2015年十大“企业忽悠家”

在我们决心创业的时候，最容易犯的一个错误，就是轻信了各种有关创业的忽悠，以为创立一家成功的公司是件很容易的事。其实不然，创业是非常具有挑战性的。

要想摸到创业的窍门，最好的方法莫过于通过亲身经验，另一种方法就是要了解在真实的商业世界中，什么行得通，什么行不通。下面为大家分享的是一些在2015年行不通的例子，以及10位因此而担责的企业家。从这些例子中，我们可以吸取到很多经验。

10. Coolest创始人兼CEO莱恩•格莱普

降暑神器Coolest Cooler小冰箱的发明人格莱普此前通过众筹拉到了1300万美元资金，这个项目也成为众筹网站Kickstarter上有史以来第二大的众筹项目。不过这还是2014年年底的事。现在，Coolest Cooler已经在亚马逊上发售了。好消息是这个产品的确存在，坏消息是消费者对它的评价很低，28%的消费者只给出了“一星”的评价，这主要是由于产品的质量和支持服务不过关。这下子它可“酷”不起来了。

9.肖恩•拉德，Tinder公司创始人兼CEO

他来了，又走了，他又来了，而他应该很快又要走了。不到一年时间，肖恩•拉德在Tinder首席执行官的位子上已经两上两下。拉德步了美国服饰（American Apparel）的多夫•查尼、阿伯克比龙（Abercrombie）的迈克尔•杰弗里斯和露露柠檬（Lululemon）的奇普•威尔森等人的后尘。首先拉德本人的确有一些问题，更不用说如果他继续干下去，他口无遮拦的毛病还会给Tinder的母公司——IAC旗下的Match集团带来不少麻烦，尤其是在Match集团已经上市的情况下。

8. 50 Cent，强奸犯兼企业家

被中国歌迷亲切称为“五毛”的柯蒂斯•詹姆斯•杰克逊三世（又名50 Cent）是靠做唱片公司、做个人的服装品牌和演戏发的财。有报道称他此前投资的一家维生素饮料公司被可口可乐收购，使他一下大赚了1亿美金。但去年，“五毛”却申请了破产保护。这是怎么回事？因为缺乏财务责任，通俗地说就是花钱花得太多了。要提醒你的是，他并非真正的破产了，不过妄图通过法律来避免偿还2800万美元的债务，在我看来，这种行为还是挺为人不齿的。

7. Torquing集团联合创始人兼CEO伊万•里德曼

不到一年前，Zano迷你无人机项目还曾成功众筹资金340万美元，创下了Kickstarter欧洲众筹项目的记录。如今它却申请了“自愿清算”——也就是破产。1.5万余名众筹投资人中只有几百人收到了货，其他人的投资统统打了水漂。我个人认为，任何人投资像这种高风险的项目，都属于自找麻烦——当然这只是我个人的观点。

6. 丹•普莱斯，Gravity Payments公司创始CEO

Gravity Payments是一家拥有120名员工的信用卡交易处理公司，去年普莱斯突然宣布，要将未来三年公司员工的最低年薪上调至7万美元。这个消息在网上传得很火，但这不意味着这个决定真的能起什么作用。涨薪削弱了对公司经理层的激励效用，同时大规模的涨薪也提高了公司的破产风险。雪上加霜的是，普莱斯给员工加薪的动机或许也并非像当时看起来那样大公无私。

5. Reddit前过渡CEO鲍康如

鲍康如主政热门社交网站Reddit的时间幸亏不长。在这8个月的任期里，她只做成了一件事，那就是成功地展示了她对这个网站完全缺乏了解，并且几乎疏远了Reddit的所有用户。她在硅谷风投公司Kleiner任职期间也同样富有争议，这也说明鲍康如有必要了解这样一个事实：做生意不能光考虑自己，而是要考虑如何服务利益相关人。

4. 谢家华，Zappos创始人兼CEO

在Zappos成功地增长至10亿美元并出售给亚马逊之后，谢家华开始心血来潮地尝试一些古怪的管理模式。去年他搞起了一种没有经理也没有头衔的所谓“合弄制”的新型企业组织架构。结果是公司有14%的员工辞职了，剩下的员工还在纠结他们的工作职责究竟是什么，以及自己究竟能拿多少薪水。他这脑洞开得也够大的了。

3. Gravity4创始人兼CEO古尔巴克斯•查哈尔

在对两起家庭暴力指控认罪、花样自毁和被广告科技公司RadiumOne在公司IPO前夕炒鱿鱼后，这位自恋的连续创业家又因攻击他人被捕以及一起性别歧视和性骚扰案重回公众视野，另外据说他还长期磕药。还需要我多说什么吗？

2. Zirtual前任CEO玛伦•凯特•多诺万

这家非常有前途的虚拟助手初创公司本来发展得很好，直到后来它试图把几百名合同工转变为全职员工，然后公司就崩溃破产了。真可悲，这个命运本来是可以避免的。有句话我已经说过一千遍了：企业失败的头号原因就是现金烧尽了。每名CEO必须真心懂商业和金融。就是这么回事。

1. Theranos公司创始人兼CEO伊丽莎白•霍尔姆斯

伊丽莎白•霍尔姆斯的创业故事已经被不少年轻人奉为另一个经典，她19岁就从斯坦福大学退学，致力于颠覆一个价值760亿美元的医学检验行业。在长达十年的默默无闻后，她成功拉到了4亿美元的融资，使公司估值达到90亿美元，风头一时无两。后来《华尔街日报》发表了一篇文章，质疑该技术的有效性和准确性。霍尔姆斯一时成为众矢之的。这在我看来又是一个捧得太高、给得太少的例子。

以上10个例子展示了创业者最经常会碰到的一些陷阱。我们从中能吸取的最重要的经验是：这些人几乎无一不是非常聪明、非常有能力的人，然而要想长远构建一个成功的增长型企业着实非常不易。永远不要低估你面临的挑战。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

The biggest risk all of you face as you try to make it in the business world is that you buy into the massive hype of the entrepreneurial craze and think running a successful company is like falling off a log. It’s not. It’s really, really challenging.

While the best way to learn the ropes is through experience, another way is to understand what works and doesn’t work in the real business world. In 2015, this is what didn’t work and the ten entrepreneurs responsible. Pay attention. There are powerful lessons to be learned.

Ryan Grepper, founder and CEO, Coolest.

The Coolest Cooler inventor raised over $13 million to become the second-biggest Kickstarter campaign ever. That was the end of 2014. Today, Coolest is selling coolers on Amazon ahead of fulfilling commitments to its backers in order to “keep the lights on.” The good news is the product exists. The bad news is the reviews are dismal, with 28 percent giving it just “1 star,” mostly due to poor product quality and support. So not cool.

Sean Rad, founder and CEO, Tinder.

He’s in, he’s out, he’s in again, and he should be out again. Following in the footsteps of American Apparel’s Dov Charney, Abercrombie’s Michael Jeffries, and Lululemon’s Chip Wilson, Rad has some real issues, not to mention a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease that will continue to plague parent IAC’s Match Group, especially now that it’s a public company.

50 Cent, rapper and entrepreneur.

Curtis James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent, made a fortune on a record label, on a clothing line, and as an actor. Then he reportedly made $100 million from an investment in a vitamin water company that was acquired by Coca-Cola. Last year, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What went wrong? Lack of fiscal responsibility, i.e., he overspent. He’s not really broke, mind you, but using the courts to stiff creditors for $28 million is pretty low-class, if you ask me.

Ivan Reedman, co-founder and CEO, Torquing Group.

Less than a year after raising more than $3.4 million – a record for a European Kickstarter project – the Zano drone maker filed for “voluntary liquidation,” aka bankruptcy, stranding all but a few hundred of its 15,000 funders without the Zanos they’d purchased. Personally, I think anyone who backs high-risk projects like this is asking for trouble, but that’s just me.

Dan Price, founding CEO, Gravity Payments.

Price suddenly decided to raise the minimum annual salary at his 120-person credit-card-processing company to $70,000 over a three-year period. The story went viral, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work. Leveling the playing field removes incentives for managers and the enormous payroll increase may very well bankrupt the company. To make matters worse, Bloomberg recently revealed that Price’s motivation may not have been as altruistic as he made it out to be.

Ellen Pao, former interim CEO, Reddit.

Pao’s reign as interim chief of the popular social site was mercifully brief. In eight months, she was successful at just one thing: demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the site and alienating just about the entire Reddit community. As with hercontroversial tenure at Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner, Pao needs to learn that business is not about her, but about serving her stakeholders.

Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO, Zappos.

After growing the online retailer to $1 billion and selling it to Amazon, Hsieh has been experimenting with wacky management structures. Last year he transitioned to a controversial new organizational system with no managers or titles known as Holacracy. About 14 percent of the company quit and the rest are still trying to figure out what their pay and jobs are. It’s sort of nuts.

Gurbaksh Chahal, founder and CEO, Gravity4.

After pleading guilty to two domestic-violence charges, self-destructing in spectacular fashion, and getting fired by the board of ad-tech company RadiumOne on the eve of a planned IPO, the narcissistic serial entrepreneur is back in the news with a new assault arrest, a gender discrimination and harassment suit, and allegations of epic pill-popping. Need I say more?

Maren Kate Donovan, former CEO, Zirtual.

This high-flying virtual assistant startup was doing great until it tried to convert hundreds of contract workers to full-time employees. Then it crashed and burned. Sadly, that fate was preventable. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: the number one reason businesses fail is that they run out of cash. Every CEO must viscerally understand business and finance. Period.

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO, Theranos.

The iconic Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to disrupt the $76 billion laboratory diagnostic industry. She raised $400 million at a whopping $9 billion valuation and made an enormous PR splash after a decade in stealth mode. Then The Wall Street Journal broke a story questioning the efficacy and accuracy of the technology and Holmes has since been under fire. Looks like a major case of overhype and under-deliver to me.

These 10 stories represent some of the most common pitfalls that entrepreneurs face. And if you follow the links, you’ll learn more. I think the most important takeaway is this: with rare exception, these are all very smart and very capable people. That’s just how hard it is to build a successful growing business over the long haul. Never underestimate the challenge.