Do Things that Don't Scale

<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 > July 2013 One of the most common types of advice we give at Y Combinator is to do things that don't scale.

</td> 2013 年 7 月 我们在 Y Combinator 给出的最常见的建议之一是做一些无法扩展的事情。

A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't.

许多未来的创始人认为，初创公司要么成功，要么失败。

You build something, make it available, and if you've made a better mousetrap, people beat a

你建造了一些东西，让它可用，如果你制作了一个更好的捕鼠器，人们就会打败

path to your door as promised.

正如所承诺的，通往你家门口的路。

Or they don't, in which case the market must not exist.

或者他们不存在，在这种情况下市场一定不存在。

[ 1 ] Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.

[1] 实际上，初创公司的腾飞是因为创始人让它们腾飞的。

There may be a handful that just grew by themselves, but usually it takes some sort of push to get them going.

可能有少数是自己成长的，但通常需要某种推动才能让它们继续发展。

A good metaphor would be the cranks that car engines had before they got electric starters.

一个很好的比喻是汽车发动机在获得电动启动器之前所具有的曲柄。

Once the engine was going, it would keep going, but there was a

一旦发动机启动，它就会继续运转，但是有一个

separate and laborious process to get it going.

单独且费力的过程来使其顺利进行。

Recruit The most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually.

招募创始人在开始时必须做的最常见的不可扩展的事情是手动招募用户。

Nearly all startups have to.

几乎所有初创公司都必须这样做。

You can't wait for users to come to you.

您迫不及待地等待用户来找您。

You have to go out and get them.

你必须出去拿它们。

Stripe is one of the most successful startups we've funded, and the problem they solved was an urgent one.

Stripe 是我们资助过的最成功的初创公司之一，他们解决的问题非常紧迫。

If anyone could have sat back and waited for users, it was Stripe.

如果有人可以坐下来等待用户，那就是 Stripe。

But in fact they're

但事实上他们是

famous within YC for aggressive early user acquisition.

在 YC 中以积极的早期用户获取而闻名。

Startups building things for other startups have a big pool of potential users in the other companies we've funded, and none took better advantage of it than Stripe.

为其他初创公司构建产品的初创公司在我们资助的其他公司中拥有大量潜在用户，没有一家公司比 Stripe 更好地利用了这一点。

At YC we use the term "Collison installation" for the technique they invented.

在 YC，我们使用术语“Collison 安装”来形容他们发明的技术。

More diffident founders ask "Will you try our beta?" and if the answer is yes, they say "Great, we'll send you a link." But the Collison brothers

更加胆怯的创始人会问“你愿意尝试我们的测试版吗？”如果答案是肯定的，他们会说“太好了，我们会向您发送链接。”但科里森兄弟

weren't going to wait.

不打算等待。

When anyone agreed to try Stripe they'd say "Right then, give me your laptop" and set them up on the spot.

当有人同意尝试 Stripe 时，他们会说“好吧，把你的笔记本电脑给我”并当场安装。

There are two reasons founders resist going out and recruiting users individually.

创始人拒绝单独出去招募用户有两个原因。

One is a combination of shyness and laziness.

一种是害羞和懒惰的结合。

They'd rather sit at home writing code than go out and talk to a bunch of strangers and probably be rejected by most of them.

他们宁愿坐在家里写代码，也不愿出去和一群陌生人交谈，而且很可能会被大多数人拒绝。

But for a startup to succeed, at least one founder (usually the CEO) will

但对于一家初创公司来说，要取得成功，至少有一位创始人（通常是首席执行官）会