What We Look for in Founders
<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 > October 2010 (I wrote this for Forbes, who asked me to write something about the qualities we look for in founders.
</td> 2010 年 10 月（我为福布斯写了这篇文章，福布斯要求我写一些关于我们在创始人身上寻找的品质的文章。
In print they had to cut the last item because they didn't have room.) 1.
在印刷中，他们不得不剪掉最后一项，因为没有空间。） 1.
Determination This has turned out to be the most important quality in startup
决心 这是创业中最重要的品质
founders.
创始人。
We thought when we started Y Combinator that the most important quality would be intelligence.
当我们创办 Y Combinator 时，我们认为最重要的品质是智力。
That's the myth in the Valley.
这就是山谷里的神话。
And certainly you don't want founders to be stupid.
当然，你也不希望创始人变得愚蠢。
But as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination.
但只要你的智力超过了一定的门槛，最重要的是决心。
You're going to hit a lot of obstacles.
你会遇到很多障碍。
You can't be the sort of person who gets demoralized easily.
你不能是那种容易意志消沉的人。
Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman of WePay
WePay 的 Bill Clerico 和 Rich Aberman
are a good example.
就是一个很好的例子。
They're doing a finance startup, which means endless negotiations with big, bureaucratic companies.
他们正在做一家金融初创公司，这意味着与官僚大公司进行无休止的谈判。
When you're starting a startup that depends on deals with big companies to exist, it often feels like they're trying to ignore you out of existence.
当你创办一家依赖与大公司交易才能生存的初创公司时，你常常会感觉他们试图忽视你，让你消失。
But when Bill Clerico starts calling you, you may as well do what he asks, because he is not going away.
但当比尔·克莱里科开始给你打电话时，你最好按照他的要求去做，因为他不会离开。
2.
2.
Flexibility You do not however want the sort of determination implied by phrases
灵活性 然而，您并不需要短语所暗示的那种决定
like "don't give up on your dreams." The world of startups is so unpredictable that you need to be able to modify your dreams on the fly.
比如“不要放弃你的梦想”。初创企业的世界是如此不可预测，您需要能够随时修改您的梦想。
The best metaphor I've found for the combination of determination and flexibility you need is a running back .
我发现，对于你所需要的决心和灵活性的结合，最好的比喻就是跑卫。
He's determined to get downfield, but at any given moment he may need to go sideways or even backwards to get there.
他决心前场，但在任何特定时刻，他可能需要侧身甚至后退才能到达那里。
The current record holder for flexibility may be Daniel Gross of
目前的灵活性记录保持者可能是丹尼尔·格罗斯 (Daniel Gross)
Greplin .
格雷普林。
He applied to YC with some bad ecommerce idea.
他向 YC 提出了一些糟糕的电子商务想法。
We told him we'd fund him if he did something else.
我们告诉他，如果他做其他事情，我们会资助他。
He thought for a second, and said ok.
他想了一下，说好吧。
He then went through two more ideas before settling on Greplin.
然后，他又考虑了两个想法，最后决定选择 Greplin。
He'd only been working on it for a couple days when he presented to investors at Demo Day, but he got a lot of interest.
当他在演示日向投资者展示时，他只研究了几天，但引起了很多人的兴趣。
He always seems to land on his feet.
他似乎总是能站稳脚跟。
3.
3.
Imagination Intelligence does matter a lot of course.
当然，想象力和智力确实很重要。
It seems like the type
好像是这样的类型
that matters most is imagination.
最重要的是想象力。
It's not so important to be able to solve predefined problems quickly as to be able to come up with surprising new ideas.
能够快速解决预定义的问题并不重要，重要的是能够提出令人惊讶的新想法。
In the startup world, most good ideas seem bad initially.
在初创企业的世界里，大多数好的想法一开始看起来都很糟糕。
If they were obviously good, someone would already be doing them.
如果它们明显很好，那么早就有人在做了。
So you need the kind of intelligence that produces ideas with just the right level of craziness.
因此，你需要一种能够产生具有适当疯狂程度的想法的智力。
Airbnb is that kind of idea.
Airbnb 就是这样的想法。
In fact, when we funded Airbnb, we thought it was too crazy.
事实上，当我们资助 Airbnb 时，我们认为这太疯狂了。
We couldn't believe large numbers of people would want to stay in other people's places.
我们无法相信有这么多人愿意住在别人的地方。
We funded them because we liked the founders so much.
我们资助他们是因为我们非常喜欢创始人。
As soon as we heard they'd been supporting themselves by selling Obama and McCain branded breakfast cereal, they were in.
当我们听说他们通过销售奥巴马和麦凯恩品牌的早餐麦片来养活自己时，他们就加入了。
And it turned out the idea was on the right side of crazy after all.
事实证明这个想法毕竟是疯狂的。
4.
4.
Naughtiness
顽皮
Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye.
尽管最成功的创始人通常都是好人，但他们的眼中往往闪烁着盗版的光芒。
They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good.
它们不是“好迪两鞋”类型的好东西。
Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties.
从道德上讲，他们关心的是解决重大问题，而不是遵守礼节。
That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil.
这就是为什么我会用顽皮这个词而不是邪恶这个词。
They delight in breaking rules , but not rules that matter.
他们喜欢打破规则，但不喜欢打破规则。
This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination.
但这种品质可能是多余的；这可能是想象所暗示的。
Sam Altman of Loopt is one of the most successful alumni, so we asked him what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him.
Loopt 的 Sam Altman 是最成功的校友之一，因此我们问他我们可以在 Y Combinator 应用程序上提出什么问题，以帮助我们发现更多像他这样的人。
He said to ask about a time when they'd hacked something to their advantage—hacked in the sense of beating the system, not breaking into computers.
他说要询问他们曾经为了自己的利益而黑客攻击过什么——黑客攻击是指击败系统，而不是侵入计算机。
It has become one of the questions we pay most attention to when judging applications.
这已经成为我们在评审申请时最关注的问题之一。
5.
5.
Friendship Empirically it seems to be hard to start a startup with just one founder .
友谊 从经验来看，只有一位创始人似乎很难创办一家初创公司。
Most of the big successes have two or three.
大多数重大成功都有两到三个。
And the relationship between the founders has to be strong.
创始人之间的关系必须牢固。
They must genuinely like one another, and work well together.
他们必须真诚地喜欢彼此，并且能够很好地合作。
Startups do to the relationship between the founders what a dog does to a sock: if it can be pulled apart, it will be.
初创公司对待创始人之间的关系就像狗对待一只袜子一样：如果它能被拉开，它就会被拉开。
Emmett Shear and Justin Kan of Justin.tv
Justin.tv 的 Emmett Shear 和 Justin Kan
are a good example of close friends who work well together.
是一起工作的亲密朋友的好例子。
They've known each other since second grade.
他们从二年级就认识了。
They can practically read one another's minds.
他们几乎可以读懂彼此的想法。
I'm sure they argue, like all founders, but I have never once sensed any unresolved tension between them.
我确信他们会像所有创始人一样争论，但我从未感觉到他们之间有任何未解决的紧张关系。
Thanks to Jessica Livingston and Chris Steiner for reading drafts of this.
感谢杰西卡·利文斯顿和克里斯·斯坦纳阅读本文的草稿。