What Kate Saw in Silicon Valley
August 2009 Kate Courteau is the architect who designed Y Combinator's office.
2009 年 8 月 Kate Courteau 是设计 Y Combinator 办公室的建筑师。
Recently we managed to recruit her to help us run YC when she's not busy with architectural projects.
最近，我们设法招募她在她不忙于建筑项目时帮助我们运营 YC。
Though she'd heard a lot about YC since the beginning, the last 9 months have been a total immersion.
尽管她从一开始就听说过很多关于 YC 的事，但过去 9 个月她完全沉浸在其中。
I've been around the startup world for so long that it seems normal to me, so I was curious to hear what had surprised her most about
我在创业世界里待了很长时间，这对我来说似乎很正常，所以我很好奇什么让她最惊讶
it.
它。
This was her list: 1.
这是她的清单：1。
How many startups fail.
有多少创业公司失败了。
Kate knew in principle that startups were very risky, but she was surprised to see how constant the threat of failure was — not just for the minnows, but even for the famous startups whose founders came to speak at YC dinners.
凯特原则上知道初创公司风险很大，但她惊讶地发现失败的威胁如此持续——不仅对小鱼来说，甚至对那些创始人在 YC 晚宴上发言的著名初创公司也是如此。
2.
2.
How much startups' ideas change.
初创公司的想法发生了多少变化。
As usual, by Demo Day about half the startups were doing something significantly different than
像往常一样，到演示日时，大约一半的初创公司正在做一些与
they started with.
他们开始于。
We encourage that.
我们鼓励这样做。
Starting a startup is like science in that you have to follow the truth wherever it leads.
创业就像科学一样，无论真相如何，你都必须遵循它。
In the rest of the world, people don't start things till they're sure what they want to do, and once started they tend to continue on their initial path even if it's mistaken.
在世界其他地方，人们在确定自己想做什么之前不会开始做事情，而且一旦开始，他们往往会继续走最初的道路，即使它是错误的。
3.
3.
How little money it can take to start a startup.
创办一家初创公司需要多少钱。
In Kate's world, everything is still physical and expensive.
在凯特的世界里，一切仍然是物质的、昂贵的。
You can barely
你勉强可以
renovate a bathroom for the cost of starting a startup.
以创业公司的费用翻新一间浴室。
4.
4.
How scrappy founders are.
创始人是多么斗志旺盛啊。
That was her actual word.
这是她原话。
I agree with her, but till she mentioned this it never occurred to me how little this quality is appreciated in most of the rest of the world.
我同意她的观点，但在她提到这一点之前，我从未意识到这种品质在世界其他地方很少受到重视。
It wouldn't be a compliment in most organizations to call someone scrappy.
在大多数组织中，称某人斗志旺盛并不是一种恭维。
What does it mean, exactly?
到底是什么意思？
It's basically the diminutive form of belligerent.
它基本上是好战的小型形式。
Someone who's scrappy manages to be both threatening
斗志旺盛的人设法既具有威胁性
and undignified at the same time.
同时又没有尊严。
Which seems to me exactly what one would want to be, in any kind of work.
在我看来，这正是人们在任何一种工作中都想成为的人。
If you're not threatening, you're probably not doing anything new, and dignity is merely a sort of plaque.
如果你不具有威胁性，那么你可能就没有做任何新的事情，而尊严只是一种牌匾。
5.
5.
How tech-saturated Silicon Valley is.
硅谷科技饱和程度如何。
"It seems like everybody here is in the industry." That isn't literally true, but there is a qualitative difference between Silicon Valley and other places.
“似乎这里的每个人都在这个行业。”这并非字面上的事实，但硅谷与其他地方之间存在质的差异。
You tend to keep your voice down, because there's a good chance the person at the next table would know some of the people you're talking about.
你倾向于压低声音，因为邻桌的人很有可能认识你正在谈论的一些人。
I never felt that in Boston.
我在波士顿从未有过这种感觉。
The good news is, there's also a good chance the person at the next table could help you in some way.
好消息是，邻桌的人也很有可能以某种方式帮助您。
6.
6.
That the speakers at YC were so consistent in their advice.
YC 的演讲者的建议非常一致。
Actually, I've noticed this too.
其实我也注意到了这一点。
I always worry the speakers will
我总是担心扬声器会
put us in an embarrassing position by contradicting what we tell the startups, but it happens surprisingly rarely.
与我们告诉初创公司的内容相矛盾，让我们处于尴尬的境地，但这种情况很少发生。
When I asked her what specific things she remembered speakers always saying, she mentioned: that the way to succeed was to launch something fast, listen to users, and then iterate; that startups required resilience because they were always an emotional rollercoaster; and that most VCs were sheep.
当我问她记得演讲者总是说哪些具体的事情时，她提到：成功的方法是快速推出产品，倾听用户的意见，然后迭代；初创公司需要韧性，因为它们的情绪总是像坐过山车一样；大多数风险投资家都是绵羊。
I've been impressed by how consistently the speakers advocate launching fast and iterating.
演讲者一贯主张快速发布和迭代，给我留下了深刻的印象。
That was contrarian advice 10 years ago, but it's clearly now the established practice.
这在十年前是逆向建议，但现在显然已成为惯例。
7.
7.
How casual successful startup founders are.
成功的初创公司创始人是多么随意。
Most of the famous founders in Silicon Valley are people you'd overlook on the street.
硅谷大多数著名的创始人都是你在街上容易被忽视的人。
It's not merely that they don't dress up.
不仅仅是他们不打扮。
They don't project any kind of aura of power either.
他们也没有表现出任何力量的光环。
"They're not trying to impress
“他们并不是想给人留下深刻印象
anyone." Interestingly, while Kate said that she could never pick out successful founders, she could recognize VCs, both by the way they dressed and the way they carried themselves.
任何人。”有趣的是，虽然凯特说她永远无法挑选出成功的创始人，但她可以通过风投的着装和举止来识别他们。
8.
8.
How important it is for founders to have people to ask for advice.
对于创始人来说，让人们寻求建议是多么重要。
(I swear I didn't prompt this one.) Without advice "they'd just be sort of lost." Fortunately, there are a lot of people to help them.
（我发誓我没有提示这个。）如果没有建议，“他们就会迷失方向。”幸运的是，有很多人帮助他们。
There's a strong tradition within YC of helping other YC-funded
YC 内部有帮助其他 YC 资助的组织的悠久传统
startups.
初创公司。
But we didn't invent that idea: it's just a slightly more concentrated form of existing Valley culture.
但这个想法并不是我们发明的：它只是现有硅谷文化的一种稍微更集中的形式。
9.
9.
What a solitary task startups are.
初创公司的任务是多么孤独啊。
Architects are constantly interacting face to face with other people, whereas doing a technology startup, at least, tends to require long stretches of uninterrupted time to work.
架构师经常与其他人面对面互动，而至少创办一家技术初创公司往往需要长时间不间断的工作。
"You could do it in a box." By inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the "normal" world.
“你可以在盒子里做。”通过倒转这个列表，我们可以得到“正常”世界的肖像。
It's populated by people who talk a lot with one another as they work slowly but harmoniously on conservative, expensive projects whose destinations are decided in advance, and who carefully adjust their manner to reflect their position in the hierarchy.
这里的人们彼此交谈很多，他们缓慢但和谐地工作在保守的、昂贵的项目上，这些项目的目的地是提前决定的，并且他们小心地调整自己的方式以反映他们在等级制度中的地位。
That's also a fairly accurate description of the past.
这也是对过去的相当准确的描述。
So startup culture may not merely be different in the way you'd expect any subculture to be, but a leading indicator.
因此，初创企业文化可能不仅与您期望的任何亚文化不同，而且是一个领先指标。