YC虚拟版初创孵化器Zana：实现全民创业梦

   甚至连唐纳的团队成员都充分显示了她在招聘拥有不同兴趣爱好和专长的顶级人才方面所做的努力。Zana的首席开发人员乔尔•伯顿是一名技能娴熟的编程人员和培训师，他还是一名性教育家，拥有女性研究学位（仅在旧金山）。唐纳解释说，她最终希望吸引几千名用户，因此，她需要一个强有力的平台，并按照自己的预期实现规模化，容纳这些用户。于是，备受尊敬的技术人员和Zana顾问伊万•麦克法兰德向她推荐了伯顿。

    她解释道，即便在使用Zana一段时间之后，你的公司仍会出现新的需求。伯顿的算法与亚马逊依据历史购买信息而推荐产品的方式类似，能够随着业务（以及创始人需求）的变化而引进相关的新资源。

    新资源的核心特质是包容性，因此，Zana内容就成了焦点。她说：“有了True University之后，我们每年会举办一次活动，这是件好事，然而创业是全天候不停歇的事业。有一次True University开会的时候，我录下了视频，然后放到了我的私人网站上。但大多数都是60-90分钟的视频。”很多Zana视频时长只有一分钟，没有超过5分钟的。

    有一个10步课程适用于所有行业中处于早期和中期发展阶段的各类企业。Mule Design联席创始人和策略总监艾瑞卡•哈尔在她谈设计研究的系列教育视频中提醒初出茅庐的创业家们要研究如何为世界增添价值，而不仅仅是专注于创造一些新奇的东西。她解释说：“设计的定义就是解决问题。研究的真实意义在于询问探究，以确保自己的关键业务决策并不是基于自己的幻想和想象。如果你的确想创造一种产品，能够满足真实需求并有望在市场获得成功，那么你就需要了解如何去满足这些需求，以及市场的结构和发展动向。”创始人们因为高举“让世界更加美好”这面旗帜而遭人嘲笑的时候（有时候确实值得嘲笑），哈尔与其他很多声援Zana人才的专家一样，为他们提供了很好的建议。

    Zana并不是孵化器领域唯一的新秀。专门针对非营利性组织的孵化器Fast Forward将于今夏启动，而且已经投资了五家公司（其中两家同时也进入了Y Combinator）。但是目前而言，Zana是覆盖范围最广的孵化器，而且没有地域限制，创业人员只要有一台笔记本电脑就可以参与Zana。

    唐纳说：“我们只是为人们提供互相连接的机遇，让他们能够相互沟通交流。”（财富中文网）

    译者：Xiang

    Even Tate-Di Donna's team speaks volumes about her commitment to recruiting top talent with varied interests and expertise. Zana's lead developer Joel Burton is a skilled programmer and trainer who is also a sex educator with a degree in women's studies. (Only in San Francisco.) Respected technologist and Zana advisor Ian McFarland recommended Burton after Tate-Di Donna explained her need for a robust platform that will scale to accommodate the thousands of users she hopes to eventually attract.

    Even after you've been using Zana for a while, she explains, your company will have new needs. In a similar way that Amazon suggests products based on previous purchases, Burton's algorithm will introduce new, relevant resources as your business (and your needs as a founder) evolves.

    With inclusivity as the backbone of the new resource, it's the Zana content that takes center stage. "With True University, it was great to have annual event," she says. "But entrepreneurship is a 24/7 business. At one True University conference, I recorded videos, and then put them up on private site. But most were 60 to 90 minutes long." Many Zana videos last just one minute; none are longer than five.

    There are 10 Step Lessons applicable to a variety of early- and mid-stage businesses across all sectors. In her instructive series of videos about design research, Erika Hall, co-founder and director of strategy at Mule Design, reminds fledgling entrepreneurs to research adding value to the world, not just focus on creating something cool. "The very definition of design is solving a problem," she explains. "[Research] really is just asking questions to make sure that you're not basing your key business decisions on things you made up out of your head—or things you wish to be true. But if what you actually want to do is create a product that serves real needs and is gonna succeed in the marketplace, you need to understand how those needs are being met and the structure of that marketplace and where it's going." Hall, like many experts lending their voices to Zana's talent pool, offers sound advice at a time when founders are (sometimes rightly) mocked for waxing poetic about making the world a better place.

    Zana isn't the only newcomer to the incubator space. Fast Forward, an incubator exclusively for non-profits, launches this summer and has already accepted five companies (two of which were also in Y Combinator). But for now, Zana is the only incubator open to any founder with a laptop, anywhere in the world.

    "We're just here to connect people so they can talk," Tate-Di Donna says.