智能家居公司Nest Labs最近成了硅谷最新的成功样板。本周早些时候，Nest Labs同意接受谷歌（Google）32亿美元的收购。然而，Nest当初也并不是那种显而易见的大赢家。

    早在2010年，Nest公司的创办团队就来到投资公司凯鹏华盈（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）推销自己。他们见到的两名投资人，兰迪•科米萨和特雷•瓦萨洛，显然已经被Nest共同创始人的智慧及其苹果公司（Apple）的血统所打动。他们也对“智能”恒温器的概念产生了兴趣，尤其是因为这个概念触及到了物联网这个投资理论，而科米萨和瓦萨洛此前已经开始涉足这个领域。

    当时，唯一的问题在于，那是一款恒温器——而Nest公司的创办人当初得到认可是因为开发了iPod。他们对恒温器真的有足够的雄心吗？另外，对于科米萨和瓦萨洛来说，他们能否说服那些总是带着怀疑眼光的合作伙伴？

    最后一锤定音的是Nest演示文稿中的最后一句话：

    紧随恒温器之后，我们将对每一个不受人喜爱的日用品进行重新构思。

    “我一看到这句话，立马就环视了一下我的办公室——房间里全是米黄色的塑料设备，它们充斥着我的生活，但是全都丑陋不堪，看上去十分廉价，好像在努力躲开人们的视线，”科米萨回忆道。“那一刻，我被打动了，而特雷也表示赞同。”

    之后，科米萨和瓦萨洛又说服了合作伙伴，将夏斯塔创投（Shasta Ventures）拉入了Nest的第一轮融资。据凯鹏华盈的一位投资者介绍，在谷歌对Nest的收购中，夏斯塔创投将获得20倍的投资回报。（财富中文网）

    译者：朱毓芬/汪皓

    Nest Labs is Silicon Valley's most recent success story, agreeing earlier this weekto be acquired by Google (GOOG) for $3.2 billion. But it wasn't always such an obvious winner.

    Back in 2010, Nest's founding team went to pitch itself to venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The two investors with whom they met, Randy Komisar and Trae Vassallo, were obviously impressed by the co-founders' intelligence and Apple (AAPL) pedigree. And they also were intrigued by the idea for a "smart" thermostat, particularly because it tied into an Internet-of-things investment thesis that Komisar and Vassallo already were beginning to develop.

    The only problem was that... well, it was a thermostat. These were the guys who were credited with developing the iPod. Was this really ambitious enough? And could Komisar and Vassallo sell it to their skeptical partners?

    The key was a single line at the end of Nest's presentation:

    After the thermostat, we're going to reimagine every unloved product in people's lives.

    "When I saw that, I looked around my office at all of the beige plastic devices that had populated my life and were trying to hide from view because they were so ugly and cheap," Komisar recalls. "At that point I had to be in, and Trae agreed."

    Komisar and Vassallo then won over their partners, joining Shasta Ventures on Nest's first round of funding. According to a Kleiner Perkins investor, the firm will recognize around a 20x return on that investment, via the sale to Google.