The Hacker's Guide to Investors
April 2007 (This essay is derived from a keynote talk at the 2007 ASES Summit at Stanford.) The world of investors is a foreign one to most hackers—partly because investors are so unlike hackers, and partly because they tend to operate in secret.
2007 年 4 月（本文摘自 2007 年斯坦福大学 ASES 峰会上的一次主题演讲。）对于大多数黑客来说，投资者的世界是陌生的，部分原因是投资者与黑客非常不同，部分原因是他们倾向于秘密运作。
I've been dealing with this world for many years, both as a founder and an investor, and I still don't fully understand it.
作为创始人和投资者，我已经与这个世界打交道很多年了，但我仍然没有完全理解它。
In this essay I'm going to list some of the more surprising things
在这篇文章中我将列出一些更令人惊讶的事情
I've learned about investors.
我了解了投资者。
Some I only learned in the past year.
有些是我去年才学会的。
Teaching hackers how to deal with investors is probably the second most important thing we do at Y Combinator.
教导黑客如何与投资者打交道可能是我们在 Y Combinator 所做的第二重要的事情。
The most important thing for a startup is to make something good.
对于初创公司来说，最重要的是做出好东西。
But everyone knows that's important.
但每个人都知道这很重要。
The dangerous thing about investors is that hackers don't know how little they know about this strange world.
投资者的危险之处在于，黑客不知道他们对这个陌生的世界知之甚少。
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1.
The investors are what make a startup hub.
投资者是创业中心的组成部分。
About a year ago I tried to figure out what you'd need to reproduce Silicon Valley .
大约一年前，我试图弄清楚重现硅谷需要什么。
I decided the critical ingredients were rich people and nerds—investors and founders.
我认为关键因素是富人和书呆子——投资者和创始人。
People are all you need to make technology, and all the other people will move.
创造技术只需要人，其他人都会移动。
If I had to narrow that down, I'd say investors are the limiting factor.
如果我必须缩小范围，我会说投资者是限制因素。
Not because they contribute more to the startup, but simply because they're least willing to move.
并不是因为他们对初创公司做出了更多贡献，而是因为他们最不愿意搬家。
They're rich.
他们很富有。
They're not
他们不是
going to move to Albuquerque just because there are some smart hackers there they could invest in.
搬到阿尔伯克基只是因为那里有一些聪明的黑客他们可以投资。
Whereas hackers will move to the Bay Area to find investors.
而黑客则将前往湾区寻找投资者。
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Angel investors are the most critical.
天使投资人是最关键的。
There are several types of investors.
有几种类型的投资者。
The two main categories are angels and VCs: VCs invest other people's money, and angels invest their own.
两个主要类别是天使和风险投资：风险投资用别人的钱投资，天使投资自己的钱。
Though they're less well known, the angel investors are probably
虽然天使投资人不太出名，但他们可能是
the more critical ingredient in creating a silicon valley.
创建硅谷的更关键因素。
Most companies that VCs invest in would never have made it that far if angels hadn't invested first.
如果没有天使投资，大多数风投投资的公司永远不会走到这一步。
VCs say between half and three quarters of companies that raise series A rounds have taken some outside investment already.
风险投资公司表示，一半到四分之三的 A 轮融资公司已经接受了一些外部投资。
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