风投行业教会我的那些事
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大约一年半前，我从柏尚风险投资公司（Bessemer Venture Partners）辞职加入了Pinterest。自那以来，我遇到过、也接到过一些年轻风投人或MBA们的电话，询问我是从风投转型到营运的心得。迄今为止，我遇到过的最常见的问题大概就是“你从风投行业学到了什么真正有用的东西？” 是的，我们今天就来聊聊这个话题。
1.我学会了提问。任何人都可以提问。但如何提问，并藉此发现一家公司商业模式的真相或者一位工程师架构的妥协，是需要一些训练的。风投资本家花大量的时间提问，因此懂得如何问正确的问题。我转型至Pinterest时，这项技能对我来说极其重要。 2.我学会了识人。我在柏尚做第一次绩效评估时，识人是我的一个弱点。现在，我可以说这是我的强项。风投资本家需要经常与创业者会面，需要建立自己的识人模式。处在商业或企业拓展职位时，这项技能特别有用。但正如提问一样，这类横向技能不管走到哪里都能用得上。 3.我学会了学习。风投行业的人经常要硬着头皮了解新的领域。你评估的每一家公司都有独特的生态系统，需要你去了解。类似的，科技生态系统的趋势变化这么快，一旦停止适应和学习，人很快就会变成老古董，连什么是Snapchat都不知道。这种持续学习的动力能帮助你适应新的环境和挑战。 但这三点也存在另一面： 1.在初创公司中，你必须回答问题。我在Pinterest很早就了解到的一件事是，我的提问能力远超回答能力。和提问一样，回答也是一门艺术。锻炼这项技能很重要。 2.我不知道如何解读一个组织。风投公司往往是规模较小的合伙企业。虽然在我离开时，柏尚已经有了大约45人，但每次我在办公室里时，办公室里从没超过10个人。随着Pinterest从我加入时的30多人发展到了如今的200多人，我必须学会如何理清公司的结构。来自大公司的人们在这方面当然比我强很多。 3.我没有专长的领域。风投资本家很少专长某一领域。当然 -- 我很了解电子商务生态系统，我见识过大量的消费公司和广告科技公司，但这都不比不上在谷歌（Google）工作几年。但凡事总有个开始... 祝你好运！（财富中文网） 本文作者萨拉•塔沃在Pinterest从事业务和公司拓展职务，此前6年就职于柏尚风险投资公司。 |
It's been more than a year and a half since I left Bessemer Venture Partners to join Pinterest. Since then, I've taken quite a few meetings and phone calls from junior VCs or MBAs asking about my transition from VC to operating. By far, the most common question I get from this bunch is something along the lines of, "Did you learn anything actually useful in VC?" Yes. 1. I learned how to ask the right questions. Anyone can ask questions. But learning how to ask the right questions -- to use questions as a mechanism to uncover the hidden truth in a company's business model, or the tradeoffs in an engineer's architecture, is something that comes with training. VCs spend a huge amount of their time asking questions, and thus learn the craft of asking the right ones. This skill has been enormously valuable to me as I transitioned to Pinterest. 2. I learned how to read people. In my first performance review at Bessemer, people judgment was one of my weaknesses. I'd now say it's one of my strengths. As a VC, you're constantly meeting founders and building your pattern recognition for reading people. This skillset is particularly useful when you're in a business or corporate development role but, as with asking the right questions, it's one of those horizontal skills that will serve you anywhere. 3. I learned how to learn. In VC, you're constantly ramping up in a new area. Each company you evaluate comes with its own ecosystem that needs to be understood. Similarly, trends in the tech ecosystem turn over so quickly that, if you ever stop adapting and learning, you'll quickly become a dinosaur and won't know a Snapchat when you meet one. That drive to constantly learn will help you adapt to new environments and challenges. There's a flipside to these three though: 1. In startups, you've got to answer the questions. One thing I learned early on at Pinterest is that my muscle for asking questions was a lot stronger than my muscle for answering them. As with asking questions, there's an art to answering questions well. It's been good to exercise this skill. 2. I didn't learn how to read an organization. VC firms tend to be smaller partnerships. Although Bessemer was about 45 people when I left, I was never in an office with more than 10 people. As Pinterest has grown from 30-odd people when I joined to more than 200, I've had to learn how to navigate a company. People who have come from larger companies definitely have a leg up in this regard. 3. I'm not specialized. VCs rarely specialize. Sure -- I knew the e-commerce ecosystem cold, met with countless consumer companies, and quite a few adtech companies, but that doesn't compare to spending several years working at Google. But you've got to start somewhere ... Good luck! Sarah Tavel works in business and corporate development at Pinterest, after spending six years with Bessemer Venture Partners. |
