, to a person, regard Graham as their sensei. Some go on to be investors and mentors in their own right.
從那時起，Y Combinator在矽谷的影響力迅速發展。有人將不斷壯大的YC畢業生關係網稱為"YC匪幫"。這些經過Paul Graham培訓的年輕人，迅速成長，互相合作，將他視為自己的導師。其中一些人，進而也成為有著自己風格的投資者和導師。
"The right advice has always been more important than money," says Greg McAdoo, a partner at Sequoia Capital, which has invested in Google, Yahoo, PayPal and YouTube. "But nobody has been able to do it on this kind of scale before."
"正確的建議，永遠比金錢更重要，"Sequoia投資公司的合夥人Greg McAdoo說。Sequoia投資公司的投資物件，包括Google、Yahoo、PayPal和YouTube。"但是，以前從沒有人做到像YC那樣大的規模。"
Jealous types claim Graham runs a fund to pick off YC's best as soon as they leave the womb. YC has raised two pools of funding from outsiders--$2 million in 2009 and $8 million in 2010, from the likes of Sequoia Capital and prominent angel investors Paul Buchheit and Aydin Senkut--but that money is only for YC's small initial equity investments. Graham concedes that individual YC partners have invested in a few startups that hadn't been able to attract much outside funding. But, he insists, YC startups have no obligation to accept additional capital from anybody.
嫉妒者聲稱，Paul Graham自己有一個基金，專門挑選YC最優秀的學員，等到他們一畢業就搶先資助。迄今為止，YC確實收到過兩筆投資，一筆是2009年的200萬美元，另一筆是2010年的800萬美元。這些錢來自Sequoia這樣的投資公司，以及Paul Buchheit、Aydin Senkut等著名的天使投資人。但是，YC只把它們用作初始的小額股權投資。Paul Graham承認，YC合夥人用個人資金投資了一些創業公司，不過那只是在它們沒有吸引到太多外部資金的情況下。他一再宣告，YC扶植的創業公司沒有義務接受任何人的強行入股。
Graham grew up outside of Pittsburgh, where his father, a physicist, designed nuclear reactors and his mother raised Graham and his sister. He started writing computer code in high school; one program predicted the flight paths of model rockets. Graham would eventually earn a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard, where he intended to concentrate on artificial intelligence.
Paul Graham在匹茲堡的郊區長大。他的父親是一個設計核反應堆的物理學家，他的母親在家照看他和他的妹妹。他從高中就開始程式設計，其中有一個程式是預測實驗火箭的飛行路線。後來，他在哈佛大學拿到了計算機博士學位，那時他的主攻方向是人工智慧。
Disenchanted by the prospects of ever building a truly intelligent machine, Graham moved on to painting, attending the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence and the Rhode Island School of Design. He jammed into a tiny New York apartment to start his art career and was often broke. "I decided to go out and solve my money problem for good," he recalls.
因為對於開發一個真正具有智慧的機器感到灰心喪氣，Paul Graham畢業後就改行當了畫家。他先到佛羅倫薩美術學院（Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze）學習，後來又去了羅德島設計學院（Rhode Island School of Design）。他棲身於紐約一間極小的公寓，開始了自己的藝術家生涯，生活過得非常窘迫，常常入不敷出。"我決定不當畫家了，首先要徹底解決自己的收入問題，"他回憶道。
Viaweb did that. Free and flush after the sale, Graham found a creative outlet writing essays and posting them to his Web page. He opined on esoteric programming issues and more accessible topics, such as "Why Nerds Are Un popular." One of his essays, "Beating the Averages," which praised Lisp, a programming language that helped Graham build Viaweb, snared 50,000 page views. "All of the sudden, I was writing for a lot of people, and that made me want to write more," he remembers.
Viaweb幫他實現了這一點。Yahoo收購Viaweb以後，Paul Graham變得既自由又富有，於是他把創造力用來寫文章，並把它們貼在自己的個人網站上。他既寫一些難懂的程式設計問題，也寫一些比較大眾化的題目，比如《為什麼書呆子不受歡迎》。他的文章《拒絕平庸》吸引了5萬人次的瀏覽量，內容是對Lisp語言的讚美，那種語言幫助他開發出了Viaweb。"突然之間，我有了一大批讀者，這促進我寫出更多的文章，"他回憶道。
Another essay, "How to Start a Startup," based on a talk he gave at Harvard, got him thinking seriously about angel investing and eventually inspired YC's formation.
他的另一篇文章《如何成立創業公司》，來源於他在哈佛大學的一次演講。那次演講使得他對天使投資進行了嚴肅的思考，最終導致了YC的成立。
Graham's three fellow founders--Morris, Jessica Livingston and Trevor Blackwell--were close confidants. Graham met Morris, an authority on the Unix computer language, at Harvard. When Bell Labs, where Unix was developed, wanted to integrate Web programming standards into Unix, it called Morris, then age 17. Livingston wrote the book Founders at Work, a collection of profiles of marquee technology entrepreneurs. (Graham was dating Livingston when YC began; they're now married.) Blackwell, another Harvard Ph.D., worked at Viaweb and later launched Anybots, which made the first walking robot that dynamically adjusts its weight distribution, like a human, as it moves across changing surfaces. The partners recently added Harjeet Taggar, who sold his startup after being part of YC's winter 2007 class.
Paul Graham還有三個夥伴：Robert Morris、Jessica Livingston和Trevor Blackwell。他們之間的關係非常親密。Paul Graham在哈佛大學讀書時結識了Robert Morris，後者是Unix系統程式設計專家。當Unix的開發者貝爾實驗室希望在Unix中加入Web程式設計標準，他們就打電話給Robert Morris，那時他只有17歲。Jessica Livingston是《Founders at Work》一書的作者，那本書收錄了許多卓越的技術創業者的故事。（YC成立後，Paul Graham與Jessica Livingston開始約會，現在他們已經結婚了。）Trevor Blackwell也是哈佛博士，起初在Viaweb工作，後來創立了Anybots，製造出了世界上第一個可以在行進中動態調整自身重量分佈的機器人，它就像真人一樣，能夠穿越不同的地表。最近，Harjeet Taggar加入成為YC新的合夥人，他是2007屆YC冬季班的學員，後來把自己的創業公司賣掉了。
Graham reckons the next crop of applications, due in late October, could hit 1,500. About 80 will earn the right to a nerve-racking interview with the founders in Mountain View. Many of the best applications come from accomplished programmers who have working product demos but lack gilt-edged Valley Rolodexes. But Graham and company aren't just looking for nifty concepts. "We realized early on that the founders matter more than the idea," Graham says.
Paul Graham估計，下一期YC訓練營的申請專案可能達到1500個（到今年10月底截止），其中80個專案的創始人會來到山景城，進行緊張的面試。很多最優秀的申請專案，來自那些高階程式設計師，他們已經做出了產品的雛形，但是苦於在矽谷中誰也不認識。不過，Paul Graham和他的公司看重的，不僅僅是那些令人叫好的創意。"我們從一開始就認識到，創始人本身比他的創意更至關重要，"他說。
YC's vetting process plays a big role in attracting investors. "You're getting prescreened deal flow," says Ron Conway, a prominent Valley angel who invested in Google, PayPal and Twitter. Conway has put capital into 20 YC companies, including 7 from the latest class. Investors are also enticed by the $200 billion of cash piled up on the balance sheets of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Intel and Qualcomm. With any luck, some YC grads may soon get snapped up.
YC的評估過程，對吸引投資者起到很大作用。"你看到的專案，都經過了嚴格篩選，"Ron Conway說。他是矽谷很著名的一個天使投資人，曾經投資過Google、Paypal和Twitter。他在20家YC創業公司有投資，包括最新一屆的7家。誘惑投資者的還有目前有利的市場形勢，蘋果、微軟、Google、思科、甲骨文和高通手頭共有2000億美元的現金，隨時可以用於收購。運氣好的話，某些YC學員一畢業就會遭到哄搶。
For startups the YC experience revolves around Thursdays. During the afternoon entrepreneurs meet for scheduled office hours with Graham or one of the other partners. They report their progress and brainstorm how to solve nagging problems. Scribbling bullet points on a white board, Graham recently implored Francis Duong and Edmond Yue of TapZilla, which offers one discounted iPhone app at a time, to get a new deal up daily. The pair had, at that point, put up 10 apps in the span of a month, selling 10,000 in all. Graham wants TapZilla to become a site where app hounds feel compelled to check in every day.
對於創業公司來說，YC的經歷大部分發生在星期四。那天下午，學員們按照約定的時間，與Paul Graham或者其他某個YC合夥人見面。他們報告專案的進展，然後一起討論如何解決一些棘手的難題。最新的一個例子是，Paul Graham在白板上列出幾個關鍵點，勸說Francis Duong和Edmond Yue做出改變。他們是網站TapZilla的創始人，這個網站每次以折扣價出售一個iPhone應用程式。Paul Graham希望提高該網站的更新頻率，每天推出一個新的交易品種。在他們談話的那個時候，TapZilla一個月推出10個應用程式，總銷售量為10000件。Paul Graham要求TapZilla變成一個iPhone應用程式愛好者每天都覺得有必要檢視一下的網站。
YC recruits say Graham has a knack for cutting straight to an idea's weakness or for amplifying its unique strengths. "His brain is a giant warehouse of startup failures and successes," says Rudy Adler, cofounder of 1000Memories, a website where people can celebrate deceased friends and family members.
根據YC新學員的說法，Paul Graham有本事一眼看出一個創意的不足之處，或者設法放大這個創意最獨特的優點。"他的大腦就是一個巨型倉庫，無數創業公司失敗和成功的案例，他都知道得清清楚楚，"Rudy Adler說。他是網站1000Memories的創始人之一，這個網站供人們悼念逝去的親友。
Adler's first idea involved a city-mapping site that tagged friends' favorite places. Graham was leery, having seen failed startups go down a similar path. Still, he let Adler and his mates give it a shot for a few weeks before refocusing them on 1000Memories, their auxiliary plan.
Rudy Adler本來想做一個都市地理服務網站，為年輕人最喜歡去的地方打上標籤。Paul Graham對這個創意持懷疑態度，他見過好幾個提供類似服務的創業公司最後都失敗了。不過，他還是讓Rudy Adler和他的夥伴先試著做上幾個星期，然後再集中精力去做他們的備選專案1000Memories。
Startups who continually lose their way can lose Graham, too. "With Paul, you're either in or you're out," says one YC graduate. "You don't want to be out."
那些總是找不對方向的創業公司，最後也會被Paul Graham放棄。"對於他來說，你要麼有前途，要麼沒前途，"一個YC畢業生說。"你可不想變得沒前途。"
A home-cooked meal follows office hours. A recent dinner featured 60 pounds of chili, made in seven Crock-Pots, served over rice. Cookies followed. A guest speaker--often plucked from technology's A-list, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Groupon founder Andrew Mason--spins tales as people eat.
面談結束後是聚餐時間，大家一起吃家常飯。最近的一次聚餐，煮了七鍋的香辣肉醬，澆在米飯上，然後還有小甜餅。吃飯的時候，還有特邀嘉賓出場，與大家見面聊天。那些嘉賓往往是技術行業的頂尖名人，比如Facebook的Mark Zuckerberg和Groupon的創始人Andrew Mason。
The avalanching interest in YC is on full display during its Demo Day. YC's warehouse space, corrugated with three rows of tables made from plywood and white melamine, overflows with angels and venture capitalists. (The space can accommodate only 150 investors at a time, so there are now three Demo Days per class.) Each startup gets two and a half minutes to make their case, show their product and leave a good impression.
業界對YC畢業生無以復加的熱情，在"展示日"當天表現得一覽無遺。YC的庫房裡塞進了三排膠合板質地、白色三聚氰胺皮膚的簡易桌子，四周坐滿了天使投資人和風險投資家。（這個庫房最多隻能容納150個投資者，所以每一屆學員的"展示日"不得不延長成3天。）每家YC創業公司有兩分半鐘的自我介紹時間，用來展示產品，力求給投資者留下美好印象。
The event is invitation only, but Graham says he allows in any investor who asks. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who has invested in several YC companies, showed up for the most recent gathering in August. Kutcher is just one of a growing group of 32,000 U.S. angel investors (so-called accredited individuals with more than $1 million in assets) who last year wrote checks totaling $12.4 billion, says Scott Shane, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University.
只有收到邀請的人才能參加這個活動，但是Paul Graham說，任何提出申請的投資者都能得到邀請。好萊塢明星黛米•摩爾和她的丈夫艾什頓•庫奇，在幾家YC創業公司有投資，他們也出現在今年八月份的"展示日"上。他們只是美國32000名天使投資人中的一員，這個團體正在日益壯大。只要你的資產超過100萬美元，就有資格當天使投資人。根據凱斯西儲大學經濟學教授Scott Shane的說法，美國的天使投資人在2009年總共拿出了124億美元。
"It's all about hype," says Laurence Albukerk, managing director of EB Financial Group, a Valley firm that facilitates trading stock in young companies. "The more hype you get, the higher your valuation."
"這都是炒作惹的禍，"EB金融集團的常務董事Laurence Albukerk說。這家集團的主要業務，是在矽谷地區幫助交易新興公司的股票。"市場炒作得越厲害，你對它們的估值就越高。"
Plenty of Valley insiders could do without all that hype, especially when the result is having to pay more for stakes in YC's offspring. "You show up and a lot of other VCs are there and everybody has good pitches, so things can get bid up," says Richard Heitzman, managing partner at FirstMark Capital, which put capital into StubHub, Netgear and TheStreet.com. "But in the end people are going to pay what they're going to pay. I don't begrudge them that value creation."
許多矽谷老手對這種炒作不滿，尤其是當他們不得不因此付出更高的價格換取YC創業公司股權的時候。"你到了現場，其他許多風險投資家也都在場，大家的眼光都不差，價格就這樣被哄抬上去了，"Richard Heitzman說。他是FirstMark Capital投資公司的執行合夥人，這家公司在StubHub、Netgear和TheStreet.com有投資。"但是最終來看，你應該付的錢總是要付的，我不會對這部分新增加的'價值'感到捨不得。"
The real winners are rising stars like Jessica Mah. "The competition this created for us was amazing," says Mah, a 20-year-old summer YC grad and founder of Indinero, a cloud-based accounting application for small businesses. (Mah graduated from Berkeley with a degree in computer science at age 19.) Indinero just raised $1.2 million in fresh capital at an undisclosed valuation. Mah says it was three times as much as Graham figured it would be.
真正的贏家是那些像Jessica Mah那樣冉冉上升的新人。"這就是為我們創造出來的比賽，真讓人著迷，"Jessica Mah說。她今年20歲，YC夏季班的學員，Indinero網站創始人，那是一個雲端的小企業財務服務網站。（Jessica Mah從加州大學伯克利分校計算機系畢業時，只有19歲。）Indinero剛剛完成了初始融資120萬美元，它的估值還不得而知。Jessica Mah說，這個金額是Paul Graham估計的三倍。
Indinero is Graham's archetype. Mah had a working prototype when she applied to join YC for the summer. Graham pushed her to add features, polish the site and incorporate the changes quickly. "Put it out there and let users decide," he says. At the end of August Mah had 2,500 customers; two months later she was up to 6,000. Critics piped up quickly, convincing Mah to make the interface more intuitive. "Watching somebody's blood pressure rise as they try to use your product can be enlightening," she says.
Indinero是Paul Graham推崇的典型模式。Jessica Mah在申請YC訓練營時，就已經完成了可以正常執行的專案原型。Paul Graham幫助她加入新功能，打磨網站，快速應變。"把你的專案放出去，讓使用者決定下一步該做什麼，"Paul Graham說。到了8月底，Jessica Mah已經有了2500個客戶，再過了兩個月，客戶數量上升到了6000。對網站的批評聲音逐漸增多，這使得Jessica Mah確信，必須讓使用者介面更符合直覺。"別人使用你的產品，你看著他們因此血壓升高，這肯定會觸動你，"她說。
Being able to prove a business concept in a hurry, even if the product isn't perfect, is especially attractive to investors, says Peter Bell, general partner with Highland Capital Partners, a venture firm in Lexington, Mass. that staked Digg, Mapquest and Ask Jeeves. "The power has always been with the entrepreneur if they have a good team and a good product," he says.
快速地證實你的構想在商業上可行，即使你的產品還不完善，也會對投資者產生特別大的吸引力，Peter Bell如是說。他是Highland Capital Partners投資公司的普通合夥人，那是一家位於馬薩諸塞州列剋星敦市的風險投資公司，在Digg、Mapquest和Ask Jeeves有投資。"如果你有一個好的團隊和一個好的產品，你肯定會因此擁有很大的主動權，"他說。
Other investors aren't so sanguine. Michael Arrington, editor of the influential blog TechCrunch, tipped the pot on a simmering controversy in September when he accused a prominent group of angel investors (whom he calls "super angels") of colluding to keep competitors out of deals and hold valuations down, partly in response to Graham's newly empowered students. Arrington crashed a dinner at Bin 38, a haute San Francisco eatery where he says the group of investors was hatching its plan. "Mike is wrong--he wasn't there," says Dave McClure, an established Valley investor and one of the angels at the meeting. (Others who were present deny the allegations as well.) McClure does acknowledge YC's effect, however. "Paul has done a great job coaching his guys on the investment side of things, and there is a lot more competition for these deals now," he adds.
另一些投資者則不太喜歡現在的局面。著名網誌TechCrunch 的編輯Michael Arrington，揭露了一場發生在今年9月份的非公開討論。他指稱，一群顯赫的天使投資人（他把他們稱為"超級天使"）密謀如何壓制競價，企圖把創業公司的估值降下來，這場討論的部分起因就是他們看到Paul Graham的那些學員的主動權正在變得越來越大。Michael Arrington闖進了舊金山Bin大街38號的一家高階餐館，據他說那些投資人就在那裡密謀。"Michael Arrington一派胡言，他那天不在現場，"Dave McClure說，他是矽谷的著名人物，也是那天在場的天使投資人之一。（其他在場的人，也否認對他們的指控。）但是，Dave McClure承認YC效應不容忽視。"指導年輕人如何獲得投資，Paul Graham成績顯著。現在（投資人）要想拿到好的專案，競爭比以前激烈多了，"他補充道。
Graham remains suspicious of the group but finds the whole dustup beside the point, given the overall size of the investor pool. "They couldn't have ever achieved anything, so the whole thing is really kind of comical," he says. Arrington disagrees: "Deals rarely get done without a few of these guys being involved," he says. "In layman's terms, what they were doing can definitely be considered collusion."
Paul Graham本人對這件事持懷疑態度，覺得外界對這件事的關注有點不正常。考慮到投資者人數的總體規模是那樣龐大，單單幾個人就試圖控制價格，似乎是不可能的。"他們不可能取得任何成果，所以整件事真的是有點滑稽，"他說。Michael Arrington不同意他的看法，"那天在場的都是重要人物，沒有他們的介入，幾乎什麼交易也做不成，"他說。"用通俗的話講，他們那天的所作所為，絕對可以被稱為串謀。"
For his part, Graham is always pushing better financing terms for entrepreneurs. One useful tool: convertible notes that turn into equity upon a startup's next valuation. The notes often come with valuation caps to protect early investors from being diluted should a company hit it big.
對於Paul Graham來說，他的立場總是設法為創業者爭取更有利的風險投資條款。"轉換券"（convertible note）就是一個很有用的工具，它的作用是在創業公司下一次估值時，自動轉換成股份。它經常附有"估值上限"（valuation cap），防止一旦創業公司做大，早期投資人的股份被稀釋。
Say a convertible note worth $1 million was equal to 50% of a startup's estimated worth at the time the note was written. Now say the company takes off and the next time it raises money it is valued at $100 million. The $1 million of debt becomes $1 million of equity, but that stake is worth just 1% of the company. However, if the note came with a valuation cap of $10 million, that means it would be worth 10%--or $1 million divided by $10 million--of that $100 million company. The caps give entrepreneurs more flexibility, allowing them to pit investors against each other by offering early backers lower valuation caps. "Convertible notes mean investors can no longer drag their heels," says Graham.
舉例來說，有一張"轉換券"價值100萬美元，相當於（轉換券簽發時）創業公司估值的50%。現在假定，這家創業公司飛黃騰達，下一次融資時，它的估值變成了1億美元。那麼，1百萬美元的"轉換券"轉換成股份，只佔總股本的1%。但是，如果這張"轉換券"帶有1千萬美元的"估值上限"，就意味著它相當於總股本1億美元的10%（這個比例的計算方法是，1百萬美元的面值佔1千萬美元的10%）。"估值上限"使得創業者有了更多的靈活性，透過向早期投資人提供較低的"估值上限"，使得投資人之間可以互相競爭。"轉換券意味著投資人沒法再扯後腿了，"Paul Graham說。
Like any good business, Graham's is drawing competition. David Cohen, chief executive of TechStars, an incubator based in Boulder, Colo. with satellites in Boston, Seattle and New York, says 100 similar outfits, mostly small, now exist across the U.S. TechStars accepts ten startups per year in each of its four markets. Those that make the cut stay for three months; 60% of its first 40 graduates have each raised more than $600,000 after leaving the program.
就像其他的生意一樣，Paul Graham也開始有競爭了。根據David Cohen的說法，目前美國類似YC的團隊有100家左右，但是大部分規模都很小。他是TechStars的執行長，那是一家位於科羅拉多州Boulder市的孵化器公司，在波士頓、西雅圖和紐約還有分支機構。TechStars在這四個地方，每年各接受10家創業公司。這些經過挑選的創業公司，會在孵化器裡待三個月。它的第一批40個畢業生離開孵化器後，有60%得到了超過60萬美元的投資。
After Cohen's group there's a clear dropoff. But more big players are ramping up their own versions of YC. Chicagoan Eric Lefkofsky, the cofounder of Groupon who's flirting with billionaire status, is planning something in his city soon.
除了David Cohen的團隊，其他團隊離YC的差距目前還比較大。但是，不少大玩家正在醞釀他們自己版本的YC。Groupon創始人之一的Eric Lefkofsky，計劃不久後在他的家鄉芝加哥有所動作，他的身價高達10億美元。
Graham welcomes the competition. "It's better for entrepreneurs," he says. "If we make a mistake and don't fund somebody great, they still have a chance."
Paul Graham對競爭表示歡迎。"這對創業者有好處，"他說。"如果我們犯錯了，沒有資助優秀的人，那麼這些人在其他地方還有機會。"
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