麻省才女的创新狂想

    Grand St.目前只有8名员工，已积累了5位数的早期客户。这个数字不算多，不过一旦该网站在今夏放开注册，客户数有望进一步增长。Grand St.的长远目标绝不只是销售商品这么简单，它希望切入整个流程的方方面面。公司创始人们憧憬着Grand St.能帮助发明家制造商品，甚至与他们合作发布定制商品，例如Grand St.的特供商品。后者即将成为现实：佩顿表示不少合作伙伴正在进行这方面的工作，今年夏天我们就能看到成果。

    对于一家刚刚成立8个月的新创企业而言，这个目标相当激进，但巴恩斯不觉得惊讶。巴恩斯说：“一旦阿曼达全神贯注于一件事，她的实力绝对不容小觑。”他当然知道。巴恩斯第一次见到佩顿时，她还是美国麻省理工学院（the Massachusetts Institute of Technology）的学生，参与过不同的硬件项目，例如半开玩笑的ShakeOnIt项目。它是一副含传导性织物的聚酯纤维手套，能识别至少9种不同的握手方式。激情无限的佩顿成为麻省理工学院卓越创业奖学金的首位获奖者。巴恩斯解释道，“我们乐意支持的正是这样的企业家：她对某个问题极具热情，而且愿意想方设法越过、钻过或是绕过前进路上的任何障碍，不达目的誓不罢休。”

    佩顿承诺会带来更多创新。首先，她还没有完全放弃有朝一日弄出一台《钢铁侠》中的超级计算机。“哦，这个可以有！”她开怀大笑道：“真的可以有。”（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    So far, the eight-member Grand St. team has amassed an early adopter customer base in the five digits, a modest number that will likely grow further once it exits the invite-only stage this summer. The long-term goal isn't just to vend goods, but get involved in almost every step. Its co-founders envision helping inventors with manufacturing, even partnering with them to release bespoke products, or exclusive Grand St. items. Indeed, the latter will become a reality sooner than later: Peyton says multiple collaborations are already in the works, the results of which could be unveiled by summer.

    That's awfully aggressive for a startup that just rolled out eight months ago, but it's no surprise to Barnes. "When Amanda puts her mind to something, she's a force to be reckoned with," Barnes says. He would know: Barnes first met Peyton when she was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, toiling on different hardware projects like the tongue-in-cheekShakeOnIt, a pair of polyester gloves with conductive fabric that recognized at least nine different kinds of handshakes. Peyton's zeal made her the inaugural recipient of an MIT fellowship for entrepreneurial excellence. Explains Barnes: "That's the kind of entrepreneur we like to back: somebody who is deeply passionate about a problem and is sort of willing to figure out a way over, under, and around any hurdles that come her way on the way to approaching that north star."

    Peyton promises much more to come. For one, she hasn't totally abandoned the idea of making that Iron Man-esque supercomputer a reality one day. "Oh, it's coming!" she promises, bursting out laughing. "It's coming."