正在创业的你千万别信这三个神话

“透视创业家”是一个在线社区，一些美国创业界最有智慧和影响力的大咖会在这里及时回答关于创业和职场的问题。今天的问题是“哪一条重要教训能让所有创业者的公司出现好转？”和大家分享心得的是RingCentral公司首席执行官弗拉德·施穆尼斯。

几年前我和比尔·盖茨一起参加了一场圆桌会议。在会上，有人问盖茨，在他建立并引领自己公司的过程中犯过的最大错误是什么。盖茨大概是这么回答的：我们犯了各种各样的错误，但最终还是找到了出路。我一直很欣赏这个答案，不光是因为它优雅地避开了这个问题，还因为它非常贴合实际——创业之路道阻且长，难免会出现很多问题，但尽管如此，你还是会有所作为的。

在这条路上，你会碰到好建议，也会碰到不好的建议，包括许多以商业智慧面目出现，但其实并不明智的观点。所以，在前进过程中，你要设法从别人的错误中吸取教训，而你也会有大把犯错误的机会。怀着这样的精神，我要向大家介绍一下我认为最应该摒弃的商业神话，以及摒弃它们的原因。

神话一：在初创公司步入正轨前将其作为副业经营

创业时我们都喜欢这样的故事，那就是除了正常上班，初创企业创始人还要牺牲睡眠和社交时间，以便投入大量时间让自己初具雏形的公司实现腾飞。但实际情况是，这些成功案例都是例外情况，而非常规。建立一家公司所需的规划和时间超过大多数创业新手的想象。开发产品只是第一个障碍。此后，你还需要精心打造销售策略，以便让产品进入市场并在站稳脚跟。这些重要举措都是全职工作，而且还要投入许许多多的东西，所以要如是对待。

1991年，我放弃了高薪工作，用5000美元自有资金建立了自己的第一家科技初创公司。这是个艰难决定，因为我投入了自己的资金和所有的时间。但它是唯一正确的举动。当然，你应该规划好如何应对你在创业期的各种生活开支。把自己的公司作为全职工作会产生巨大的动力，因为它包含了很大的风险。如果对自己正在做的事并不是真的有信心，你很快就会发现这一点——而不是用业余时间创业，一拖就是好几年。如果要失败，就早点儿失败。但最好努力工作，以期在适当的时候收获巨大的成功。

神话二：创业时不应该寻求外部资金，除非实在没辙

RingCentral启动A轮融资前，很多创业者都向我提出了这样的建议，以至于我在此后的很多年里甚至都不愿谈及外部资金。我相信自己可以完成所有的工作，而且不想放弃公司的控制权。但大家要想一想，你们听说过哪个人一手打造出世界级产品而不需要别人的建议和帮助吗？我没有。

回头来看，我的抗拒态度是个错误，它延缓了RingCentral的成长。风投的支持远不止资金——合伙人会为你的成功尽心尽力，并且提供经过检验的经营指导；他们还会带来一大批人脉，从而开启一些重要的通道。这笔外部资金还会极大地充实可供你使用的人才库。

获得投资后，我们就能吸引更多的员工，而不仅仅局限于最初那个工程师小团体，这是因为资金的注入代表着认可，从而增强你对求职者的吸引力。它还会在潜在客户及伙伴方面提供实质性帮助，原因是人们都喜欢跟熟人做生意，如果他们认识你的董事，跟你做生意就会变得容易的多。

神话三：只要产品棒，就不愁销路

这种信念可能会让你付出沉重的代价，而且我在如今的许多新生公司中一再见到这类观点。造出个小玩意后，他们唯一的方案就是把它卖给谷歌。显然，如果谷歌不予理睬，他们的公司就会陷入停滞。更好的做法是早早地对经销网络及合作策略进行全盘考虑。理想情况下，要对这些策略进行实际验证，而不是在制定解决方案的过程中去寻找问题。

一般来说，我强烈建议大家控制好自己的销售渠道。这是我从经营第一家初创公司的过程中得到的最宝贵教训之一。在那家公司，尽管我们非常成功地通过个人电脑贴牌生厂商(OEM)渠道推广了我们的软件，但一直都没能借此发展成一家自食其力的公司，原因是我们一直都不知道明年，甚至下个季度能卖出多少产品。我从中汲取了教训。建立RingCentral时，我知道我想控制自己的销售渠道，并让渠道合作伙伴成为整个经销体系的一部分，但不是全部。

就是这样。把初创公司当做全职工作并投入其中，在需要资金之前就考虑融资问题，并且制定可靠的经销策略，你就向成功的彼岸迈出了三大步。从第一天起我们就坚持这些核心原则，尽管一路上出现了众多挑战和错误，但对我们来说这些原则一直都很有效。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：詹妮

The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question, “What important lesson can transform every entrepreneur’s business for the better?” is written by Vlad Shmunis, CEO of RingCentral.

A few years ago, I attended a roundtable event with Bill Gates, where the interviewer asked Gates what his biggest mistakes in starting and leading a business had been. His answer was something along the lines of: We did all kinds of things wrong, but in the end it kind of worked out anyway. I’ve always admired this response, not only because it was a graceful dodge of the question, but because of how relatable it was: On the twisty path of entrepreneurship, many things will go wrong, and many times you will find some degree of success anyway.

On that path, you will encounter both good and bad advice, as well as many ideas passed off as business wisdom that just aren’t very wise. So as you make your way, try to learn from the mistakes of others—you will have plenty of chances to make your own. In that spirit, I offer you my top picks of business myths to ignore—and why:

Myth 1: Work on your startup as a side project until it takes off

In business, we love stories about upstart entrepreneurs who work day jobs while sacrificing sleep and social time to put in long hours getting their fledgling businesses off the ground. But the truth is that these successes are the exception rather than the rule. Launching a business takes more planning and time than most new entrepreneurs imagine. Developing a product is just the first hurdle. After that, you’ll need very well crafted sales strategies to get it to—and keep it in—market. These important initiatives are full-time work plus a lot more, so treat them that way.

In 1991, I quit my well-paying job and funded my first technology startup with $5,000 of my own money. It was a hard decision because I was making the commitment of both my money and all of my time. But it was the only right thing to do. Of course you should have a plan of how you’re going to pay your bills during this time, but making your business your full-time job is a great motivator because it’s a big risk. If you don’t truly believe in what you’re doing, you will find out very quickly—rather than limping along for several years in your off-hours. If you fail, fail early. But better yet, work hard and succeed big in due time.

Myth 2: Startups shouldn’t seek outside funding until they absolutely have to

I heard this advice from so many entrepreneurs before RingCentral sought Series A funding that I was opposed to even having a conversation about outside funding for many years. I believed I could do everything myself, and I didn’t want to give up control of my company. But think about it: Do you know a single person who has built a world-class product alone, without counsel and other help from others? I don’t.

In retrospect, this resistance was a mistake that delayed RingCentral’s growth. Having VC backing offers far more than money: You get tried and true business guidance from partners deeply committed to your success, as well as access to a universe of connections that can open important doors. Funding also dramatically widens your available talent pool.

Once we secured investment we were able to attract a broader range of employees than our initial small group of engineers because funding served as a stamp of approval, which boosted our appeal to job-seekers. It also really helps with prospective customers and partners; people like to do business with people they know, and if they know your board members, this makes it much easier for them to do business with you.

Myth 3: Distribution will work itself out if you build a great product

This is a potentially very costly belief that I’ve witnessed over and over again in many of today’s young companies. They build a widget, and their only plan for how to distribute it is to sell it to Google. Clearly, their businesses are going to be stopped cold if Google passes. A better approach is to think through your distribution and partnership strategy early, and ideally prove it in the field empirically before building a solution in search of a problem.

In general, I highly recommend that you control your own sales channel. This was one of my most valuable lessons from running my first startup, where even though we were very successful distributing our software through the PC original equipment manufacturer channel, we could never leverage that into a major self-sustaining business because we never knew just how much would be sold next year or even next quarter. I learned from that experience, and knew when I founded RingCentral that I wanted to control our own sales channel, with channel partners being part, but not all, of the mix.

And there you have it. Dedicate your full-time self to your startup, consider funding before you need it, and have a solid distribution strategy, and you’ll be three steps ahead on the path to success. We stuck to these core principles from day one, and in spite of numerous challenges and mistakes along the way, it has worked out for us.