致创业者的一封公开信

我刚开完一个顾问委员会的会议。会上，我们讨论了初创公司在未来几个月可能面临的市场动荡和挑战。估计我们短时间内还看不到“大好时代已死”这句预言再次应验，但初创公司已经普遍被告诫要勒紧裤腰带。一些有识之士则认为目前是初创企业的“瓦特尼时刻”。瓦特尼是科幻片《火星救援》的主角，片中他独自被困火星，而且“不知道下一船食物何时才能到。”

种种说辞让我回想起2008年末写过的一篇博客。一晃2650个日夜过去，我所经历的创业公司创始人也换了好几代，但我那篇博客看来经受住了时间的考验。因此，我想在此重温旧文，提醒创业者，越是面临瞬息万变的环境，越要坚持初心。

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2008年11月16日

亲爱的被投企业创始人：

你们好，我叫克里斯，我的工作是为投资你们的人提供资金。换句话说，我是风投背后的金主。我们可能见过，但我肯定记不住，毕竟你们这样的公司我投了成百上千个。也许在风投年会上我们聊过，也有可能我去过你们公司，可能我做背景调查时给你们打过电话。你们有可能想不起我，我就是那个在正装衬衫里面穿红色T恤的人。你们谈话时我会认真做笔记，闲暇时会讲一些稀奇古怪的故事。对，我就是这样的。

不管你们对我有没有印象，我现在写这些是因为有点担心你们。上一次经济滑坡时，我们这些有限合伙人听说过太多管理团队撑不下去的案例。常见的一种抱怨是：“我们发现，这家公司的CEO只适合牛市”。还有类似这种评价：“那个团队很会做高增长业绩，可市道不景气的时候就……”

我和一个风投朋友谈到这种现象，他说得很清楚：“管理就是一直练习对抗混乱。”他认为：“有序往往会变成无序，要恢复秩序就得花费精力。这是宇宙不变的法则，也是管理的铁律。”他接着说，所以，“市道差的时候会更容易出现混乱无序，就要付出更多精力管理。”

我认为，并不夸张的说法就是，精力与时间是呈函数关系的，人如果管理不好时间，混乱就会如影随形。就像上世纪50年代美国热门情景喜剧片《我爱露西》有一集，主人公露西和好友埃塞尔在巧克力厂工作的情景：传送带一加速运转，巧克力糖就跟不上速度，放不上去了。

实际上，任何一家企业都少不了这几个部分：创意、人才、资金和时间。在这些要素之中，时间是最不可变、最难以控制，也是最专断独行的。时间一旦逝去就不会再来！

只有一种武器能反击这个残忍的压迫者：专注。

在市场好的时候，创业者未必那么刻意专注，因为频频创造的佳绩可以抵消混乱对士气的挫伤。另一方面，如果一个管理团队不论顺境还是逆境都能应对，必定会专心致志，因为他们知道时间才是真正宝贵的，一旦创造佳绩的速度慢下来，失控就不远了。要明确应该做什么，不该做什么，迅速做出选择并且开诚布公。

我们是同战壕的战友。你们的成功会帮助我获得成功（当然没管理合伙人多，他们占大头），而且我会全力支持你们。你们是创新经济的心脏，你们在夜以继日地奋斗。请保持专注，谨慎前行。记住，你们面对的是人类最可怕的敌人：时间。

请奋勇前进吧。（财富中文网）

克里斯

克里斯•杜弗斯现任Venture Investment Associates董事总经理，此前曾代表基金会投资基金（TIFF）和普林斯顿大学投资风投机构和私募基金。

译者：Pessy

校对：夏林

I just got off an advisory board call on which we were talking about the squirely markets and the challenges that startups will face in the coming months. While I’m guessing we’re unlikely to see another “Good Times R.I.P.” anytime soon, startups are generally being asked to tighten their belts. Some clever cat suggested that it’s “Watney Time,” for start-ups, invoking The Martian‘s botanist protagonist. “You don’t know when the next shipment of food is coming.”

All of this austerity talk got me thinking about a blog post I wrote in late 2008. The 2,650 days since I wrote the original seem like an eternity ― and comprise several generations of start-up founders ― so I thought I’d repost as a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same . . .

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11/16/08

Dear Portfolio Company Founder,

Hi, my name’s Chris and I fund the folks who fund your company. I’m the money behind the money. I can’t remember if we’ve met, after all, I’ve got several hundred cats just like you in my portfolio. There’s a chance that we talked at your backer’s last annual meeting; maybe I visited your space; or perhaps I called you for a reference check. You may not remember me, but I was the dude wearing the red t-shirt under my dress shirt. I took good notes during your talk and told daffy stories during the breaks. Yeah, that’s me.

Anyhow, I wanted to drop you a note since I’m a bit worried about you. The last time the economy slumped, we limited partners heard endless tales of management teams that just couldn’t stay ahead of the game. “We discovered we had a bull market CEO on our hands,” was a common refrain. “Those guys were a great growth team, but when the going got tough…”

So there I was, talking to my VC buddy about this phenomenon and he made a clarifying point: “Management is always an exercise in battling entropy,” he opined. “Order tends to disorder and the application of energy is required to restore order. It’s an immutable law of the universe and it’s a law of management.” Consequently, he continued, “in tough times, the disorder comes at you a whole lot faster and requires a lot more energy to manage.”

I don’t think that it’s too much of a stretch to say that energy is a function of time, and people who are cavalier about time become magnets for disorder. It’s like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory: the conveyor belt speeds up and there’s just no place for all those blasted bonbons to go.

Indeed, the ingredients of any business are: ideas, people, capital, and time. And of those elements, time is the most immutable, the most obstinate, the most tyrannical. They’re just not making any more of it!

You have but one weapon against this cruel oppressor:focus.

In boom times, entrepreneurs don’t have to focus as acutely because the creation of good stuff outstrips the slouching to disorder. The great all-weather teams, on the other hand, have to focus because they realize that time is really expensive and that when the creation of good stuff slows, entropy lies in wait. Choose what to do and what not to do. Just choose quickly and be explicit about your choices.

We’re all in this together. Your success becomes my success (less, ahem, the GP carry) and I’m rooting for you. You guys are the beating heart of the entrepreneurial economy. You guys rock nonstop. Stay focused and be careful out there; you’re facing the greatest enemy of all: time.

Forging ahead,

Chris

Chris Douvos is a managing director with Venture Investment Associates and, before that, invested in venture capital and private equity funds on behalf of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) and Princeton University.