前面给大家发了奥特曼的创业笔记(上)，我们继续往下更他的创业笔记，不仅有英文原版，还有中文翻译版。(上)想创业做副业还是赚零花钱的 都值得看看gpt创始人奥特曼的创业笔记It’s important to let your idea evolve as you get feedback from users. And it’s critical you understand your users really well—you need this to evaluate an idea, build a great product, and build a great company.听用户的，真的很重要！你的点子能不能成，产品好不好，公司能不能做大，关键就在这儿了。得经常跟用户聊，听听他们怎么说，这样你的想法才能越磨越亮。说白了，跟用户混熟了，知道他们心里咋想的，那你离做出好产品，甚至创建个了不起的公司，也就越来越近了。
As mentioned earlier, startups are really hard. They take a very long time, and consistent intense effort. The founders and employees need to have a shared sense of mission to sustain them. So we ask why founders want to start this particular company.
就像前面说的，创办公司这条路真心不好走，得有长时间的拼命三郎精神才行。要想撑得住，创始人和团队得像被同一个使命“拴”在一起那样，同心协力。所以啊，我们会直接问创始人：你为啥要创办这家公司呢？
We also ask how the company will one day be a monopoly. There are a lot of different terms for this, but we use Peter Thiel’s. Obviously, we don’t want your company to behave in an unethical way against competitors. Instead, we’re looking for businesses that get more powerful with scale and that are difficult to copy.
我们还会好奇地探究：“你们打算怎样在未来独步江湖，成为市场的领头羊？”这里借用一下硅谷大佬彼得·蒂尔的话术，就是怎么样做到《从0到1》的那种飞跃。别误会，我们可不是鼓励你用不正当手段排挤同行。我们真正感兴趣的，是那些能够随着自身发展壮大，形成难以撼动的竞争优势，并且让对手难以复制的成功模式。
Finally, we ask about the market. We ask how big it is today, how fast it’s growing, and why it’s going to be big in ten years. We try to understand why the market is going to grow quickly, and why it’s a good market for a startup to go after. We like it when major technological shifts are just starting that most people haven’t realized yet—big companies are bad at addressing those. And somewhat counterintuitively, the best answer is going after a large part of a small market.
最后，咱们还得聊聊市场那点事儿。得问问，现在市场有多大？增速怎么样？还有，十年后它凭什么能变成个大蛋糕？咱们得深挖，看这市场为啥能火速膨胀，为啥说是创业公司起飞的绝佳跑道。我们青睐那些刚开始翻天覆地的技术变革，这时候大多数人还蒙在鼓里呢。有意思的是，大公司面对这种新变化，往往显得力不从心。你可能没想到，最好的打法其实是从小市场起家，先把一亩三分地牢牢握在手里。
A few other thoughts on ideas:
聊聊其他关于想法的方面
We greatly prefer something new to something derivative. Most really big companies start with something fundamentally new (one acceptable definition of new is 10x better.) If there are ten other companies starting at the same time with the same plan, and it sounds a whole lot like something that already exists, we are skeptical.
咱们通常对新鲜玩意儿情有独钟，不太感冒那些炒冷饭的。你瞅瞅，那些超牛的大公司，大多是从啥革命性的新点子起家的。（说新，咱指的是要比老家伙们强上十倍才算数！）要是有十来家公司，脑袋里装的都是差不多的点子，还非得挤破头去做些市面上已经有的东西，那咱们可就得好好打个问号了。
One important counterintuitive reason for this is that it’s easier to do something new and hard than something derivative and easy. People will want to help you and join you if it’s the former; they will not if it’s the latter.
有时候，干那些新鲜又棘手的活儿，反而比捣鼓那些老一套的简单事儿来得轻松。为啥呢？因为新事物能激起大家伙的兴趣和热情，大伙儿乐意搭把手，甚至想跟着你一起干。反过来，要是你搞的跟别人没啥两样，那些老手公司玩得比你还溜，想拉个帮手都难哦。
The best ideas sound bad but are in fact good. So you don’t need to be too secretive with your idea—if it’s actually a good idea, it likely won’t sound like it’s worth stealing. Even if it does sound like it’s worth stealing, there are at least a thousand times more people that have good ideas than people who are willing to do the kind of work it takes to turn a great idea into a great company. And if you tell people what you’re doing, they might help.
有些绝妙的点子，乍一听可能挺不靠谱，但实际上却是金点子。所以，你不必把好想法捂得严严实实的——真要是个好主意，人家听了兴许还觉得不值得一偷呢。就算你的点子听起来诱人得很，想剽窃一把，但现实中，愿意为了一个好主意豁出去，真枪实弹干一场，把这好点子变成好公司的人，少之又少。反过来说，你大方分享自己在干啥，说不定还能引来援手，帮你一把呢。
Speaking of telling people your idea—while it’s important the idea really excites some people the first time they hear it, almost everyone is going to tell you that your idea sucks. Maybe they are right. Maybe they are not good at evaluating startups, or maybe they are just jealous. Whatever the reason is, it will happen a lot, it will hurt, and even if you think you’re not going to be affected by it, you still will be. The faster you can develop self-belief and not get dragged down too much by haters, the better off you’ll be. No matter how successful you are, the haters will never go away.
分享你的创意时，你会发现，哪怕你的点子足够燃，能点燃一部分人的心，但绝大多数人可能还是会朝你泼冷水，说你的点子不咋地。他们可能是对的，也可能只是不擅长看准创业的潜力，又或者是单纯的羡慕嫉妒恨。不管出于什么原因，这样的打击是常有的事，而且，别以为你能毫发无伤，它总能戳中你的软肋。所以，你得学会快速给自己充电，建立起自信的防护罩，别让那些负能量的评论给影响了。记住，就算你爬得再高，批评声也不会消失，学会与它们和平共处，是成长的一部分。
What if you don’t have an idea but want to start a startup? Maybe you shouldn’t. It’s so much better if the idea comes first and the startup is the way to get the idea out into the world.
如果你心里还没个成熟的点子，但却跃跃欲试想创业，那可得三思而后行。最好是先憋个大招，有了好想法再启程，这样你的创业之路才会走得更顺溜。别急着上车，先找到那个值得你全力以赴的方向再说。
We once tried an experiment where we funded a bunch of promising founding teams with no ideas in the hopes they would land on a promising idea after we funded them.
我们以前试过一个新鲜玩法，就是投资给那些超级厉害，但还没想到具体干啥的创业团队。我们的小算盘是，给他们注资后，这些智囊团能碰撞出些有搞头的点子来。
All of them failed. I think part of the problem is that good founders tend to have lots of good ideas (too many, usually). But an even bigger problem is that once you have a startup you have to hurry to come up with an idea, and because it’s already an official company the idea can’t be too crazy. You end up with plausible sounding but derivative ideas. This is the danger of pivots.
结果呢，这些尝试大多没能成气候。我觉得吧，一方面是因为优秀的创始人脑子里往往装满了（可能还多到溢出来）好点子。但更关键的问题出在，一旦团队成立了公司，压力就来了，得火急火燎地找个点子落地。偏偏这时候，你的点子还不能太离谱，得靠谱点，毕竟公司已经板上钉钉了。这么一来，最后选出的那些点子，听着是挺稳妥，可就是缺了那么点新意和冲击力。这，就是个大坑啊。
So it’s better not to try too actively to force yourself to come up with startup ideas. Instead, learn about a lot of different things. Practice noticing problems, things that seem inefficient, and major technological shifts. Work on projects you find interesting. Go out of your way to hang around smart, interesting people. At some point, ideas will emerge.
所以啊，别太使劲儿逼自己非得憋出个创业金点子不可。还不如多涉猎些不同领域的知识，练就一双发现问题的火眼金睛，对那些效率低下的地方保持敏感。多留心那些能掀起大浪的技术革命。投身于你真正感兴趣的项目，和聪明又有趣的灵魂多混混。说不准哪天，创业的火花就在不经意间闪现了。
好团队（A GREAT TEAM）
Mediocre teams do not build great companies. One of the things we look at the most is the strength of the founders. When I used to do later-stage investing, I looked equally hard at the strength of the employees the founders hired.
要想成就一番伟业，平平无奇的团队可顶不上用。咱们特别看重的，就是创始人那两把刷子。以前我搞后期投资的时候，除了创始人，他们招的员工实力也是我考察的重点。毕竟，人才是王道嘛。
What makes a great founder? The most important characteristics are ones like unstoppability, determination, formidability, and resourcefulness. Intelligence and passion also rank very highly. These are all much more important than experience and certainly “expertise with language X and framework Y”.
一个牛气冲天的创始人靠啥脱颖而出？首先得有股子不达目的誓不罢休的狠劲儿，决心比钢铁还硬，脑子转得快，遇事冷静机智。聪明的头脑和对事业的狂热，这两样也缺不了。相比之下，经验多少，或是会不会这语言那技术框架的，倒是次要了。
We have noticed the most successful founders are the sort of people who are low-stress to work with because you feel “he or she will get it done, no matter what it is.” Sometimes you can succeed through sheer force of will.
我们发现，那些最能打的创始人，都是让人安心的存在，和他们共事，你心里有底，总觉得“不管啥难题，到他那儿都能迎刃而解”。有时候，光凭那份坚韧不拔的意志，他们就能闯出一片天。
Good founders have a number of seemingly contradictory traits. One important example is rigidity and flexibility. You want to have strong beliefs about the core of the company and its mission, but still be very flexible and willing to learn new things when it comes to almost everything else.
厉害的创始人身上，常常能看到一些看似矛盾的特质。比如说，既要有坚持到底的韧劲儿，对自己的公司理念和使命坚定不移，又得在别的方面灵活多变，乐于接受新事物，随时准备好学习成长。这就像是，心里有个铁打不动的信念轴，但身体却能像柳枝一样随风摆动，适应万千变化。
The best founders are unusually responsive. This is an indicator of decisiveness, focus, intensity, and the ability to get things done.
顶级的创始人，那反应速度，快得跟闪电似的。这不光说明他们做事果决，目标明确，专注力满格，更意味着他们搞定任务的能力杠杠的。
Founders that are hard to talk to are almost always bad. Communication is a very important skill for founders—in fact, I think this is the most important rarely-discussed founder skill.
沟通不畅的创始人，几乎无一例外，都会让事情变得棘手。对创始人来说，沟通可是一项超级重要的技能，而且我觉得，这是最被低估的创始人必备素质之一，真的太关键了，却经常被忽略。
Tech startups need at least one founder who can build the company’s product or service, and at least one founder who is (or can become) good at sales and talking to users. This can be the same person.
科技创业，队伍里得有这么一号人物，能亲手打造出公司的产品和服务。还得有另一位，要么天生擅长，要么能快速学会，搞定销售和用户沟通的活儿。当然，这俩角色要是能合二为一，也是极好的。
Consider these criteria when you’re choosing a cofounder -- it’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make, and it’s often done fairly randomly. You want someone you know well, not someone you just met at a cofounder dating thing. You can evaluate anyone you might work with better with more data, and you really don’t want to get this one wrong. Also, at some point, the expected value of the startup is likely to dip below the X axis. If you have a pre-existing relationship with your cofounders, none of you will want to let the other down and you’ll keep going. Cofounder breakups are one of the leading causes of death for early startups, and we see them happen very, very frequently in cases where the founders met for the express purpose of starting the company.
挑联合创始人，这可是大事儿一桩，但奇怪的是，很多人却做得挺随意。记得，要选那个你已经熟悉的“老铁”，而不是昨晚创业趴上刚加微信的“新朋友”。多探探底，这样才能心里有数，判断这家伙是不是能跟你并肩作战的好队友。毕竟，这种事儿真犯不着将就，选错了后悔都来不及。还有啊，创业路上难免有坑，公司估值也可能说跌就跌，这时候，如果你们之前就有深厚的革命友谊，谁也不想先放手，自然就能拧成一股绳，共渡难关。说起来，好多创业公司折戟，就是因为合伙人之间闹崩了。常见的情况是，那些为了创业临时凑一块儿的搭档，更容易走到这一步。
The best case, by far, is to have a good cofounder. The next best is to be a solo founder. The worse case, by far, is to have a bad cofounder. If things are not working out, you should part ways quickly.
最理想的，是能找到一个超棒的联合创始人，俩人携手打天下。退而求其次，单打独斗其实也不错，至少自己说了算。最糟心的，就是摊上个不给力的搭档，那真是拖后腿的节奏。一旦发现合作不对劲，赶紧和平分手，长痛不如短痛。
A quick note on equity: the conversation about the equity split does not get easier with time—it’s better to set it early on. Nearly equal is best, though perhaps in the case of two founders it’s best to have one person with one extra share to prevent deadlocks when the cofounders have a fallout.
股权这事儿，得趁早解决，拖得越久，麻烦越多，到时候分蛋糕的讨论可就更头疼了。差不多平分股权是不错的，但如果就你们俩合伙，最好稍微倾斜一点，一个人多拿点，免得意见不合时，卡在那里动弹不得，事儿也办不成。
好团队（A GREAT PRODUCT）
Here is the secret to success: have a great product. This is the only thing all great companies have in common.
说个秘诀给你听，想成功？那就得有个顶呱呱的产品！这可是所有牛气冲天的公司共有的“独门秘籍”。
If you do not build a product users love you will eventually fail. Yet founders always look for some other trick. Startups are the point in your life when tricks stop working.
要是你做不出那种让用户爱不释手的产品，早晚得栽跟头。创始人们有时爱耍些小聪明，想绕过这铁打的规则，但在创业这场硬仗里，这些小伎俩可都不顶用。
A great product is the only way to grow long-term. Eventually your company will get so big that all growth hacks stop working and you have to grow by people wanting to use your product. This is the most important thing to understand about super-successful companies. There is no other way. Think about all of the really successful technology companies—they all do this.
长远来看，好产品才是拉动增长的王道。即便你一时用了些别的招数促进增长，但公司越做越大时，你会发现那些招儿渐渐都不灵了，唯有让大家心甘情愿用你的产品，才是硬道理。这可是揭秘那些超级成功公司的关键点，没有捷径可走。随便拎出一个真正牛气的科技公司，都是这么干的。别无他法，就这么实在。
You want to build a “product improvement engine” in your company. You should talk to your users and watch them use your product, figure out what parts are sub-par, and then make your product better. Then do it again. This cycle should be the number one focus of the company, and it should drive everything else. If you improve your product 5% every week, it will really compound.
你得在公司里头搞个“产品升级滚雪球”模式。多跟用户聊聊天，亲眼看看他们怎么摆弄你的产品，找找哪里不顺手，然后动手把它优化。这事儿得周而复始地干。“产品改良飞轮”得成为公司的头等大事，带动一切运转。要是每周都能让产品提升个5%，那增长可就是指数级的了，威力大着呢。
The faster the repeat rate of this cycle, the better the company usually turns out. During YC, we tell founders they should be building product and talking to users, and not much else besides eating, sleeping, exercising, and spending time with their loved ones.
这循环转得越溜，你的公司就越能跑得飞起。在YC，我们经常跟创业者念叨，除了吃饭、睡觉、保持锻炼和陪家人这些基本操作，其他时间都得扑在产品上，跟用户聊到嗨，别的事儿尽量靠边站。
To do this cycle right, you have to get very close to your users. Literally watch them use your product. Sit in their office if you can. Value both what they tell you and what they actually do. You should not put anyone between the founders and the users for as long as possible—that means the founders need to do sales, customer support, etc.
你得跟用户贴得紧紧的，确保这循环转得准没错。亲眼瞅瞅他们是怎么摆弄你的产品的。要是条件允许，直接杀到他们办公室去观察。还得留个心眼，比对比对，用户嘴上说的和实际行动是不是一回事。中间别隔着人，销售啊，客服啊这些直接跟用户打交道的活儿，自己亲自上阵，这样才能摸到最真实的脉搏。
Understand your users as well as you possibly can. Really figure out what they need, where to find them, and what makes them tick.
使劲浑身解数，去读懂你的用户，真心实意搞明白他们心底的渴望，还有啥能触动他们的小心脏。
“Do things that don’t scale” has rightfully become a mantra for startups. You usually need to recruit initial users one at a time (Ben Silbermann used to approach strangers in coffee shops in Palo Alto and ask them to try Pinterest) and then build things they ask for. Many founders hate this part, and just want to announce their product in the press. But that almost never works. Recruit users manually, and make the product so good the users you recruit tell their friends.
在创业圈里头，亲自上阵，做那些乍一看不怎么上得了台面的事情，已经成了大家默默认可的“潜规则”。你得一个接一个地拉拢最初的用户，就像Pinterest的创始人Ben Silbermann那样，跑到帕罗奥图的咖啡馆，挨个儿邀请路人甲乙丙尝鲜。接着，你得按照这些用户的口味，定制他们想要的功能。很多创业者其实挺抵触这一步，一心想着能在媒体上大肆宣传一番就一夜成名。但现实往往是冷水一盆，这招儿几乎不管用。得亲自动手拉用户，把产品打磨得无可挑剔，好到让你的第一批用户主动安利给他们的朋友们，这才是正道。
You also need to break things into very small pieces, and iterate and adapt as you go. Don’t try to plan too far out, and definitely don’t batch everything into one big public release. You want to start with something very simple—as little surface area as possible—and launch it sooner than you’d think. In fact, simplicity is always good, and you should always keep your product and company as simple as possible.
你还得学会把大任务拆成一小块一小块，边干边调整，步步迭代。别老想着搞什么长远大计，也别指望一次性憋个大招出来。从小处着手，越简单越好，然后嗖嗖地推向市场，速度要快到超出你的想象。简单，这事儿怎么强调都不过分，让你的产品，还有你的公司，始终保持简洁高效，这是王道。
Some common questions we ask startups having problems: Are users using your product more than once? Are your users fanatical about your product? Would your users be truly bummed if your company went away? Are your users recommending you to other people without you asking them to do it? If you’re a B2B company, do you have at least 10 paying customers?
遇到状况不太妙的公司，我们常会这么拷问：你的用户会回头再来用你的产品吗？他们对你的产品是不是爱得死去活来？假如你公司哪天真垮了，用户们会不会伤心难过？有没有用户主动当起你的免费宣传员，跟别人安利你的产品？如果你是做企业服务的，手头上有没有至少10个掏钱给你的忠实客户？
If not, then that’s often the underlying problem, and we tell companies to make their product better. I am skeptical about most excuses for why a company isn’t growing—very often the real reason is that the product just isn’t good enough.
如果这些问题的答案都是否定的，那问题的根源很可能就是产品本身不够给力。对于公司发展停滞的各种理由，我多半是半信半疑的，真相往往很简单，就是产品还没到让用户痴迷的程度。
When startups aren’t sure what to do next with their product, or if their product isn’t good enough, we send them to go talk to their users. This doesn’t work in every case—it’s definitely true that people would have asked Ford for faster horses—but it works surprisingly often. In fact, more generally, when there’s a disagreement about anything in the company, talk to your users.
当创业公司摸不清产品下一步的路怎么走，或者心里打鼓产品是不是够好时，我们会劝他们直接去找用户聊聊。当然了，这招也不总是灵丹妙药，就像问亨利·福特的客户，他们大概率会说想要更快的马。但出乎意料的是，很多时候这招还真能点醒梦中人。而且，如果你团队里头意见不一，闹分歧，那也赶紧去用户那儿找找答案吧。
The best founders seem to care a little bit too much about product quality, even for seemingly unimportant details. But it seems to work. By the way, “product” includes all interactions a user has with the company. You need to offer great support, great sales interactions, etc.
顶尖的创始人，他们对产品品质的追求近乎苛刻，哪怕是微不足道的小细节也不放过。这招看似过了头，实则效果杠杠的。记住，所谓产品，不仅仅是指实物，还包括用户与公司间的每一次互动，从客服到销售，每一步体验都得做到位，样样都得精雕细琢。
Remember, if you haven’t made a great product, nothing else will save you.
记住了，手上没个硬核产品，其他啥招数都是白搭，救不了场的。
好执行（GREAT EXECUTION）
Although it’s necessary to build a great product, you’re not done after that. You still have to turn it into a great company, and you have to do it yourself—the fantasy of hiring an “experienced manager” to do all this work is both extremely prevalent and a graveyard for failed companies. You cannot outsource the work to someone else for a long time.
做好产品只是第一步，接下来的挑战是，得把这好产品转变成一家棒棒的公司，而且这事儿得亲力亲为。想着雇个职业经理人来帮你搞定一切，这种念头挺普遍，但往往不靠谱。长期依赖别人来替你操盘，这条路是走不通的。
This sounds obvious, but you have to make money. This would be a good time to start thinking about how that’s going to work.
还有一条明摆着的道理，你得赚到真金白银。现在就开始琢磨怎么赚钱，这事儿可不嫌早。
The only universal job description of a CEO is to make sure the company wins. You can do this as the founder even if you have a lot of flaws that would normally disqualify you as a CEO as long as you hire people that complement your own skills and let them do their jobs. That experienced CEO with a fancy MBA may not have the skill gaps you have, but he or she won’t understand the users as well, won’t have the same product instincts, and won’t care as much.
身为CEO，你的头号任务就是确保公司能赢。哪怕你是创始人，或许有些CEO的标配技能你还欠点火候，但只要能招到人来补你的短板，发挥他们的强项，这活儿你照样能干得漂漂亮亮。跟那些拿着顶级商学院镀金文凭、经验丰富的CEO比，你可能在某些技能上显得不够专业，但你更懂用户心思，产品感觉更敏锐，对自家公司那也是掏心掏肺的上心。这些，可都是你的独门秘籍。
好执行 - 增长（GROWTH）Growth and momentum are the keys to great execution.Growth (as long as it is not “sell dollar bills for 90 cents” growth) solves all problems, and lack of growth is not solvable by anything but growth. If you’re growing, it feels like you’re winning, and people are happy. If you’re growing, there are new roles and responsibilities all the time, and people feel like their careers are advancing. If you’re not growing, it feels like you’re losing, and people are unhappy and leave. If you’re not growing, people just fight over responsibilities and blame.
持续增长和正面的发展趋势，是执行到位的不二法门。好的增长（当然，不能是亏本赚吆喝的那种）能搞定几乎所有难题，而增长不足嘛，唯有通过加速增长来破解，没别的出路。增长起来，感觉就像是胜仗一场接一场，团队士气高涨，乐呵呵的。增长一来，新岗位、新职责层出不穷，大家感觉个人发展蹭蹭的。反过来，要是停滞不前，那感觉就是在走下坡路，人心涣散，团队成员可能就不干了。没了增长，办公室里就开始上演权力的游戏，互相推诿责任也成了常态。
Founders and employees that are burn out nearly always work at startups without momentum. It’s hard to overstate how demoralizing it is.
没有增长的公司，里面笼罩着一种压抑的气氛，创始人和员工都像被榨干了力气，心情down到谷底。这种低气压有多难受，真的是谁经历谁知道。
The prime directive of great execution is “Never lose momentum”. But how do you do it?
要玩转出色的执行，核心法则就是：保持增长势头不减。但关键来了，这事儿具体怎么干呢？
The most important way is to make it your top priority. The company does what the CEO measures. It’s valuable to have a single metric that the company optimizes, and it’s worth time to figure out the right growth metric. If you care about growth, and you set the execution bar, the rest of the company will focus on it.
我觉得，最关键的一招是，得把增长当作头等大事来抓。CEO盯着啥指标，整个团队就会往哪儿使劲儿。有个好的衡量标准太重要了，值得你花时间细细琢磨，找到那个能准确反映增长的指标。你重视增长，定了规矩，团队自然而然就会跟上步伐，一起冲着增长的目标前进。
Here are a couple of examples.
说一些案例。
The founders of Airbnb drew a forward-looking graph of the growth they wanted to hit. They posted this everywhere—on their fridge, above their desks, on their bathroom mirror. If they hit the number that week, great. If not, it was all they talked about.
Airbnb的创始人们确实做得很到位，他们通过绘制并广泛展示公司的增长愿景图，有效地将增长目标深植于每个团队成员的心中。不论是办公室的冰箱门、工作台还是私密如厕所镜子，无一不成为了他们提醒和激励自我的“阵地”。这种方式创造了一种文化：每周达标，大家共同庆祝；稍有不及，这立刻成为全员关注和讨论的核心，促使每个人反思和探讨如何改进，确保团队始终朝着既定的增长轨道前进。这是一种极其有力的团队动员策略，确保了目标的透明度和紧迫性，让每个员工都成为了公司增长故事的积极参与者。
Mark Zuckerberg once said that one of the most important innovations at Facebook was their establishment of a growth group when growth slowed. This group was (and perhaps still is) one of the most prestigious groups in the company—everyone knew how important it was.
扎克伯格有句话说得好，Facebook的神来之笔之一，就是在增长脚步慢下来那会儿，组建了个增长小分队。这个团队，说不准现在还是公司里头最风光、最有牌面的呢，谁不知道他们分量重啊！
Keep a list of what’s blocking growth. Talk as a company about how you could grow faster. If you know what the limiters are, you’ll naturally think about how to address them.
要做个事儿，先把拦路石找出来。列个清单，写写那些拖慢增长脚步的家伙。然后，拉着团队一块儿脑暴，琢磨咋样才能火速提速。当你心里有数，知道是啥绊住了发展的腿脚，解决的办法自然也就冒泡了。
For anything you consider doing, ask yourself “Is this the best way to optimize growth?” For example, going to a conference is not usually the best way to optimize growth, unless you expect to sell a lot there.
干啥事儿前，先琢磨琢磨：“这么做，是真的能帮咱快速增长吗？”比如，跑去开会这事儿吧，除非你打定主意要在那儿成交一大笔，否则，这多半不是增长的最优解。
Extreme internal transparency around metrics (and financials) is a good thing to do. For some reason, founders are always really scared of this. But it’s great for keeping the whole company focused on growth. There seems to be a direct correlation between how focused on metrics employees at a company are and how well they’re doing. If you hide the metrics, it’s hard for people to focus on them.
把公司的数据指标（还有财务状况）摊开了给大家看，其实挺好的。创始人有时候会对此特别犯怵，但这么做确实能整个团队的心往一处想，劲往一处使，全都盯着增长使劲。你信不信，员工对这些数字上心的程度，跟他们工作干得怎么样，几乎是正相关。你要捂着藏着，大伙儿也就没法跟这些数字较上劲了。
Speaking of metrics, don’t fool yourself with vanity metrics. The common mistake here is to focus on signups and ignore retention. But retention is as important to growth as new user acquisition.
说到数据指标，可别让那些好看不中用的“面子数据”把你忽悠了。很多人都容易掉进这样一个坑：光盯着新用户注册数傻乐，却忘了留住老用户才是王道。记住，留存率和拉新一样，都是增长的大功臣，一个都不能少。
It’s also important to establish an internal cadence to keep momentum. You want to have a “drumbeat” of progress—new features, customers, hires, revenue milestones, partnerships, etc that you can talk about internally and externally.
保持增长的热乎劲儿，内部节奏得跟上。得让公司运作像打拍子一样，有条不紊地推进：新功能嗖嗖上线，新客户源源不断，新人陆续报到，营收目标一个个拿下，合作伙伴也是一个接一个牵手成功。这些好消息，不仅内部要常挂嘴边，对外也得时不时晒晒成绩单。
You should set aggressive but borderline achievable goals and review progress every month. Celebrate wins! Talk internally about strategy all the time, tell everyone what you’re hearing from customers, etc. The more information you share internally—good and bad—the better you’ll be.
定目标嘛，就得胆大心细，既要敢想敢拼，又得跳一跳够得着。每个月都得回头看看，进度条到哪儿了。甭管大小，每个胜利都得好好庆祝一番！战略讨论得常开，让大伙儿都参与进来，还有你从客户那儿听来的那些事儿，也得跟大家分享分享。好事儿坏事儿都敞开说，信息越透明，公司这艘船就越能稳稳当当地向前开。
There are a few traps that founders often fall into. One is that if the company is growing like crazy but everything seems incredibly broken and inefficient, everyone worries that things are going to come unraveled. In practice, this seems to happen rarely (Friendster is the most recent example of a startup dying because of technical debt that I can point to.) Counterintuitively, it turns out that it’s good if you’re growing fast but nothing is optimized—all you need to do is fix it to get more growth! My favorite investments are in companies that are growing really fast but incredibly un-optimized—they are deeply undervalued.
创始人啊，常常会踩进一些坑里。其中一个就是，公司要是突飞猛进，但看起来处处乱糟糟，效率低得吓人，这时候大家心里都会嘀咕，担心局面要失控了。但实际上，这种情况真没那么频繁上演（当然，也有例外，比如Friendster，这家初创公司就是最近因技术债缠身而陨落的例子）。让人意想不到的是，如果你的业务增长飞快，但管理得一团乱麻，这反而是个好兆头。为啥？因为你只需把这些乱七八糟的问题收拾收拾好，增长速度还能再上一层楼！说实在的，我最爱投的就是这种类型——增长迅猛但一团乱的公司，它们的价值被大大低估了。
A related trap is thinking about problems too far in the future—i.e. “How are we going to do this at massive scale?” The answer is to figure it out when you get there. Far more startups die while debating this question than die because they didn’t think about it enough. A good rule of thumb is to only think about how things will work at 10x your current scale. Most early-stage startups should put “Do things that don’t scale” up on their wall and live by it. As an example, great startups always have great customer service in the early days, and bad startups worry about the impact on the unit economics and that it won’t scale. But great customer service makes for passionate early users, and as the product gets better you need less support, because you’ll know what customers commonly struggle with and improve the product/experience in those areas. (By the way, this is a really important example—have great customer support.)
还有一个坑，就是老爱纠结那些遥不可及的未来问题，比如：“将来规模一大，这问题咋整？”正确的姿势是，啥时候真碰上了，啥时候再去想辙。其实，好多初创公司不是倒在准备不足上，而是争论这些未来问题上。有个实用小贴士：你只需要考虑当前规模再翻个十倍左右的事儿就行。对于初创阶段，"做那些没法规模化的事儿"应该成为你的座右铭。好比说，优秀的创业公司开头儿都会提供超赞的客服，而不咋地的公司就整天愁这玩意儿会拖盈利后腿，还担心没法扩大规模。但你知道吗？超棒的客服能让你赢得早期用户的芳心。随着产品越来越完善，你会发现客服需求慢慢减少了，因为你早就摸清了用户常遇到的那些坑，并且早早地在产品和服务上做了优化。哦，对了，提供顶级的客户服务，这事儿真的特别特别重要。
There’s a big catch to this—”Do things that don’t scale” does not excuse you from having to eventually make money. It’s ok to have bad unit economics in the early days, but you have to have a good reason for why the unit economics are going to work out later.
这话儿听着好听，但得小心别掉进坑里——“做那些没法长久扩大的事儿”可不能成为你迟迟不赚钱的挡箭牌。创业初期，单位经济效益差点儿意思，这还算正常，但你得有理有据地说清楚，将来咋样能扭亏为盈，提升经济效益。别光顾着情怀，不谈面包。
Another trap is getting demoralized because growth is bad in absolute numbers even though it’s good on a percentage basis. Humans are very bad at intuition around exponential growth. Remind your team of this, and that all giant companies started growing from small numbers.
还有一个坑，就是有时候增长率按比例算挺喜人，但实际增长的数字却小得让人泄气。咱们得承认，对于指数级增长这事儿，人的直觉可不怎么靠谱。得跟团队多念叨念叨，那些巨头公司，个个都是从小不点一步步膨胀起来的。别小看了现在的基数，未来潜力大着呢！
Some of the biggest traps are the things that founders believe will deliver growth but in practice almost never work and suck up a huge amount of time. Common examples are deals with other companies and the “big press launch”. Beware of these and understand that they effectively never work. Instead get growth the same way all great companies have—by building a product users love, recruiting users manually first, and then testing lots of growth strategies (ads, referral programs, sales and marketing, etc.) and doing more of what works. Ask your customers where you can find more people like them.
创业路上，有些大坑不得不防，比如创始人一门心思搞的那些看似能催增长的招儿，其实大多时候都不怎么管用，还白白浪费了大把时间。像跟别的公司搞联姻、搞些“轰动新闻发布会”之类的，听着热闹，其实效果寥寥。你得认清楚，这些花架子不顶事儿。学学那些大公司是怎么起来的，关键是做出让用户爱不释手的产品，亲自上阵拉拢第一批用户，各种增长路子（广告啦、推荐奖励啦、销售和市场推广等）都试试水，看哪种真有用，就往死里砸。别忘了问你的用户，去哪儿能找到更多跟他们相似的人，这招儿实用得很。
Remember that sales and marketing are not bad words. Though neither will save you if you don’t have a great product, they can both help accelerate growth substantially. If you’re an enterprise company, it’s likely a requirement that your company get good at these.
别忘了，销售和营销这俩词儿，可不含糊，不是啥坏事。虽说没有硬核产品打底，光靠它们救不了场，但它们确确实实能给你的增长踩上油门，飙起来。尤其你要是干toB这行的，加强销售和营销这块的肌肉，那可是必需的。
Don’t be afraid of sales especially. At least one founder has to get good at asking people to use your product and give you money.
别对销售犯怵，这事儿挺重要。团队里头，怎么着也得有位老大，能说会道，既能说服人用你的产品，又能搞定收钱的事儿。
Alex Schultz gave a lecture on growth for consumer products that’s well worth watching. For B2B products, I think the right answer is almost always to track revenue growth per month, and remember that the longer sales cycle means the first couple of months are going to look ugly (though sometimes selling to startups as initial customers can solve this problem).
Alex Schultz有场聊ToC公司怎么搞增长的演讲，真挺火的，值得你抽空瞧瞧。至于ToB产品这边，得盯紧每个月的进账增长。记住了，销售周期一长，头几个月数据可能不太好看。（不过，有时候先从初创公司下手，把他们发展成你的首批客户，这招能缓解点压力。）
好执行 - 专注与高强度投入（FOCUS & INTENSITY）If I had to distill my advice about how to operate down to only two words, I’d pick focus and intensity. These words seem to really apply to the best founders I know.
如果非得让我用两个词儿概括运营心得，那肯定是“专心致志”和“火力全开”。这两个词简直就是我见过的顶尖创始人们的标签。
They are relentlessly focused on their product and growth. They don’t try to do everything—in fact, they say no a lot (this is hard because the sort of people that start companies are the sort of people that like doing new things.)
他们一门心思地“专心”在产品和增长上，不啥都插一手，反而经常对各种诱惑说“不”（这事儿挺难，毕竟创业者天生爱尝鲜）。
As a general rule, don’t let your company start doing the next thing until you’ve dominated the first thing. No great company I know of started doing multiple things at once—they start with a lot of conviction about one thing, and see it all the way through. You can do far fewer things than you think. A very, very common cause of startup death is doing too many of the wrong things. Prioritization is critical and hard. (Equally important to setting the company’s priorities is setting your own tactical priorities. What I’ve found works best for me personally is a pen-and-paper list for each day with ~3 major tasks and ~30 minor ones, and an annual to-do list of overall goals.)
一般来说，你得先把一件事儿搞定了，再去想下一件。那些牛气哄哄的公司，一开始也没啥三头六臂，多半是死磕一件事儿，做到极致。你觉得自己能干不少活儿，其实远比想象的要少得多。好多初创公司之所以折了，就是摊子铺太大，干了一堆不该干的。所以，定好轻重缓急，超级重要，但也是个技术活儿。（不光公司得有优先级，你自己也得划重点。我个人呢，每天列个三项必做大事和三十个小任务的清单，再加上一年的总目标列表，这法子挺好使。）
While great founders don’t do many big projects, they do whatever they do very intensely. They get things done very quickly. They are decisive, which is hard when you’re running a startup—you will get a lot of conflicting advice, both because there are multiple ways to do things and because there’s a lot of bad advice out there. Great founders listen to all of the advice and then quickly make their own decisions.
厉害的创始人不会贪多嚼不烂，他们会专心致志做好手头的每一件事。动作快，决策准，这在创业公司里头可不容易，毕竟天天都有各种意见往耳朵里灌，还经常是自相矛盾的。有时候这些建议能引你走上新路子，有时候纯属瞎指挥。但高手们会耐心听完所有话，然后当机立断，自己拿主意。
Please note that this doesn’t mean doing everything intensely—that’s impossible. You have to pick the right things. As Paul Buchheit says, find ways to get 90% of the value with 10% of the effort. The market doesn’t care how hard you work—it only cares if you do the right things.
注意了，这可不是让你啥事儿都拼了老命去干，那样根本不现实。关键是要挑对事儿来做。就像保罗·布赫海特（Y Combinator的合伙人，Gmail的爸爸）说的那样，得找到那种，花十分之一的力气，就能捞到九成好处的法子。市场才不管你流了多少汗，它就认准了，你是不是找准了门道。
It’s very hard to be both obsessed with product quality and move very quickly. But it’s one of the most obvious tells of a great founder.
要做到既对产品品质死磕到底，又能手脚麻利快如闪电，这确实是个大挑战。但说真的，这恰恰是顶尖创始人最闪亮的标签之一。
I have never, not once, seen a slow-moving founder be really successful.
我还没见过哪个慢性子的创始人，能真真切切地闯出一片天呢。
You are not different from other startups. You still have to stay focused and move fast. Companies building rockets and nuclear reactors still manage to do this. All failing companies have a pet explanation for why they are different and don’t have to move fast.
别觉得自己创业就多了不起，特殊到哪儿去。专注加上行动迅速，这俩是标配。就连造火箭、搞核反应堆这些高精尖的公司，都在拼命往这上面靠呢。那些倒下的公司，每家都能讲出一套自己的苦衷，说为啥他们不一样，不用急。可结果呢？道理很简单，不快不行。
When you find something that works, keep going. Don’t get distracted and do something else. Don’t take your foot off the gas.
一旦摸准门道，就得乘胜追击，别让杂七杂八的事儿分散了注意力。脚底下可得踩紧了，别松油门。
Don’t get caught up in early success—you didn’t get off to a promising start by going to lots of networking events and speaking on lots of panels. Startup founders who start to have initial success have a choice of two paths: either they keep doing what they’re doing, or they start spending a lot of time thinking about their “personal brand” and enjoying the status of being a founder.
别让刚开头的那点甜头迷了眼，也别一头扎进应酬堆里，或者一门心思建什么个人形象。创业初期，小有成就后，摆在创始人面前有两条路：要么继续埋头苦干，要么就开始各种社交、忙着给自己脸上贴金，提前享受当老板的风光。
It’s hard to turn down the conferences and the press profiles—they feel good, and it’s especially hard to watch other founders in your space get the attention. But this won’t last long. Eventually the press figures out who is actually winning, and if your company is a real success, you’ll have more attention than you’ll ever want. The extreme cases—early-stage founders with their own publicists—that one would think only exist in TV shows actually exist in real life, and they almost always fail.
推掉会议和媒体采访不容易，毕竟这些能让你心里美滋滋的，尤其是看到同行被追捧时，更是难上加难。但这种风光不是长久之计。媒体早晚能认出谁才是真正的赢家。只要你公司真火了，到时候关注自然滚滚来，超出你想象。说个极端的例子，那些一开始就雇公关团队包装自己的创始人（没错，现实里真有，不是电视剧里的桥段），多数到最后都凉凉了。
Focus and intensity will win out in the long run. (Charlie Rose once said that things get done in the world through a combination of focus and personal connections, and that’s always stuck with me.)
放到长远看，还是埋头苦干和拼尽全力这两招最吃香。（查理·罗斯，那位著名的访谈节目主持人，有句话我一直记着，他说世界上的事儿，都是靠专注和人脉的双重作用搞定的，这话挺有分量。）
好执行 - CEO的工作（JOBS of the CEO）Earlier I mentioned that the only universal job description of the CEO is to make sure the company wins. Although that’s true, I wanted to talk a little more specifically about how a CEO should spend his or her time.
之前我说过，CEO的头等大事就是保证公司能赢。这话没错，但我想更细致聊聊，作为CEO，时间到底该怎么花。
A CEO has to 1) set the vision and strategy for the company, 2) evangelize the company to everyone, 3) hire and manage the team, especially in areas where you yourself have gaps 4) raise money, and 5) set the execution quality bar.
CEO得干这些活儿：1）描画公司的蓝图，定好战略方向，2）跟每个人讲明白公司的使命、愿景和价值观，3）招兵买马，搭建团队，特别是你不太在行的地方，得找人补上，4）拉赞助，找资金，5）设立高标准，让大伙儿照着干，执行力得上来。
In addition to these, find whatever parts of the business you love the most, and stay engaged there.
当然，CEO还得找到自己最热爱的业务板块，亲自下场，持续深耕。这样做不仅能让自己保持激情和动力，也能通过实际行动激励团队，树立榜样。亲力亲为地参与到自己最感兴趣的项目中，还能加深对业务细节的理解，有助于做出更加精准的决策。
As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s an intense job. If you are successful, it will take over your life to a degree you cannot imagine—the company will be on your mind all the time. Extreme focus and extreme intensity means it’s not the best choice for work-life balance. You can have one other big thing—your family, doing lots of triathlons, whatever—but probably not much more than that. You have to always be on, and there are a lot of decisions only you can make, no matter how good you get at delegation.
就像我开头说的，这活儿得全身心投入，拼了命干。一旦上了轨道，公司的事儿就像粘在脑子里一样，甩都甩不掉。这种高强度的专注和投入，让你很难在工作和生活之间划出清晰的界限。除了工作，生活中还有大事儿，比如家庭，或者你喜欢的铁人三项比赛，但不管怎样，你会发现，对别的事儿的关注，很可能永远赶不上对公司上心的程度。你得时刻准备着，随时待命，就算你擅长分配任务，也总有那些非你不可的决策等着你来做。
You should aim to be super responsive to your team and the outside world, always be clear on the strategy and priorities, show up to everything important, and execute quickly (especially when it comes to making decisions others are blocked on.) You should also adopt a “do whatever it takes” attitude—there will be plenty of unpleasant schleps. If the team sees you doing these things, they will do them too.
你得使劲儿让自己对团队内外的风吹草动保持高度敏感，确保战略清晰，优先级明了，大事儿小情都要心中有数，而且一出手就得快准狠，特别是别人卡壳的时候，你得能迅速拍板，立马执行。碰上那些不怎么讨喜的活儿，你也得二话不说，撸起袖子就上。只要团队瞅见你这样带头干，他们自然也会跟上你的步伐。
Managing your own psychology is both really hard and really important. It’s become cliché at this point, but it’s really true—the emotional highs and lows are very intense, and if you don’t figure out how to stay somewhat level through them, you’re going to struggle. Being a CEO is lonely. It’s important to have relationships with other CEOs you can call when everything is melting down (one of the important accidental discoveries of YC was a way for founders to have peers.)
调整好自己的心态，这活儿既难又关键。老话说得没错，情绪就像坐过山车，起起伏伏特剧烈。要是你掌握不了平衡心绪的窍门，那就等着栽跟头吧。当CEO，有时候还挺孤单的。所以啊，和其他CEO交朋友特别重要，万一哪天公司遇坎儿了，感觉天都要塌了，这时候能有人听你倾诉，给你支招，那可是救命稻草。YC意外发现的一大好处，就是给创始人之间搭起了互相扶持的桥梁。
A successful startup takes a very long time—certainly much longer than most founders think at the outset. You cannot treat it as an all-nighter. You have to eat well, sleep well, and exercise. You have to spend time with your family and friends. You also need to work in an area you’re actually passionate about—nothing else will sustain you for ten years.
创业成功这事儿，耗时可比大部分创始人一开始想的要长得多。这不是短跑冲刺，更像是场马拉松。得注意养生，吃好睡好，还得动起来，保持健康。家庭和朋友也不能落下，得抽空陪陪。还有，你得选个真心热爱的领域去创业，光靠三分钟热度，别说十年，连一半时间都撑不到。
Everything will feel broken all the time—the diversity and magnitude of the disasters will surprise you. Your job is to fix them with a smile on your face and reassure your team that it’ll all be ok. Usually things aren’t as bad as they seem, but sometimes they are in fact really bad. In any case, just keep going. Keep growing.
创业路上，你可能会发现自己长时间过得不怎么顺心，遇到的难题五花八门，一个比一个棘手。你的任务，就是挂着笑脸去解决它们，还得安慰团队，告诉大家前头总有希望。很多时候，事情其实没那么糟，但偶尔，难关真的挺要命。不管怎样，你都得咬牙挺住，继续往前，保持成长。
The CEO doesn’t get to make excuses. Lots of bad and unfair things are going to happen. But don’t let yourself say, and certainly not to the team, “if only we had more money” or “if only we had another engineer”. Either figure out a way to make that happen, or figure out what to do without it. People who let themselves make a lot of excuses usually fail in general, and startup CEOs who do it almost always fail. Let yourself feel upset at the injustice for 1 minute, and then realize that it’s up to you to figure out a solution. Strive for people to say “X just somehow always gets things done” when talking about you.
当CEO，别给自己找理由开脱。路上坑坑洼洼，不公平的事儿也多。但别对自己，更别对着团队说“要是资金多点”、“要是再多一个程序员”之类的话。要么想法子解决，要么另辟蹊径绕过去。爱找借口的人，多半走不远，特别是创业公司的老大。允许自己郁闷一分钟，然后得马上切换到找解决方案的频道。努力成为那种，别人提起你时会说：“啥难题到了X手里，都能迎刃而解”的人。
No first-time founder knows what he or she is doing. To the degree you understand that, and ask for help, you’ll be better off. It’s worth the time investment to learn to become a good leader and manager. The best way to do this is to find a mentor—reading books doesn’t seem to work as well.
创业这事儿，谁都不是生来就懂。能明白这一点，并且主动求教，你这创业路会顺畅不少。得舍得花时间提升自己，学学怎么当个好领导、好管理者。找个导师带带你，比光看书效果好多了。
A surprising amount of our advice at YC is of the form “just ask them” or “just do it”. First-time founders think there must be some secret for when you need something from someone or you want to do some new thing. But again, startups are where tricks stop working. Just be direct, be willing to ask for what you want, and don’t be a jerk.
YC经常提的建议，像“直接找客户聊聊”或者“直接开干”，听起来简单粗暴，但真管用。创业者可能以为，求人帮忙或者尝试新事物时，总有些门道或者小技巧。但在创业这趟旅程上，弯弯绕的技巧真心没啥用。直截了当，想啥就说啥，要啥就去争取，别磨磨唧唧的，像个怂包似的。
It’s important that you distort reality for others but not yourself. You have to convince other people that your company is primed to be the most important startup of the decade, but you yourself should be paranoid about everything that could go wrong.
你得学会给人洗脑，让他们觉得你是未来十年内最牛气冲天的公司，但自己心里得有杆秤，得诚恳。同时，对可能出差错的方方面面，得瞪大眼珠子，别放松警惕。
Be persistent. Most founders give up too quickly or move on to the next product too quickly. If things generally aren’t going well, figure out what the root cause of the problem is and make sure you address that. A huge part of being a successful startup CEO is not giving up (although you don’t want to be obstinate beyond all reason either—this is another apparent contradiction, and a hard judgment call to make.)
咬紧牙关，别轻易撒手。大多数创业者要么扔白旗太快，要么转舵换新产品换得太急。要是路不顺，得挖到底，找原因，确保问题彻底解决。当个成功的创业CEO，关键一条就是不言败（当然，得有韧性，但也不能胡搅蛮干。坚持和固执，一对冤家，界线模糊，挺难分清。）
Be optimistic. Although it’s possible that there is a great pessimistic CEO somewhere out in the world, I haven’t met him or her yet. A belief that the future will be better, and that the company will play an important role in making the future better, is important for the CEO to have and to infect the rest of the company with. This is easy in theory and hard in the practical reality of short-term challenges. Don’t lose sight of the long-term vision, and trust that the day-to-day challenges will someday be forgotten and replaced by memories of the year-to-year progress.
保持乐观点儿。可能真有超级悲观的CEO，但我还没撞上。得信日子会越过越好，公司会在那片好日子里头挑大梁。这劲儿，CEO得有，还得传给团队。听着简单，但真遇事儿了就难。别丢掉远大目标，相信今天的小坎儿，明天就成成长的垫脚石。
Among your most important jobs are defining the mission and defining the values. This can feel a little hokey, but it’s worth doing early on. Whatever you set at the beginning will usually still be in force years later, and as you grow, each new person needs to first buy in and then sell others on the mission and values of the company. So write your cultural values and mission down early.
你的头等大事之一，就是刻画使命和价值观。这俩词儿听着可能有点虚，但真挺关键，得趁早动手。你最初定下的调调儿，很可能多年后还响着呢。公司一大，来新人前，都得先喝这碗鸡汤，认这经。所以啊，早点儿把你的使命和价值观写下来吧。
Another cliché that I think is worth repeating: Building a company is somewhat like building a religion. If people don’t connect what they’re doing day-to-day with a higher purpose they care about, they will not do a great job. I think Airbnb has done the best job at this in the YC network, and I highly recommend taking a look at their cultural values.
说个老生常谈，但挺在理的：创办公司，就跟创建一个信仰圈子差不多。要是大伙儿觉得每天干的活儿跟自己心里头那点崇高追求沾不上边，那劲儿可就使不到一块儿去。Y Combinator圈里头，Airbnb在营造这股子氛围上算是一绝，真心推荐你瞅瞅他们的企业文化价值观，保准儿有启发。
One mistake that CEOs often make is to innovate in well-trodden areas of business instead of innovating in new products and solutions. For example, many founders think that they should spend their time discovering new ways to do HR, marketing, sales, financing, PR, etc. This is nearly always bad. Do what works in the well-established areas, and focus your creative energies on the product or service you’re building.
CEO们常踩的一个坑，就是在那些熟透了的领域瞎鼓捣腾，而不是在自家产品或解决方案上动真格。比如，有些创始人一门心思琢磨怎么在人力、营销、卖货、公关上玩出新花样，这可不咋地。这些活儿，按套路来就好，你得把创意劲儿全使在正经儿上，那就是你手头的产品或服务。
好执行 - 招聘和管理（HIRING & MANAGING）Hiring is one of your most important jobs and the key to building a great company (as opposed to a great product.)
招人这活儿，是你头等大事儿之一，也是造就一家牛公司（而不光是个好产品）的关键。
My first piece of advice about hiring is don’t do it. The most successful companies we’ve worked with at YC have waited a relatively long time to start hiring employees. Employees are expensive. Employees add organizational complexity and communication overhead. There are things you can say to your cofounders that you cannot say with employees in the room. Employees also add inertia—it gets exponentially harder to change direction with more people on the team. Resist the urge to derive your self-worth from your number of employees.
第一条招人建议是，先别急着招。Y Combinator里那些混得最风生水起的公司，都是挺久才动手招兵买马。员工这事儿，成本高，还爱添乱子，沟通也麻烦。有些话，创始人之间能敞开说，员工面前就得兜着。人一多，公司就容易僵化，拐弯儿就越费劲。别拿手下人数当自己的脸面儿。
The best people have a lot of opportunities. They want to join rocketships. If you have nothing, it’s hard to hire them. Once you’re obviously winning, they’ll want to come join you.
顶尖人才都是香饽饽，都想往能成事儿的队伍里钻。你要是一穷得丁当当响，招人难如登天。等你赢面儿一露头，他们排队来敲门。
It’s worth repeating that great people have a lot of options, and you need great people to build a great company. Be generous with equity, trust, and responsibility. Be willing to go after people you don’t think you’ll be able to get. Remember that the kind of people you want to hire can start their own companies if they want.
得再强调一遍，牛人有的是选择多多，而你得有牛人马才能搞大事儿。股份、信任、责任上，别抠门缝儿，大方点。去抢你心里头觉得够不着的角儿。记住，你瞅上的人，人家要乐意，自己也能另起炉灶。
When you are in recruiting mode (i.e., from when you get product-market fit to T-infinity), you should spend about 25% of your time on it. At least one founder, usually the CEO, needs to get great at recruiting. It’s most CEOs’ number one activity by time. Everyone says that CEOs should spend a lot of their time recruiting, but in practice, none but the best do. There’s probably something to that.
当你开足马力招人（比如说，产品和市场匹配上了道，证明产品有搞头，到整个产品趋于完美这档口），得有五成时间砸在这上头。至少一个创始人，通常是CEO，得是招人高手。这是CEO最烧时间的地儿。都说CEO得招人上花大功夫，但真这么干的，只有顶尖CEO。这背后有讲究。
Don’t compromise on the quality of people you hire. Everyone knows this, and yet everyone compromises on this at some point during a desperate need. Everyone goes on to regret it, and it sometimes almost kills the company. Good and bad people are both infectious, and if you start with mediocre people, the average does not usually trend up. Companies that start off with mediocre early employees almost never recover. Trust your gut on people. If you have doubt, then the answer is no.
招人，质量上不能打折扣，这点大家心里都明镜似的，可一忙起来，又都爱将就。招错了，后悔药难买，有时还险些砸了锅。好人坏人都能传染，起跑偏，要是平平庸开头，后面人才池子难爬高。一开始将就的，翻身难。相信直觉，心里有疙瘩，别动手。
Do not hire chronically negative people. They do not fit what an early-stage startup needs—the rest of the world will be predicting your demise every day, and the company needs to be united internally in its belief to the contrary.
别招那些整天负能量爆棚的，不适合创业起步期。外头够多人唱衰了，公司里得齐心协力，坚信能成事儿。
Value aptitute over experience for almost all roles. Look for raw intelligence and a track record of getting things done. Look for people you like – youll be spending a lot of time together and often in tense situations. For people you dont already know, try to work on a project together before they join full-time.
招谁，人品和潜力比经验金贵。找真有智慧，干过一堆事儿的。找合眼缘的，往后一块儿时间多，压力大时也多。不认识的，试试兼职先磨合磨合，再谈全职。
Invest in becoming a good manager. This is hard for most founders, and it’s definitely counterintuitive. But it’s important to get good at this. Find mentors that can help you here. If you do not get good at this, you will lose employees quickly, and if you don’t retain employees, you can be the best recruiter in the world and it still won’t matter. Most of the principles on being a good manager are well-covered, but the one that I never see discussed is “don’t go into hero mode”. Most first-time managers fall victim to this at some point and try to do everything themselves, and become unavailable to their staff. It usually ends in a meltdown. Resist all temptation to switch into this mode, and be willing to be late on projects to have a well-functioning team.
修炼成管理高手，这活儿对多数创始人来说，挺逆天性，但非做不可。找个导师，助你管理上台阶。管人不行，员工留不住，招得再好，也白搭。管理秘籍多得是，少说个“别当孤胆英雄”。新手上司常陷这坑，啥都亲力亲为，失了团队感，易垮。别入这道，宁可项目缓，也要队伍好。
Speaking of managing, try hard to have everyone in the same office. For some reason, startups always compromise on this. But nearly all of the most successful startups started off all together. I think remote work can work well for larger companies but it has not been a recipe for massive success for startups.
讲到管理，尽量让大家窝一个屋檐下。创业公司，这上常凑合。但大赢家，起初都扎堆。远程办公，大公司兴许可行。
Finally, fire quickly. Everyone knows this in principle and no one does it. But I feel I should say it anyway. Also, fire people who are toxic to the culture no matter how good they are at what they do. Culture is defined by who you hire, fire, and promote.
最后一条，不合适员工，快刀斩乱麻。道理都懂，行动少。虽老生常谈，还是得提。毒性员工，能力强也辞，文化伤不起。团队风气，看你招谁、裁谁、提谁。
未完，全文较长，下期见！
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