非美国公司在硅谷取得成功的最佳案例

    初创公司Huddle有一个硅谷式的名字，并且在旧金山、纽约和华盛顿特区都设有办事处，客户包括美国政府的多个分支机构。但再走近点一看，大家可能会非常惊讶地发现，这家提供云计算协作服务的公司其实是一家英国企业。

    这家公司拥有170名员工，其中大约三分之二都在Huddle的东伦敦总部上班，乘地铁从总部出发，用不了多少工夫就可抵达那家南伦敦酒吧——7年前，Huddle的创始人就是在那里萌生了创业的念头。

    这家公司迅速走红。现如今，全球各地有超过10万家企业正在使用Huddle提供的软件即服务内容协作平台，其中不乏宝洁(Procter & Gamble)、联合利华(Unilever)和起亚汽车(Kia Motors)这样的大牌公司。它的同名产品致力于帮助团队更有效、更安全地协同工作，无论是编辑文档，管理任务，还是跨设备（比如从桌面到平板电脑）共享文件。

    但英国本土，Huddle最响亮的称号是，这是一家成功的英国初创公司。

    Huddle联合创始人安迪•麦克洛克林曾经是一位郁郁不得志的咨询师，整天忙着为保险和财务公司实施文档管理和业务流程系统。

    “每一家企业都有自己的一套归档和记录管理系统，”他说。“每个企业都说，他们希望有一种工具能够帮助内部和外部团队轻轻松松地协同工作。”

    直到碰到了好友阿拉斯泰尔•米切尔（现任Huddle公司CEO），他的这个想法终于开始付诸实施。阿拉斯泰尔此前一直尝试着实施微软协同办公平台Microsoft SharePoint，但总是以失败告终。很快，两人下定决心，一定要打造一套远比市场现有产品“更简便易用、更有吸引力”的新系统。这对创业拍档坚决放弃了笨重的界面和工作流（这是传统商业工具的典型特征），转而追求一种更接近于消费类软件的应用体验。

    “传统的办公概念已经土崩瓦解，员工们不只是在四面墙内朝九晚五地工作，”麦克洛克林说。“Huddle可以让团队无论身处何地都能高效工作，哪怕其中一些人效力于不同的公司。”

    他补充说：“我们也明白，用户希望他们在工作中使用的软件简便易用，设计巧妙，而且最好能够像他们平常使用的社交软件工具那样轻松有趣。”

    迄今为止，Huddle已经进行了三轮募资，共筹得4,000多万美元的投资。麦克洛克林透露，这家公司现在为英国中央政府80%的部门提供服务，从而使Huddle成为英国最高决策圈内应用最多的云计算软件之一。他说：“这是件非常了不起的事情。”

    与这种特权相伴的当然是庄重的责任。鉴于Huddle的云端储存了这么多敏感的第三方数据和信息，麦克洛克林说，安全依然是这家公司的头等大事。“安全性与合规性被我们摆放在了至高无上的位置，”他说。“我们以数据中心的安全性，层层加密和拥有数据主权为荣，我们在英国和美国设置的数据中心充分落实了各项关键的安全指标。”

    The startup Huddle has a Silicon Valley-style name, is used by several branches of the U.S. government, and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.. But look a bit closer, and you might be surprised to discover that the cloud-based collaboration company is actually British.

    About two-thirds of the company's 170 employees are located at Huddle's East London headquarters, just a tube ride away from the South London pub where the company was conceived seven years ago.

    The company's rise has been meteoric. Huddle now has more than 100,000 businesses worldwide using its software-as-a-service content collaboration platform, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Kia Motors. Its namesake product promises to help teams work more effectively and securely together, whether editing documents, managing tasks, or sharing files, across devices, from desktop to tablet.

    But at home, Huddle is known best as a British startup that made it.

    Huddle came about after co-creator Andy McLoughlin became frustrated in his job as a consultant, spending his days implementing document management and business process systems for insurance and finance companies.

    "Every single business used systems for archiving and record management," he said, "and each said they wanted a tool alongside this to easily collaborate with internal and external teams."

    It wasn't until he met with friend Alastair Mitchell -- now Huddle's CEO -- that the idea took off. Alastair had been trying unsuccessfully to implement Microsoft SharePoint. The duo quickly became intent on making a new system that was far more "intuitive and attractive" than what was on the market. Instead of the clunky interfaces and workflows found on traditional business tools, the pair sought an experience that was more akin to that of consumer software.

    "The notion of the traditional office has broken down -- employees don't just work between 9 and 5 inside four walls," McLoughlin said. "Huddle allows teams to be productive wherever they are, even if some of them work at different companies."

    He added: "We also understand that users expect the software they use at work to be as intuitive, well-designed and -- gasp -- fun as the tools they use in their social lives."

    To date, Huddle has conducted three funding rounds, and has raised more than $40 million. The company now services 80% of Britain's central government, McLoughlin said, making Huddle one of the largest deployments of cloud software inside the upper echelons of U.K. decision-making. "It's terrific," he said.

    That privilege comes with serious responsibility. With so much sensitive third-party data and information in its cloud, security remains Huddle's top priority, McLoughlin said. "Security and compliance is absolutely paramount," he said. "We pride ourselves on data center security, encryption, and data sovereignty with centers in the U.K. and U.S. and all key compliances in place."