How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

April 2016 (This is a talk I gave at an event called Opt412 in Pittsburgh.

2016 年 4 月（这是我在匹兹堡举办的 Opt412 活动上发表的演讲。

Much of it will apply to other towns.

其中大部分内容将适用于其他城镇。

But not all, because as I say in the talk, Pittsburgh has some important advantages over most would-be startup hubs.) What would it take to make Pittsburgh into a startup hub, like Silicon Valley?

但并非全部，因为正如我在演讲中所说，匹兹堡比大多数潜在的创业中心具有一些重要优势。）如何才能使匹兹堡成为像硅谷一样的创业中心？

I understand Pittsburgh pretty well, because I grew up here, in Monroeville.

我非常了解匹兹堡，因为我是在门罗维尔长大的。

And I understand Silicon

我了解硅

Valley pretty well because that's where I live now.

山谷很好，因为那是我现在住的地方。

Could you get that kind of startup ecosystem going here?

你能在这里建立这样的创业生态系统吗？

When I agreed to speak here, I didn't think I'd be able to give a very optimistic talk.

当我同意在这里演讲时，我认为我无法发表非常乐观的演讲。

I thought I'd be talking about what Pittsburgh could do to become a startup hub, very much in the subjunctive.

我想我应该谈论匹兹堡可以做些什么来成为一个创业中心，非常用虚拟语气。

Instead I'm going to talk about what Pittsburgh can do.

相反，我要谈谈匹兹堡可以做什么。

What changed my mind was an article I read in, of all places, the New

改变我想法的是我读过的一篇文章，在所有地方，《新》

York Times food section.

约克时报美食版块。

The title was " Pittsburgh's Youth-Driven Food Boom ." To most people that might not even sound interesting, let alone something related to startups.

标题是“匹兹堡青年驱动的食品繁荣”。对于大多数人来说，这可能听起来并不有趣，更不用说与初创公司相关的事情了。

But it was electrifying to me to read that title.

但读到这个标题让我感到震惊。

I don't think I could pick a more promising one if I tried.

如果我尝试的话，我认为我无法选择一个更有前途的人。

And when I read the article I got even more excited.

当我读到这篇文章时，我更加兴奋。

It said "people ages 25 to 29 now make up 7.6 percent of all residents, up from 7 percent about a decade ago." Wow, I thought,

报告称，“25岁至29岁的人口现在占所有居民的7.6%，而十年前这一比例为7%。”哇，我想，

Pittsburgh could be the next Portland.

匹兹堡可能是下一个波特兰。

It could become the cool place all the people in their twenties want to go live.

它可能会成为所有二十多岁的人都想居住的很酷的地方。

When I got here a couple days ago, I could feel the difference.

几天前，当我来到这里时，我就感觉到了不同。

I lived here from 1968 to 1984.

我从 1968 年到 1984 年住在这里。

I didn't realize it at the time, but during that whole period the city was in free fall.

我当时并没有意识到，在整个时期，这座城市一直处于自由落体状态。

On top of the flight to the suburbs that happened everywhere, the steel and nuclear businesses were both dying.

除了到处都有人逃往郊区之外，钢铁和核工业都在消亡。

Boy are things different now.

男孩现在情况不同了。

It's not

这不是

just that downtown seems a lot more prosperous.

只是市中心看起来繁华了很多。

There is an energy here that was not here when I was a kid.

这里有一种我小时候不存在的能量。

When I was a kid, this was a place young people left.

当我还是个孩子的时候，这里是年轻人离开的地方。

Now it's a place that attracts them.

现在，这里成了吸引他们的地方。

What does that have to do with startups?

这和初创公司有什么关系？

Startups are made of people, and the average age of the people in a typical startup is right in that 25 to 29 bracket.

初创企业是由人组成的，典型初创企业中员工的平均年龄正好在 25 至 29 岁之间。

I've seen how powerful it is for a city to have those people.

我已经看到一个城市拥有这些人是多么强大。

Five

五

years ago they shifted the center of gravity of Silicon Valley from the peninsula to San Francisco.

几年前，他们将硅谷的重心从半岛转移到了旧金山。

Google and Facebook are on the peninsula, but the next generation of big winners are all in SF.

谷歌和Facebook都在半岛，但下一代大赢家都在旧金山。

The reason the center of gravity shifted was the talent war, for programmers especially.

重心转移的原因是人才争夺战，尤其是对于程序员而言。

Most 25 to 29 year olds want to live in the city, not down in the boring suburbs.

大多数 25 至 29 岁的人都想住在城市里，而不是住在无聊的郊区。

So whether they like it or not, founders know they have to be in the city.

因此，无论创始人是否喜欢，他们都知道他们必须在城市里。

I know multiple

我认识多个

founders who would have preferred to live down in the Valley proper, but who made themselves move to SF because they knew otherwise they'd lose the talent war.

创始人本来更愿意住在硅谷，但后来却搬到了旧金山，因为他们知道否则他们会输掉人才争夺战。

So being a magnet for people in their twenties is a very promising thing to be.

因此，成为二十几岁年轻人的磁石是一件非常有前途的事情。

It's hard to imagine a place becoming a startup hub without also being that.

很难想象一个地方如果不成为创业中心的话。

When I read that statistic about the increasing percentage of 25 to 29 year olds, I had exactly the same

当我读到关于 25 岁至 29 岁人口比例不断增加的统计数据时，我也得到了完全相同的结论

feeling of excitement I get when I see a startup's graphs start to creep upward off the x axis.

当我看到一家初创公司的图表开始沿着 x 轴向上爬时，我会感到兴奋。

Nationally the percentage of 25 to 29 year olds is 6.8%.

全国25岁至29岁的比例为6.8%。

That means you're .8% ahead.

这意味着您领先 0.8%。

The population is 306,000, so we're talking about a surplus of about 2500 people.

人口为 306,000，所以我们谈论的是大约 2500 人的过剩。

That's the population of a small town, and that's just the surplus.

这是一个小镇的人口，而且还只是剩余。

So you have a toehold.

这样你就有了立足点。

Now you just have to expand it.

现在你只需要扩展它。

And though "youth-driven food boom" may sound frivolous, it is

尽管“年轻人驱动的食品热潮”听起来可能很无聊，但它确实如此

anything but.

无论如何。

Restaurants and cafes are a big part of the personality of a city.

餐馆和咖啡馆是城市个性的重要组成部分。

Imagine walking down a street in Paris.

想象一下走在巴黎的街道上。

What are you walking past?

你走过什么？

Little restaurants and cafes.

小餐馆和咖啡馆。

Imagine driving through some depressing random exurb.

想象一下开车穿过某个令人沮丧的随机郊区。

What are you driving past?

你开车过去什么？

Starbucks and McDonalds and Pizza Hut.

星巴克、麦当劳和必胜客。

As Gertrude Stein said, there is no there there.

正如格特鲁德斯坦所说，那里不存在。

You could be anywhere.

你可以在任何地方。

These independent restaurants and cafes are not just feeding people.

这些独立的餐馆和咖啡馆不仅仅是为人们提供食物。

They're making there be a there here.

他们正在让这里成为一个那里。

So here is my first concrete recommendation for turning Pittsburgh into the next Silicon Valley: do everything you can to encourage this youth-driven food boom.

因此，这是我将匹兹堡转变为下一个硅谷的第一个具体建议：尽一切努力鼓励年轻人推动的食品热潮。

What could the city do?

这座城市能做什么？

Treat the people starting these little restaurants and cafes as your users, and go ask them what they want.

将开办这些小餐馆和咖啡馆的人视为您的用户，并去询问他们想要什么。

I can guess at least one thing they might want: a fast permit process.

我可以猜测他们至少想要一件事：快速的许可流程。

San Francisco has left you

旧金山已经离开你了

a huge amount of room to beat them in that department.

在那个部门有很大的空间可以击败他们。

I know restaurants aren't the prime mover though.

但我知道餐馆并不是主要推动者。

The prime mover, as the Times article said, is cheap housing.

正如《纽约时报》的文章所说，主要推动力是廉价住房。

That's a big advantage.

这是一个很大的优势。

But that phrase "cheap housing" is a bit misleading.

但“廉价住房”这个词有点误导。

There are plenty of places that are cheaper.

便宜的地方还有很多。

What's special about Pittsburgh is not that it's cheap, but that it's a cheap place you'd actually want to live.

匹兹堡的特别之处不在于它便宜，而在于它是一个你真正想要居住的便宜的地方。

Part of that is the buildings themselves.

其中一部分是建筑物本身。

I realized a long time ago, back when I was a poor twenty-something myself, that the best deals were places that had once been rich, and then became poor.

很久以前，当我自己还是个二十多岁的穷人时，我就意识到最好的交易是那些曾经富裕但后来变得贫穷的地方。

If a place has always been rich, it's nice but too expensive.

如果一个地方一直很富裕，那很好，但太贵了。

If a place has always been poor, it's cheap but grim.

如果一个地方一直很穷，那么它很便宜，但很严峻。

But if a place was once rich and then got poor, you can find palaces for cheap.

但如果一个地方曾经富裕，后来变得贫穷，你可以以便宜的价格找到宫殿。

And that's what's bringing people here.

这就是人们来到这里的原因。

When Pittsburgh was rich,

当匹兹堡富有时，

a hundred years ago, the people who lived here built big solid buildings.

一百年前，住在这里的人们建造了坚固的大建筑。

Not always in the best taste, but definitely solid.

味道并不总是最好的，但绝对是扎实的。

So here is another piece of advice for becoming a startup hub: don't destroy the buildings that are bringing people here.

因此，这里是成为创业中心的另一条建议：不要破坏吸引人们来到这里的建筑物。

When cities are on the way back up, like Pittsburgh is now, developers race to tear down the old buildings.

当城市复苏时，就像现在的匹兹堡一样，开发商竞相拆除旧建筑。

Don't let that happen.

不要让这种事发生。

Focus on historic preservation.

注重历史保护。

Big real estate development projects are

大型房地产开发项目有

not what's bringing the twenty-somethings here.

不是把二十多岁的人带到这里来的。

They're the opposite of the new restaurants and cafes; they subtract personality from the city.

它们与新的餐馆和咖啡馆相反；他们削弱了城市的个性。

The empirical evidence suggests you cannot be too strict about historic preservation.

经验证据表明，对历史保护不能太严格。

The tougher cities are about it, the better they seem to do.

城市对此越严厉，他们似乎做得越好。

But the appeal of Pittsburgh is not just the buildings themselves.

但匹兹堡的吸引力不仅仅在于建筑本身。

It's the neighborhoods they're in.

这是他们所在的街区。

Like San Francisco and New York,

与旧金山和纽约一样，

Pittsburgh is fortunate in being a pre-car city.

匹兹堡很幸运，是一个没有汽车的城市。

It's not too spread out.

它并不太分散。

Because those 25 to 29 year olds do not like driving.

因为那些25岁到29岁的人不喜欢开车。

They prefer walking, or bicycling, or taking public transport.

他们更喜欢步行、骑自行车或乘坐公共交通工具。

If you've been to San Francisco recently you can't help noticing the huge number of bicyclists.

如果您最近去过旧金山，您一定会注意到大量骑自行车的人。

And this is not just a fad that the twenty-somethings have adopted.

这不仅仅是二十多岁的年轻人所流行的时尚。

In this respect they have discovered a better way to live.

在这方面他们发现了更好的生活方式。

The beards will go, but not the bikes.

胡子会消失，但自行车不会。

Cities

城市

where you can get around without driving are just better period.

不开车就能出行的地方是更好的时期。

So I would suggest you do everything you can to capitalize on this.

所以我建议你尽你所能来利用这一点。

As with historic preservation, it seems impossible to go too far.

与历史保护一样，似乎不可能走得太远。

Why not make Pittsburgh the most bicycle and pedestrian friendly city in the country?

为什么不让匹兹堡成为全国最适合自行车和步行的城市呢？

See if you can go so far that you make San Francisco seem backward by comparison.

看看你是否可以走得太远，让旧金山相比之下显得落后。

If you do, it's very unlikely you'll regret it.

如果你这样做了，你不太可能会后悔。

The city will seem like a paradise to the young

这座城市对于年轻人来说就像是天堂

people you want to attract.

你想吸引的人。

If they do leave to get jobs elsewhere, it will be with regret at leaving behind such a place.

如果他们真的离开去其他地方寻找工作，那么他们将遗憾地离开这样一个地方。

And what's the downside?

缺点是什么？

Can you imagine a headline "City ruined by becoming too bicycle-friendly?" It just doesn't happen.

你能想象一个标题“城市因对自行车过于友好而被毁吗？”它就是不会发生。

So suppose cool old neighborhoods and cool little restaurants make this the next Portland.

因此，假设很酷的老街区和很酷的小餐馆使这里成为下一个波特兰。

Will that be enough?

这样就够了吗？

It will put you in a way better position than Portland itself, because Pittsburgh has

它会让你处于比波特兰更好的位置，因为匹兹堡有

something Portland lacks: a first-rate research university.

波特兰所缺少的东西：一流的研究型大学。

CMU plus little cafes means you have more than hipsters drinking lattes.

卡内基梅隆大学 (CMU) 加上小咖啡馆意味着您喝拿铁的不仅仅是时髦人士。

It means you have hipsters drinking lattes while talking about distributed systems.

这意味着时髦人士一边喝拿铁一边谈论分布式系统。

Now you're getting really close to San Francisco.

现在您已经非常接近旧金山了。

In fact you're better off than San Francisco in one way, because CMU is downtown, but Stanford and Berkeley are out in the suburbs.

事实上，在某一方面你比旧金山要好，因为卡耐基梅隆大学位于市中心，但斯坦福大学和伯克利分校位于郊区。

What can CMU do to help Pittsburgh become a startup hub?

CMU 可以做些什么来帮助匹兹堡成为创业中心？

Be an

成为一个

even better research university.

甚至更好的研究型大学。

CMU is one of the best universities in the world, but imagine what things would be like if it were the very best, and everyone knew it.

卡耐基梅隆大学是世界上最好的大学之一，但想象一下，如果它是最好的，而且每个人都知道的话，情况会是什么样子。

There are a lot of ambitious people who must go to the best place, wherever it is.

有很多有野心的人，必须去最好的地方，无论它在哪里。

If CMU were it, they would all come here.

如果是 CMU，他们都会来这里。

There would be kids in Kazakhstan dreaming of one day living in Pittsburgh.

哈萨克斯坦的孩子们梦想有一天能在匹兹堡生活。

Being that kind of talent magnet is the most important contribution

成为那种人才磁石是最重要的贡献

universities can make toward making their city a startup hub.

大学可以努力使自己的城市成为创业中心。

In fact it is practically the only contribution they can make.

事实上，这实际上是他们能做出的唯一贡献。

But wait, shouldn't universities be setting up programs with words like "innovation" and "entrepreneurship" in their names?

但是等等，大学不应该设立名称中含有“创新”和“创业”等字样的项目吗？

No, they should not.

不，他们不应该。

These kind of things almost always turn out to be disappointments.

这类事情几乎总是令人失望。

They're pursuing the wrong targets.

他们追求的是错误的目标。

The way to get innovation is not to aim for innovation but to aim for something

获得创新的方法不是以创新为目标，而是以某种目标为目标

more specific, like better batteries or better 3D printing.

更具体，比如更好的电池或更好的 3D 打印。

And the way to learn about entrepreneurship is to do it, which you can't in school .

学习创业的方法就是实践，这是你在学校做不到的。

I know it may disappoint some administrators to hear that the best thing a university can do to encourage startups is to be a great university.

我知道，当听到大学鼓励初创企业所能做的最好的事情就是成为一所伟大的大学时，一些管理人员可能会感到失望。

It's like telling people who want to lose weight that the way to do it is to eat less.

这就像告诉想要减肥的人，减肥的方法就是少吃。

But if you want to know where startups come from, look at the

但如果你想知道初创公司从哪里来，看看

empirical evidence.

经验证据。

Look at the histories of the most successful startups, and you'll find they grow organically out of a couple of founders building something that starts as an interesting side project.

看看最成功的初创公司的历史，你会发现它们是由几位创始人有机地成长起来的，他们创建的东西最初是一个有趣的副业项目。

Universities are great at bringing together founders, but beyond that the best thing they can do is get out of the way.

大学很擅长将创始人聚集在一起，但除此之外，大学能做的最好的事情就是让开。

For example, by not claiming ownership of "intellectual property" that students and faculty develop, and by having liberal rules about

例如，不主张学生和教师开发的“知识产权”的所有权，以及对

deferred admission and leaves of absence.

延期入学和请假。

In fact, one of the most effective things a university could do to encourage startups is an elaborate form of getting out of the way invented by Harvard.

事实上，大学为鼓励初创企业所能做的最有效的事情之一就是哈佛大学发明的一种精心设计的回避方式。

Harvard used to have exams for the fall semester after Christmas.

哈佛过去常常在圣诞节后进行秋季学期的考试。

At the beginning of January they had something called "Reading Period" when you were supposed to be studying for exams.

一月初，他们有一个叫做“阅读期”的活动，那时你应该为考试而学习。

And Microsoft and Facebook have something in

微软和 Facebook 也有一些东西

common that few people realize: they were both started during Reading Period.

很少有人意识到，它们都是在读书时期开始的。

It's the perfect situation for producing the sort of side projects that turn into startups.

对于那些可以发展为初创公司的副业项目来说，这是一个完美的环境。

The students are all on campus, but they don't have to do anything because they're supposed to be studying for exams.

学生们都在校园里，但他们不需要做任何事情，因为他们应该在为考试而学习。

Harvard may have closed this window, because a few years ago they moved exams before Christmas and shortened reading period from 11

哈佛可能已经关闭了这个窗口，因为几年前他们将考试移至圣诞节前，并将阅读时间从 11 点缩短。

days to 7.

天到7.

But if a university really wanted to help its students start startups, the empirical evidence, weighted by market cap, suggests the best thing they can do is literally nothing.

但如果一所大学真的想帮助学生创业，那么根据市值加权的经验证据表明，他们能做的最好的事情实际上就是什么都不做。

The culture of Pittsburgh is another of its strengths.

匹兹堡的文化是其另一个优势。

It seems like a city has to be socially liberal to be a startup hub, and it's pretty clear why.

一个城市似乎必须在社会上保持自由才能成为创业中心，原因很明显。

A city has to tolerate strangeness to be a home for startups, because startups are so strange.

一个城市必须容忍陌生，才能成为初创企业的家园，因为初创企业是如此陌生。

And you

还有你

can't choose to allow just the forms of strangeness that will turn into big startups, because they're all intermingled.

不能选择只允许那些陌生的形式发展成为大型初创公司，因为它们都是混合在一起的。

You have to tolerate all strangeness.

你必须忍受一切陌生的事物。

That immediately rules out big chunks of the US .

这立即排除了美国大部分地区的可能性。

I'm optimistic it doesn't rule out Pittsburgh.

我很乐观，不排除匹兹堡。

One of the things I remember from growing up here, though I didn't realize at the time that there was anything unusual about it, is how well people got along.

我在这里长大的过程中记得的一件事是，人们相处得很好，尽管当时我并没有意识到这有什么不寻常的地方。

I'm still

我还在

not sure why.

不知道为什么。

Maybe one reason was that everyone felt like an immigrant.

也许原因之一是每个人都感觉自己像个移民。

When I was a kid in Monroeville, people didn't call themselves American.

当我还是门罗维尔的孩子时，人们并不称自己为美国人。

They called themselves Italian or Serbian or Ukranian.

他们称自己为意大利人、塞尔维亚人或乌克兰人。

Just imagine what it must have been like here a hundred years ago, when people were pouring in from twenty different countries.

想象一下一百年前，当人们从二十个不同的国家涌入时，这里会是什么样子。

Tolerance was the only option.

宽容是唯一的选择。

What I remember about the culture of Pittsburgh is that it was

我对匹兹堡文化的记忆是

both tolerant and pragmatic.

既宽容又务实。

That's how I'd describe the culture of Silicon Valley too.

我也是这样描述硅谷文化的。

And it's not a coincidence, because Pittsburgh was the Silicon Valley of its time.

这并非巧合，因为匹兹堡是当时的硅谷。

This was a city where people built new things.

这是一座人们建造新事物的城市。

And while the things people build have changed, the spirit you need to do that kind of work is the same.

尽管人们建造的东西已经发生了变化，但从事此类工作所需的精神是一样的。

So although an influx of latte-swilling hipsters may be annoying in some ways, I would go out of my way to encourage them.

因此，尽管大量喝拿铁的时髦人士在某些方面可能会令人讨厌，但我会竭尽全力鼓励他们。

And more

还有更多

generally to tolerate strangeness, even unto the degree wacko Californians do.

一般来说，人们能够容忍陌生的事物，甚至达到了疯狂的加州人的程度。

For Pittsburgh that is a conservative choice: it's a return to the city's roots.

对于匹兹堡来说，这是一个保守的选择：这是对城市根源的回归。

Unfortunately I saved the toughest part for last.

不幸的是我把最困难的部分留到了最后。

There is one more thing you need to be a startup hub, and Pittsburgh hasn't got it: investors.

要成为创业中心，还需要一件事，而匹兹堡还没有做到：投资者。

Silicon Valley has a big investor community because it's had 50 years to grow one.

硅谷拥有一个庞大的投资者群体，因为它有 50 年的时间来发展它。

New York has a big investor community

纽约拥有庞大的投资者群体

because it's full of people who like money a lot and are quick to notice new ways to get it.

因为这里挤满了非常喜欢金钱并且很快就会发现获得金钱的新方法的人。

But Pittsburgh has neither of these.

但匹兹堡却没有这些。

And the cheap housing that draws other people here has no effect on investors.

吸引其他人来这里的廉价住房对投资者没有任何影响。

If an investor community grows up here, it will happen the same way it did in Silicon Valley: slowly and organically.

如果投资者群体在这里成长，它会像在硅谷一样发生：缓慢而有机地发展。

So I would not bet on having a big investor community in the short term.

因此，我不会打赌短期内会拥有一个庞大的投资者群体。

But

但是

fortunately there are three trends that make that less necessary than it used to be.

幸运的是，存在三种趋势，使得这种做法不像以前那么必要了。

One is that startups are increasingly cheap to start, so you just don't need as much outside money as you used to.

一是初创公司的启动成本越来越低，因此你不再需要像以前那样多的外部资金。

The second is that thanks to things like Kickstarter, a startup can get to revenue faster.

其次，借助 Kickstarter 等平台，初创公司可以更快地获得收入。

You can put something on Kickstarter from anywhere.

您可以从任何地方在 Kickstarter 上投放一些东西。

The third is programs like Y Combinator.

第三个是 Y Combinator 之类的程序。

A startup from anywhere in the world can go to YC for 3 months, pick up

来自世界任何地方的初创公司都可以去 YC 为期 3 个月，接

funding, and then return home if they want.

资金，然后如果他们愿意的话可以回家。

My advice is to make Pittsburgh a great place for startups, and gradually more of them will stick.

我的建议是让匹兹堡成为初创企业的好地方，并逐渐让更多的初创企业留下来。

Some of those will succeed; some of their founders will become investors; and still more startups will stick.

其中一些会成功；另一些则会成功。他们的一些创始人将成为投资者；并且还有更多的初创公司会坚持下去。

This is not a fast path to becoming a startup hub.

这并不是成为创业中心的捷径。

But it is at least a path, which is something few other cities have.

但这至少是一条道路，这是其他城市很少有的。

And it's not as if you have to make painful sacrifices in the meantime.

在此期间你并不需要做出痛苦的牺牲。

Think about what I've suggested you should do.

想想我建议你应该做什么。

Encourage local restaurants, save old buildings, take advantage of density, make CMU the best, promote tolerance.

鼓励当地餐馆，保存旧建筑，利用密度，使卡内基梅隆大学成为最好的，促进宽容。

These are the things that make Pittsburgh good to live in now.

这些都是让匹兹堡现在变得更加宜居的原因。

All I'm saying is that you should do even more of them.

我想说的是，你应该做更多这样的事情。

And that's an encouraging thought.

这是一个令人鼓舞的想法。

If Pittsburgh's path to becoming a startup hub is to be even more itself, then it has a good chance

如果匹兹堡成为创业中心的道路是更加自我，那么它就有很好的机会

of succeeding.

的成功。

In fact it probably has the best chance of any city its size.

事实上，在同等规模的城市中，它的机会可能是最好的。

It will take some effort, and a lot of time, but if any city can do it, Pittsburgh can.

这需要一些努力和大量时间，但如果有哪个城市能做到的话，匹兹堡就可以。

Thanks to Charlie Cheever and Jessica Livingston for reading drafts of this, and to Meg Cheever for organizing Opt412 and inviting me to speak.

感谢 Charlie Cheever 和 Jessica Livingston 阅读本文的草稿，感谢 Meg Cheever 组织 Opt412 并邀请我发言。