不走尋常路 從女工程師到英國風投女王

Eileen Burbidge, one of London’s most influential venture capitalists, is an American who built her career by going against convention. A software engineer by training, she earned her chops in Silicon Valley working for some of the world’s most prestigious tech companies, including Apple, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems. But then, she moved to London in 2004 to “push my comfort zone,” becoming one of Skype’s earliest employees.

艾琳o博比奇是倫敦最具影響力的風險投資家之一。這位來自美國的女性開創了一條有違常規的職業發展道路。她是一名訓練有素的軟件工程師，在硅谷積累了豐富的技術經驗，曾經先後供職於多家世界最知名的科技公司，其中包括蘋果、雅虎和太陽微系統公司。但在2004年，爲了“迫使自己走出舒適區”，博比奇毅然前往倫敦，成爲Skype最早的一批員工之一。

From there, she and two partners launched Passion Capital, a venture capital firm. It became one of London’s top VC firms — despite the fact that none of the cofounders have a traditional finance background. As a VC, Burbidge has taken a somewhat maverick approach, declaring she won’t invest in “jerks” and backing Lulu, a controversial dating app that allows women to rate men. She recently spoke to about her professional journey, her approach to investment and why she values passion above all else.

後來，她與兩位合夥人一起成立了Passion Capital公司。它現已成爲倫敦頂級的風險投資公司之一，但三位創始人其實都沒有傳統的金融業背景。作爲一名風險投資家，博比奇採用了一種特立獨行的做法，宣稱她不會給“ 令人討厭的人”投資，她還爲頗具爭議的約會應用Lulu（這款應用允許女性對男性評分）提供鉅額資金支持。日前在接受《財富》官網採訪時，她暢談了自己的職業歷程、投資方式，以及她爲何最看重創業者的激情。

Q: What inspired you to move to London and become a venture capitalist there?

問：是什麼激勵你前往倫敦，成爲一名風險投資家？

The ten years I was in Silicon Valley were phenomenal. However, Silicon Valley began to feel very insular to me. I thought it would be useful to get out “into the real world” or at least the wider world and I looked towards London. I was fortunate enough to secure job offers from both Skype and Shazam, and I went for Skype. I wanted to work with people who were crazy visionaries.

我在硅谷度過了不平凡的十年。但我卻感覺硅谷正在變得越來越封閉。我認爲，自己或許應該進入“真實的世界”，或至少更廣闊的世界，於是我把目光投向倫敦。我很幸運地收到了Skype和音樂識別軟件Shazam的工作邀請，我選擇了Skype。我希望與瘋狂的夢想家一起共事。

I became an “accidental” VC in that I started working with the former Skype engineers who founded Ambient Sound Investments. We made four investments in London, three of which ended up being with Stefan Glaenzer [who became one of her Passion Capital partners.] Stefan and I realized we probably identify and value similar traits in founders/teams/startups, and so we started talking about working together and raising our own micro VC fund in London.

後來，我開始與幾位創建Ambient Sound Investments投資公司的原Skype工程師們合作，就這樣，我“一不小心”就成爲一名風險投資家。我們在倫敦進行了四筆投資，其中有三筆是與斯蒂芬o格萊恩澤爾（他後來成爲Passion Capital的合夥人之一）合作的。斯蒂芬和我意識到，我們或許可以在創業者/團隊/初創公司身上找到類似的特質，併爲其估值，於是我們開始談論合作，並在倫敦成立了一家小型風投基金。

Q: Given that you and your cofounders, Robert Dighero and Stefan Glaenzer, all have startup experience, how has that shaped your approach as VCs?

問：你和另外兩位創始人羅伯特o迪哥希羅與斯蒂芬o格萊恩澤爾都有創業經歷，這些經歷對於你的投資方式有何影響？

We’d like to think that we’re able to assess and relate better to entrepreneurs and are better equipped to add operational and strategic value.

我們認爲，我們可以更好地評估和理解創業者，有能力爲創業者增添運營和戰略價值。

We basically conduct ourselves [as the kind of company] we’d like to partner with if we were still operators ourselves. We started by establishing a co-working space in 2009 and then we were able to raise, close, and launch our $60 million fund, Passion Capital, in April 2011.

在進行投資時，我們總是會考慮假如我們還是經營者，希望與什麼樣的風險投資者合作。我們在2009年建立了一個聯合辦公場所，然後開始融資，最終於2011年3月份啓動價值6000萬美元的風險投資基金Passion Capital。

At that time, we were the only London-based VC firm in East London (where the entrepreneurs are, now sometimes referred to as “Tech City”) as opposed to Mayfair or the other areas of London which is where financiers were historically located. And we were the only London VC with a co-working space — an open plan that we share with ten to twelve teams at any given time.

當時，我們是東倫敦（創業者聚集的地區，現在被稱爲“科技城”）唯一的風投公司。因爲在歷史上，金融家們大多集中在梅菲爾區或倫敦的其他地區。我們也是唯一一家在聯合辦公場所運營的倫敦風險投資公司——我們與另外十個或十二個團隊共同使用這個開放空間。

We were also the first VC in the world to use a Plain English term sheet and to not re-charge any legal fees to our companies (no fees to a cap, literally no fees whatsoever).

我們也是全世界第一家使用簡明英語風險投資協議的公司，並且我們不向投資公司重複收取任何法律費用，其實幾乎沒有任何費用。

Q: Can you explain the criteria you use when deciding whether to back an entrepreneur?

問：你能否解釋一下在確定符合投資條件的創業者時所遵循的標準？

Of course we look to validate the proposition they’re planning, the problem they’re trying to solve, and their ability to understand the requirements to execute a plan. But we also look for even softer skills such as the motivation behind their ambition.

我們當然會驗證他們的創業計劃，他們希望解決的問題，以及他們是否理解執行計劃所需的能力。但我們也會關注一些軟性技能，比如萬丈雄心背後的動機。

What I’ve found is that every great entrepreneur has some driving ambition that fuels them. There will be extreme hardships. It’s super stressful to hire people, fire people, build a team, push through challenges and barriers, compete with larger players. So there has to be something that is emotionally anchored, deep-rooted and which will drive that founder through their most difficult days.

我發現，每一位優秀的創業者都心懷抱負，這讓他們充滿幹勁。他們可能會遭遇極端的困難。招聘、解僱、組建團隊、應對挑戰和障礙、與更大的競爭對手競爭等，會讓他們承受巨大的壓力。因此，創業者必須擁有百折不撓的意志力，才能度過最艱難的階段。

Q: Is that why you invested in Lulu?

問：這是你投資Lulu的原因嗎？

Like most of our other investments, we invested in Lulu based on the strength, ambition and vision of its founder, Alexandra Chong, who is an absolute tour de force. Her original vision was to create a platform and “safe and private place online for women” to connect and interact with one another — whether it be about relationships, finances, education, work or any other topics.

與我們的大多數投資一樣，我們之所以投資Lulu，是基於其創始人亞歷山德拉o莊的實力、雄心和願景。她真的很傑出。最初，她希望爲女性創建一個“安全私密的在線平臺”，彼此之間進行交際和互動，談論人際關係、財務、教育、工作或其他任何話題。

The key conclusion after its initial launch was that nearly all of the content and interactions focused exclusively on dating and guys. So as a consequence and like any genius founder, Alexandra seized on that user feedback and whittled the proposition down to offer the best user experience to address that demand — and that’s led to the massively popular app we have today.

但這個平臺正式推出後，所有內容和互動幾乎都集中在與男性約會這個話題上。於是，與其他天才創始人一樣，亞歷山德羅根據用戶的反饋，對最初的計劃進行了修改，致力於針對這一特定需求提供最佳用戶體驗，於是便有了這款極受歡迎的應用。

Now used by one out of every four college women in the US, Lulu is on its way to becoming a platform for providing content, transactions and services around a broad-range of topics, products and subject areas — coming full circle back to delivering on Alexandra’s vision which I’ll be excited to see.

現在美國幾乎四分之一的女大學生都在使用Lulu，它也在努力成爲涉及不同話題、產品和主題的平臺，提供與這些話題相關的內容、交易和服務——最終又回到了亞歷山德羅當初的願景，我很期待她的願景實現的那一天。

Q: You’ve said that you’d rather not invest in “jerks.” How do you determine jerkiness?

問：你曾說過自己不會爲“令人討厭的人”投資。你如何確定什麼樣的人是“令人討厭的”？

It’s true and therefore dangerous that “jerk” is largely subjective. However, my partners and I are all at points in our lives where we’ve the luxury to decide that life’s just too short to work with people who we find objectionable, offensive or even plainly rude. We want to work with people with whom we enjoy spending time.

確實如此，但很大程度上，“令人討厭”是一個主觀概念，因此這種觀念其實很危險。但在經歷了人生的風風雨雨之後，我和我的合夥人得出結論：人生太短暫，不應該在那些令人討厭的、無禮的甚至粗魯的人身上浪費時間。我們希望與那些我們願意與之共處的人合作。

To discern this, we’ll employ techniques that anyone uses when they’re trying to interview/recruit candidates to hire. We’ll ask questions to probe and try to get a reaction about professional and situational matters. We’re also paying attention to how founders behave even when we’re not in the room or out of earshot. So if they’re rude or dismissive of other people (no matter who they are), that’s pretty much a non-starter.

爲此，我們採用了人們在面試或招聘時使用的技巧。我們會問一些問題進行試探，儘量獲得他們對專業問題和情景化問題的反應。我們還會觀察當我們不在房間裏或在聽力範圍之外時，創始人有何表現。對其他人（不論是誰）很粗魯或不屑一顧的人，會被我們淘汰。

Q: But don’t some jerks build successful companies?

問：但有些“令人討厭的人”確實建立了成功的公司，不是嗎？

There is indeed a theory that jerks or assholes make the most successful founders/CEOs. It might be idealistic and naive of me, but I’d like to think that as successful as those types of individuals have been, perhaps they could have been even more successful had they not been jerks.

確實有一種理論認爲，“令人討厭的人”或“混蛋”可以成爲最成功的創始人和CEO。或許我有些理想主義，過於天真，我認爲雖然這些人取得了成功，但如果他們沒有這麼令人討厭，或許會更加成功。

I very simplistically believe that one can be more successful at hiring and attracting great team members, partners and customers if they’re not off-putting, offensive or objectionable. Those small successes in theory contribute to building a more valuable business.

我的看法非常簡單：一個不令人反感的人，在招聘和吸引優秀的團隊成員方面可以做得更成功。而從理論上來說，這些小的成功有助於建立一家更有價值的公司。

Q: As an investor, which industries currently excite you the most?

問：作爲投資者，你目前對哪些行業最感興趣？

At the moment, I’m really excited about three specific sectors: fintech [companies that build technology for financial firms], cyber/infosecurity and healthtech/medtech. Conveniently, I also genuinely believe that startups in London/UK have an advantage in these specific sectors.

目前，我最感興趣的有三個領域：金融技術（爲金融公司提供技術的公司）、網絡/信息安全和健康科技/醫療科技。並且我真心認爲，倫敦/英國的初創公司在這些領域佔有優勢。

London has always been one of the financial capitals of the world. Similarly, the UK has a long-standing heritage and deep expertise in cyber/infosecurity and intelligence with GCHQ and other intelligence agencies and strong universities, and finally for all its good and bad aspects, the UK also has the NHS [National Health Service] as a centralized “platform” to leverage or make more efficient.

倫敦一直是世界金融中心。英國有政府通信總部（GCHQ）和其他情報機構以及頂尖的大學，在網絡/信息安全與情報領域有悠久的歷史和深厚的專業知識，此外，儘管人們對英國的國民衛生服務體系褒貶不一，但作爲一個集中的“平臺”，它可以更有效地利用或開發健康/醫療科技。

Q: Are you making a special effort to fund women entrepreneurs?

問：你是否在資助女性創業者方面做過特殊的努力？

I actively seek out strong entrepreneurs — regardless of gender or demographic. For obvious reasons, I take a great interest in women entrepreneurs in particular. Therefore I try to make myself available to anyone who is interested in connecting, getting feedback — or pitching. Over the years I’ve seen more women entrepreneurs emerging and I look forward to this trend continuing.

我一直在積極尋找有實力的創業者——不會去考慮性別或其他人口特徵。由於衆所周知的原因，我對女性創業者尤其感興趣。因此，如果有女同胞願意與我聯繫、尋求反饋或者兜售她們的創業理念，我都會盡量提供機會。最近這幾年，我發現女性創業者越來越多，希望這種趨勢能夠繼續下去。