“坏女孩”线上女装店如何估值上亿？

    “我一直没办法循规蹈矩，也就只剩下创办坏女孩(Nasty Gal)的本事了，”索菲亚•阿莫鲁索在她的新书《女孩老板》(#Girlboss)中这样写道。但鉴于她已经把入店行窃的习惯和非常规教育成功地转化为一家价值1亿美元的科技公司，千万不要把这句话当真。

    在我们生活的这个时代，敢作敢为和高速互联网接入往往胜过传统的商业背景和咨询公司的实习经历。打破常规的CEO似乎已经成为了新的常态。不过，在《女孩老板》这部兼具回忆录和管理操作指南特征的著作中，阿莫鲁索显然增加了赌注。22岁时，她开始在购物网站eBay上打造前卫性感的在线女装店——坏女孩，这个品牌同时为这位现年30岁的百万富翁赢得了美誉和骂名。这家公司犹如曲棍球棒式的增长趋势或许是高科技世界常见的景象，但阿莫鲁索通往互联网名人堂的道路跟斯坦福大学(Stanford University)培养的那些神童大异其趣。

    在上周二面市的《女孩老板》这本书中，阿莫鲁索讲述了一个野孩子在毫无生趣的萨克拉门托郊区的成长经历。从无法集中心思上学，到最终决定离家出走，搭顺风车在西海岸游荡，她用一种在商业人物回忆录中难得一见、让人耳目一新的诚恳态度述说了这段不凡旅程的起起落落。事实上，阿莫鲁索给我们分享的最宝贵的经验教训，并不是精明的商业行为本身，而是她把生意搞得一团糟的时刻。比如，她曾经仅仅为了获得一件28美元的胸罩而签署了一张维多利亚的秘密(Victoria's Secret)信用卡，随后却忘了偿还这笔款项，进而导致她的信用遭受重创。然而，被摧毁的信用评分后来反而变成一项资产。她学会了如何在不依赖信用卡或贷款的情况下管理资金运作，完全凭借现金和风投资金建立了坏女孩网站。

    阿莫鲁索详细描述了自己早期那段热切反抗资本主义的日子——这种思想倾向不仅让她过上了四处捡垃圾的生活，也给了她为极具破坏性的入店行窃习惯进行辩解的借口。她还颇有兴致地聊起了自己被一系列小时工解雇的经历：“被炒鱿鱼对我来说总是一件大事，它有点像跟某个人分手时的感受。”《女孩老板》中的阿莫鲁索是那种你上高中时很可能想结为好友（但这样做会让你忧心忡忡的父母非常恼火）的人物。但显而易见的是，从一开始，阿莫鲁索就展现出了非常精明的一面，即使在她处于最低谷的时刻也不例外。无论是在亚马逊(Amazon)上以200美元的价格卖掉一堆偷来的书，还是拒绝在主流商店购物，阿莫鲁索的叛逆青春竟然成为她日后创业的坚实根基。

    阿莫鲁索从艺校摄影专业辍学后不久就在eBay上创办了一个不大不小的二手服装店铺，还给它取名为“坏女孩佳酿”(Nasty Gal Vintage)，为的是向贝蒂•戴维斯的同名疯克乐专辑致敬。阿莫鲁索的书从这里开始变得老成。她耐心地讲述了自己一边创办网店，一边对抗狡猾的eBay帮派的来龙去脉。她时常花费数小时在湾区周围的折扣店一件一件地挖掘合意的衣物，然后把它们设计成更好的款式，放到网上出售。“我一动不动地盯着我的服装拍卖会，一共换来了2,500美元，”阿莫鲁索说。“我一周挣的钱比做小时工一个月的收入还要多。”此外，她还获得了一些真正值得未来的创业者学习的经验教训，比如做好招聘工作的重要性。在创业早期，她竭力恪守坏女孩品牌的真谛；在公司业务爆炸式增长，并搬到洛杉矶之后，她依然努力地保留这种文化。对于硅谷人来说，她获得风险投资的经历也将是一个格外有趣的故事。

    如果说阿莫鲁索在这本商业指南中犯了什么错，这个错就发生在她尝试解决商业女性这一棘手话题的时候。就其核心而言，这是一本非常坦诚（尽管写得有声有色）的商业回忆录。说这是一本女权主义者的商业回忆录会削弱它的影响面。在今天这种后《向前一步》(Lean In )文化中，我们对原本可以简单使用“CEO”一词、结果却选用“女性CEO”称谓的情形越来越敏感。《女孩老板》或许讲述了一个具有普遍吸引力的故事，但却为它添加了一个“女孩专属”标签——尽管她很可能会尝试着收回这个术语。说句公道话，阿莫鲁索的确把那些努力工作的男员工称为“男老板”(#DUDEBOSS)。

    阿莫鲁索在《女孩老板》中神气活现的形象极具感染力。这本书给所有不想攀登传统职业阶梯的女孩（不，所有人）提供了一个体面的榜样。她的成功之路尽管没有遵循常规，但依然会激励许多读者聆听她的经验，进而追随她的脚步。阅读这本书时，大家会真切地感受到，提前包装成商业成功之道的书籍从此恐怕将不复存在了。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    "I've always had issues with following the rules, which has made Nasty Gal the only thing I'm capable of doing." So says Sophia Amoruso in her new book, #Girlboss, but based on her success turning a shoplifting habit and an unconventional education into a $100 million tech company, don't believe it.

    We live in an era where chutzpah and high-speed Internet access (Amoruso has both) often trump a traditional business pedigree and a consulting internship. Rule-breaker CEOs seem to be the new normal, though in #Girlboss -- part memoir, part management how-to guide -- Amoruso ups the ante. The 30-year-old millionaire has gained fame and notoriety for her brand Nasty Gal, an edgy, sexy online women's clothing store that she started building on eBay at age 22. The company's hockey stick growth trend may be familiar in the tech world, but Amoruso's road to internet fame is not that of your average Stanford-educated wunderkind.

    In #Girlboss, which comes out on Tuesday, Amoruso tells a story of a quirky wild-child growing up in the ennui-inducing suburbs of Sacramento. From her inability to focus on school to her eventual decision to leave home and hitchhike around the West Coast, she addresses the highs and lows of her journey with an honesty that's refreshing in a management memoir. In fact, the most valuable lessons Amoruso imparts aren't about savvy business moves per se, but come from the moments when she makes a complete mess of business, for example compromising her credit by forgetting about a Victoria's Secret card she signed up for just to get a $28 bra. Her wrecked credit score, however, became an asset later on. She learned how to manage her finances without relying on credit or loans, building Nasty Gal purely on cash and venture capital.

    Amoruso recounts her early days of fervent anti-capitalism -- which led her to not only take up dumpster diving but also to rationalize a destructive shoplifting habit -- and she discusses, with some zeal, being fired from a series of hourly wage jobs. ("Getting fired was always a big deal to me. It's a bit like having someone break up with you.") The Amoruso of #Girlboss is the kind of character that you likely would have wanted to befriend in high school, much to the chagrin of your anxious parents. And yet, from the get-go, it's clear that even in her lowest moments, Amoruso was cunning. From selling a stack of stolen books for $200 on Amazon to refusing to shop in mainstream stores, her rebellious young adulthood turned out to be good preparation for entrepreneurship.

    Shortly after dropping out of art school for photography, Amoruso launched a modest eBay store where she sold secondhand clothes, calling it Nasty Gal Vintage -- a tribute to Betty Davis' funk album of the same name. Amoruso's book grows up from here. She recounts, with some teeth, the ins and outs of starting an online store while going up against catty eBay cliques. She logs hours digging through every item of clothing in thrift stores around the Bay Area and styling the better pieces to be sold online. "I was watching my auctions close, totaling $2,500," Amoruso says. "I was making more in a week than I'd ever had in a month at my hourly jobs." She also has real lessons for future entrepreneurs, like on the importance of smart hiring: In the early days she strived to stay true to the Nasty Gal brand, and fought to preserve the culture after the company exploded and moved to Los Angeles. Her tales of getting venture capital will be particularly entertaining to Silicon Valley folks.

    If Amoruso errs in her manual, it's when she attempts to tackle the thorny topic of women in business. At its core, the book is a straight (though colorfully written) business memoir. To call it also a feminist business memoir diminishes its scope. In today's post-Lean In culture, we're more aware of how "female CEO" is used when a simple "CEO" would do. #Girlboss takes what might be a universally appealing story, and labels it girls-only, even though she's likely trying to reclaim the term. To be fair, she does refer to the hardworking men in her organization as #DUDEBOSSes.

    Amoruso's swagger in #Girlboss is contagious. The book is a decent model for all the girls -- nay, people -- who don't want to climb the traditional career ladder. Her path, though unconventional, might even inspire a couple of readers to try to heed her lessons and follow in her footsteps. But if there's one real takeaway from reading Amoruso, is that a pre-packaged rulebook for business success no longer exists.