Jessica Livingston

November 2015 A few months ago an article about Y Combinator said that early on it had been a "one-man show." It's sadly common to read that sort of thing.

2015 年 11 月 几个月前，一篇有关 Y Combinator 的文章称，早期它是一场“独角戏”。可悲的是，阅读此类内容很常见。

But the problem with that description is not just that it's unfair.

但这种描述的问题不仅仅是不公平。

It's also misleading.

这也是一种误导。

Much of what's most novel about YC is due to Jessica Livingston.

YC 的许多新颖之处都归功于杰西卡·利文斯顿 (Jessica Livingston)。

If you don't understand her, you don't understand YC.

如果你不了解她，你就不懂YC。

So let me tell you a little about Jessica.

让我告诉你一些关于杰西卡的事。

YC had 4 founders.

YC 有 4 位创始人。

Jessica and I decided one night to start it, and the next day we recruited my friends Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell.

杰西卡和我决定在一个晚上开始，第二天我们招募了我的朋友罗伯特·莫里斯和特雷弗·布莱克威尔。

Jessica and I ran YC day to day, and Robert and Trevor read applications and did interviews with us.

杰西卡和我负责 YC 的日常运营，罗伯特和特雷弗负责阅读申请并接受我们的面试。

Jessica and I were already dating when we started YC.

当我们创办 YC 时，杰西卡和我就已经在约会了。

At first we tried to act "professional" about this, meaning we tried to conceal it.

起初我们试图表现得“专业”，这意味着我们试图隐瞒它。

In retrospect that seems ridiculous, and we soon dropped the

回想起来这似乎很荒谬，我们很快就放弃了

pretense.

假装。

And the fact that Jessica and I were a couple is a big part of what made YC what it was.

杰西卡和我是情侣这一事实是 YC 之所以成为今天这样的一个重要原因。

YC felt like a family.

YC 感觉就像一个家庭。

The founders early on were mostly young.

早期的创始人大多是年轻人。

We all had dinner together once a week, cooked for the first couple years by me.

我们每周一起吃一次晚餐，头几年都是我做的。

Our first building had been a private home.

我们的第一栋建筑是一栋私人住宅。

The overall atmosphere was shockingly different from a VC's office on Sand Hill Road, in a way that was entirely for the better.

整体氛围与沙山路的风险投资办公室截然不同，在某种程度上完全是为了更好。

There was an authenticity that

有一种真实性

everyone who walked in could sense.

每个走进去的人都能感觉到。

And that didn't just mean that people trusted us.

这不仅仅意味着人们信任我们。

It was the perfect quality to instill in startups.

这是向初创企业灌输的完美品质。

Authenticity is one of the most important things YC looks for in founders, not just because fakers and opportunists are annoying, but because authenticity is one of the main things that separates the most successful startups from the rest.

真实性是 YC 在创始人身上寻找的最重要的品质之一，不仅因为造假者和机会主义者令人讨厌，还因为真实性是将最成功的初创公司与其他初创公司区分开来的主要因素之一。

Early YC was a family, and Jessica was its mom.

早期的 YC 是一个家庭，杰西卡是它的妈妈。

And the culture

还有文化

she defined was one of YC's most important innovations.

她认为这是 YC 最重要的创新之一。

Culture is important in any organization, but at YC culture wasn't just how we behaved when we built the product.

文化对任何组织都很重要，但在 YC，文化不仅仅是我们构建产品时的行为方式。

At YC, the culture was the product.

在 YC，文化就是产品。

Jessica was also the mom in another sense: she had the last word.

杰西卡在另一种意义上也是母亲：她有最后决定权。

Everything we did as an organization went through her first — who to fund, what to say to the public, how to deal with other companies,

我们作为一个组织所做的一切都首先经过她的审查——资助谁、向公众说什么、如何与其他公司打交道，

who to hire, everything.

雇用谁，一切。

Before we had kids, YC was more or less our life.

在我们有孩子之前，YC 或多或少就是我们的生活。

There was no real distinction between working hours and not.

工作时间和不工作时间之间没有真正的区别。

We talked about YC all the time.

我们一直在谈论YC。

And while there might be some businesses that it would be tedious to let infect your private life, we liked it.

尽管让某些业务影响您的私人生活可能会很乏味，但我们喜欢它。

We'd started YC because it was something we were interested in.

我们创办 YC 是因为我们对此感兴趣。

And some of the problems we were trying to solve were endlessly difficult.

我们试图解决的一些问题非常困难。

How do

怎么办

you recognize good founders?

你认识优秀的创始人吗？

You could talk about that for years, and we did; we still do.

你可以谈论这个话题很多年，我们也这么做了；我们仍然这样做。

I'm better at some things than Jessica, and she's better at some things than me.

我在某些事情上比杰西卡更好，她在某些事情上也比我更好。

One of the things she's best at is judging people.

她最擅长的事情之一就是评判别人。

She's one of those rare individuals with x-ray vision for character.

她是极少数对性格具有透视能力的人之一。

She can see through any kind of faker almost immediately.

她几乎可以立即识破任何类型的骗子。

Her nickname within YC was the Social Radar, and this special power of

她在 YC 的绰号是“社交雷达”，这种特殊的力量

hers was critical in making YC what it is.

她的努力对于 YC 的发展至关重要。

The earlier you pick startups, the more you're picking the founders.

你越早选择初创公司，你就越能选择创始人。

Later stage investors get to try products and look at growth numbers.

后期投资者可以尝试产品并查看增长数据。

At the stage where YC invests, there is often neither a product nor any numbers.

在YC投资的阶段，往往既没有产品，也没有数字。

Others thought YC had some special insight about the future of technology.

其他人则认为 YC 对技术的未来有一些特殊的见解。

Mostly we had the same sort of insight Socrates claimed: we at least knew we knew nothing.

大多数情况下，我们都拥有苏格拉底声称的那种洞察力：我们至少知道我们一无所知。

What made YC successful was being

YC 成功的原因在于

able to pick good founders.

能够挑选优秀的创始人。

We thought Airbnb was a bad idea.

我们认为 Airbnb 是个坏主意。

We funded it because we liked the founders.

我们资助它是因为我们喜欢创始人。

During interviews, Robert and Trevor and I would pepper the applicants with technical questions.

在面试过程中，罗伯特、特雷弗和我会向申请人提出技术问题。

Jessica would mostly watch.

杰西卡大部分时间都会观看。

A lot of the applicants probably read her as some kind of secretary, especially early on, because she was the one who'd go out and get each new group and she didn't ask many questions.

许多申请者可能将她视为某种秘书，尤其是在早期，因为她是那个出去接待每个新小组的人，而且她没有问太多问题。

She was ok with that.

她对此表示同意。

It

它

was easier for her to watch people if they didn't notice her.

如果人们没有注意到她，她会更容易观察他们。

But after the interview, the three of us would turn to Jessica and ask "What does the Social Radar say?" [ 1

但采访结束后，我们三个人会转向杰西卡问“社交雷达怎么说？” [ 1