硅谷頂級風(fēng)投公司的成功秘訣
????風(fēng)投公司安德森?霍洛維茨(Andreessen Horowitz)的合伙人跟創(chuàng)業(yè)者開會,如果遲到的話,就得買單。這是真的。它是公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、一度也創(chuàng)過業(yè)的馬克?安德森和本?霍洛維茨在2009年創(chuàng)辦公司時制定的制度之一。合伙人每遲到10分鐘,罰款10美元。這項制度是為了強(qiáng)調(diào)安德森?霍洛維茨所秉持的創(chuàng)業(yè)者值得尊重的理念。安德森和霍洛維茨希望將公司打造成為創(chuàng)業(yè)者在創(chuàng)業(yè)初期的融資首選。公司目前已經(jīng)成立了三只基金,總計募集超過了27億美元的資金,投資對象包括Facebook、Skype、團(tuán)購網(wǎng)站Groupon和圖片共享網(wǎng)站Instagram等。安德森?霍洛維茨現(xiàn)已迅速發(fā)展成為沙嶺路上最具影響力的風(fēng)投公司之一。 ????《財富》雜志(Fortune)編輯亞當(dāng)?拉辛斯基與公司創(chuàng)始合伙人面對面探討他們的業(yè)務(wù)模式、投資理念和職責(zé)分工。座談記錄如下,略經(jīng)修改。 ????亞當(dāng)?拉辛斯基: 今天我有幸邀請到來自風(fēng)投公司安德森?霍洛維茨的馬克?安德森和本?霍洛維茨。硅谷的傳統(tǒng)觀念認(rèn)為,創(chuàng)業(yè)者和風(fēng)險資本家并不是好戰(zhàn)友,而你們二位曾經(jīng)也是創(chuàng)業(yè)者,在創(chuàng)辦自己的風(fēng)投公司前也曾多次創(chuàng)業(yè)。因此,我想先問一下馬克,究竟是什么使您有興趣成為一位風(fēng)險資本家? ????馬克?安德森: 在人生職業(yè)生涯的特定階段,我是說,部分原因出于個人因素,在人生職業(yè)生涯的特定階段,幫助創(chuàng)業(yè)者比成為創(chuàng)業(yè)者更有意義。這屬于反思的一面,在這方面我并不擅長,因此我這次采訪中不想談太多。 ????但另一個原因,也是更為客觀的因素,那就是我們看到了機(jī)會,可以創(chuàng)辦一個我們曾經(jīng)從它那里取得資金的風(fēng)投公司。因此它也是一個經(jīng)典的案例,我們成為風(fēng)險資本的客戶已有15年歷史。我們還不是風(fēng)險資本家時,就已非常了解如果成為風(fēng)險資本家,談判桌對面將會是什么情形,了解產(chǎn)品消費(fèi)者實際將會怎么樣。 ????亞當(dāng)?拉辛斯基: 所以你們有意采取與眾不同的風(fēng)投策略。能否解釋一下。 ????本?霍洛維茨: 確實如此。形成這一策略的原因包括多個不同的理念。第一點(diǎn),創(chuàng)業(yè)者才是最好的經(jīng)理人。當(dāng)時,通過換位思考我們所考察的所有真正偉大的公司,這些公司一般都由創(chuàng)業(yè)者親自經(jīng)營。通過我們曾經(jīng)身為創(chuàng)業(yè)者的經(jīng)歷,我們切實相信創(chuàng)業(yè)者有知識、有承諾、有熱忱,而這一點(diǎn)很難移植到公司之中。因此,我們公司的宗旨并不是要用職業(yè)經(jīng)理人代替創(chuàng)業(yè)者,而是輔導(dǎo)創(chuàng)業(yè)者如何成為經(jīng)理人,幫助創(chuàng)業(yè)者成為經(jīng)理人。 ????一旦我們實現(xiàn)這個目標(biāo),一切都將徹底改變。因此,首先要求合伙人具有實際公司經(jīng)營的經(jīng)驗。 ????亞當(dāng)?拉辛斯基: 這里的合伙人是指你們公司的合伙人,也就是風(fēng)險資本家吧。 ????本?霍洛維茨: 是投資合伙人。如果有人要擔(dān)任你公司的董事,而你將擔(dān)任CEO,那么如果該人曾經(jīng)也擔(dān)任過CEO,知道怎樣成為一名CEO,將會很有幫助。因此,我們可以幫助創(chuàng)業(yè)者獲得需要的能力。 ????第二點(diǎn),職業(yè)經(jīng)理人擁有龐大的關(guān)系網(wǎng)絡(luò)。他們熟悉媒體、客戶、高管以及所有能帶入公司的一切人。因此我們認(rèn)為,風(fēng)投公司應(yīng)當(dāng)為硅谷建立龐大的網(wǎng)絡(luò),從而在創(chuàng)業(yè)者到來時,我們可以為他提供好于任何職業(yè)經(jīng)理人的網(wǎng)絡(luò)。以上兩點(diǎn)正是我們公司真正與眾不同的地方。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 閱讀英文全文請點(diǎn)擊此處>>> |
????When partners at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz are late to a meeting with entrepreneurs, they pay for it – literally. That's one of the rules established by co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, former entrepreneurs themselves, who started the firm in 2009. Partners are fined $10 for every minute they are late to a meeting, a punishment that reinforces the belief that at Andreessen Horowitz, entrepreneurs deserve respect. Andreessen and Horowitz aimed to create the kind of firm they would have wanted to fund them in their startup days. Having raised three funds worth more than $2.7 billion--and investments that have included Facebook, Skype, Groupon, and Instagram--Andreessen Horowitz quickly has become one of the most influential firms on Sand Hill Road. ????Fortune's Adam Lashinsky sat down with the firm's founding partners to discuss their business model, investing philosophies and role models. A lightly edited transcript follows. ????ADAM LASHINSKY:So I'm here with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It's conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley that entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are not the best of buddies, and you guys were both entrepreneurs, were operating entrepreneurs several times over before starting your firm. And so the first question for you, Marc, is why were you interested in becoming a venture capitalist at all? ????MARC ANDREESSEN:At a certain point in your career -- I mean, part of the answer is a personal answer, which is that at a certain point in your career, it becomes more satisfying to help entrepreneurs than to be one. That's the introspective side of things, which I'm terrible at and so I'll just like -- I'll refuse to talk about that going forward in this interview. ????The other answer, though, the more sort of objective answer is we saw the opportunity to create the venture capital firm that we would have wanted to take money from had it existed. And so it's sort of the classic case of we were a customer of venture capital for 15 years. So while we hadn't been VCs, we had a very good idea of what it was like to be on the other side of the table and to actually be the consumer of the product, if you will. ????ADAM LASHINSKY:And you took a purposely different approach to venture capital. Explain that. ????BEN HOROWITZ: Right. Well, we had a couple of different ideas that led to that. And the first was founders make the best CEOs. And that was, at the time, like real counter-programming in that we had looked at all the really great companies, and they were typically run by their founders. And we really believed there was a reason for that, having been entrepreneurs, that the founder has the knowledge, they've got the commitment, they've got the passion, and that's very hard to implant into the company. And then we designed the firm rather than being a firm to replace a founder with a professional CEO, we became the firm to teach the founder how to be the CEO and enable the founder to be the CEO. ????And once we did that, there was a whole set of things that changed. So, the first thing was the partners needed to have experience running companies. ????ADAM LASHINSKY:By partners, you mean your partners, the venture capitalists. ????BEN HOROWITZ:The investing partners. If somebody's going on your board and you're going to be CEO, it will help if that person knows how to be CEO, who has done it before. So that we could help the founder get the skill set. ????And then the second thing was professional CEOs have these incredible networks. They know people in the press and customers and executives and all these guys they can bring into the company. So we thought the firm ought to build the definitive network for Silicon Valley so that when a founder comes in, we can give him a network that's better than any professional CEO. And those two things really ended up differentiating the firm in a big way. |