What Startups Are Really Like
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？
Get funded by Y Combinator .
获得 Y Combinator 的资助。
</td > October 2009 (This essay is derived from a talk at the 2009 Startup School.) I wasn't sure what to talk about at Startup School, so I decided to ask the founders of the startups we'd funded.
</td> 2009 年 10 月（本文摘自 2009 年创业学校的一次演讲。）我不确定在创业学校该谈论什么，所以我决定询问我们资助的初创公司的创始人。
What hadn't I written about yet?
我还没有写什么？
I'm in the unusual position of being able to test the essays I write
我处于一个不寻常的位置，能够测试我写的论文
about startups.
关于初创公司。
I hope the ones on other topics are right, but I have no way to test them.
我希望其他主题的内容是正确的，但我无法测试它们。
The ones on startups get tested by about 70 people every 6 months.
初创公司的测试每 6 个月接受约 70 人的测试。
So I sent all the founders an email asking what surprised them about starting a startup.
因此，我给所有创始人发了一封电子邮件，询问他们对创办一家初创公司感到惊讶的是什么。
This amounts to asking what I got wrong, because if I'd explained things well enough, nothing should have surprised them.
这相当于问我哪里做错了，因为如果我解释得足够好，他们就不应该感到惊讶。
I'm proud to report I got one response saying:
我很自豪地报告我收到的回复是：
What surprised me the most is that everything was actually fairly predictable!
最让我惊讶的是，一切其实都在预料之中！
The bad news is that I got over 100 other responses listing the surprises they encountered.
坏消息是我收到了 100 多个其他回复，列出了他们遇到的惊喜。
There were very clear patterns in the responses; it was remarkable how often several people had been surprised by exactly the same thing.
反应中有非常明显的模式；值得注意的是，经常有几个人对完全相同的事情感到惊讶。
These were the biggest: 1.
这些是最大的：1。
Be Careful with Cofounders This was the surprise mentioned by the most founders.
小心联合创始人这是大多数创始人提到的惊喜。
There were
有
two types of responses: that you have to be careful who you pick as a cofounder, and that you have to work hard to maintain your relationship.
有两种类型的回应：你必须小心选择谁作为联合创始人，并且你必须努力维持你们的关系。
What people wished they'd paid more attention to when choosing cofounders was character and commitment, not ability.
人们希望在选择联合创始人时更加关注的是品格和奉献精神，而不是能力。
This was particularly true with startups that failed.
对于失败的初创公司来说尤其如此。
The lesson: don't pick cofounders who will flake.
教训是：不要选择会分裂的联合创始人。
Here's a typical reponse: You haven't seen someone's true colors unless you've worked
这是一个典型的回答：除非你工作过，否则你不会看到某人的真面目
with them on a startup.
和他们一起创业。
The reason character is so important is that it's tested more severely than in most other situations.
性格之所以如此重要，是因为它比大多数其他情况受到更严格的考验。
One founder said explicitly that the relationship between founders was more important than ability: I would rather cofound a startup with a friend than a stranger with higher output.
一位创始人明确表示，创始人之间的关系比能力更重要：我宁愿与朋友共同创立一家初创公司，也不愿与一个产出更高的陌生人共同创立一家初创公司。
Startups are so hard and emotional that the bonds and emotional and social support that come with
初创公司是如此艰难和情绪化，随之而来的纽带、情感和社会支持
friendship outweigh the extra output lost.
友谊胜过失去的额外产出。
We learned this lesson a long time ago.
我们很久以前就吸取了这个教训。
If you look at the YC application, there are more questions about the commitment and relationship of the founders than their ability.
如果你看一下 YC 的申请，你会发现更多关于创始人的承诺和关系的问题，而不是他们的能力。
Founders of successful startups talked less about choosing cofounders and more about how hard they worked to maintain their relationship.
成功初创公司的创始人较少谈论选择联合创始人，而更多地谈论他们如何努力维持他们的关系。
One thing that surprised me is how the relationship of startup
让我惊讶的一件事是初创公司的关系如何
founders goes from a friendship to a marriage.
创始人从友谊变成了婚姻。
My relationship with my cofounder went from just being friends to seeing each other all the time, fretting over the finances and cleaning up shit.
我和联合创始人的关系从普通朋友变成了经常见面，为财务问题烦恼，清理垃圾。
And the startup was our baby.
这家初创公司就是我们的孩子。
I summed it up once like this: "It's like we're married, but we're not fucking." Several people used that word "married." It's a far more intense relationship than you usually see between coworkers—partly because
我曾经这样总结过：“就像我们结婚了，但我们没有做爱。”有几个人用了“已婚”这个词。这种关系比你通常看到的同事之间的关系要密切得多——部分原因是
the stresses are so much greater, and partly because at first the founders are the whole company.
压力要大得多，部分原因是最初创始人是整个公司。
So this relationship has to be built of top quality materials and carefully maintained.
因此，这种关系必须采用最优质的材料来建立并精心维护。
It's the basis of everything.
这是一切的基础。
2.
2.
Startups Take Over Your Life Just as the relationship between cofounders is more intense than it usually is between coworkers, so is the relationship between the founders and the company.
初创公司接管你的生活 正如联合创始人之间的关系比通常同事之间的关系更加密切一样，创始人和公司之间的关系也是如此。
Running a startup is not like having a
经营一家初创公司并不像拥有一个
job or being a student, because it never stops.
工作或学生，因为它永远不会停止。
This is so foreign to most people's experience that they don't get it till it happens.
这对大多数人来说都是陌生的，直到它发生之后他们才会明白。
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