YC虛擬版初創孵化器Zana 實現全民創業夢

Shea Tate-Di Donna knows what entrepreneurs need. In Silicon Valley, she's best known as one of the founding partners at True Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage companies. She was also the architect behind True University, a two-day conference that brings together companies in the True portfolio to share ideas and collaborate.

希雅·泰迪·唐納對於企業家的需求瞭如指掌。在硅谷，她作爲True Ventures的聯合創始人而廣爲人知。這家公司是一支風投基金，專注於處於發展初期的企業。她也是True University的幕後策劃人。True University是一個爲期兩天的會議，它將True Ventures公司旗下資產組合公司召集在一起，分享理念，開展合作。

If that sounds a little kumbaya, Tate-Di Donna's latest project has similar idealistic aims. Zana is a virtual incubator that will, in her words, "democratize entrepreneurship."

儘管這似乎帶點空想主義色彩，但唐納最新的項目也擁有類似的理想化目標。Zana是一個虛擬孵化器，而且用她的話來說，它可以“將創業民主化。”

It's easy to see how Zana (pronounced zah-nah) was born out of one of True's core values: Encouraging CEOs to turn to one another for help and advice. It's a rare strategy among venture firms, and one that's served True well. Those values, and more than a decade's worth of conversations with founders, led Tate-Di Donna to create a peer education-focused incubator available to anyone with an Internet connection. "Zana is a platform versus a content delivery vehicle," Tate-Di Donna tells Fortune. "The real magic happens when entrepreneurs talk to each other."

Zana（發音zah-nah）的誕生並不出人意料，因爲它源於True的一條核心價值：鼓勵首席執行官們相互幫助、相互提供建議。這是其他風投公司很少使用的策略，但卻讓True如魚得水。基於這些價值理念，以及十多年與企業創始人的交往經驗，唐納創建了一個專注於同行教育的孵化器。只要有網絡連接，任何人都可以參與其中。唐納告訴《財富》雜誌：“Zana是一個平臺，不是內容交付載體。只有企業家們在相互交流時才能迸射出真正的火花。”

A free and open-to-the-public incubator shouldn't seem revolutionary, but it will likely be in hot demand among would-be founders. This latest tech bubble and shows like HBO's Silicon Valley have bolstered the idea that starting a company simply requires drive and determination. The best accelerators and incubators are bombarded with applications and at maximum capacity. Y Combinator, for example, reportedly receives one application per minute, with an acceptance rate hovering just above one percent.

一個免費對公衆開放的孵化器似乎並不是什麼革命性的舉措，但在潛在創業者中可能會很受歡迎。最近的技術泡沫和HBO的電視劇《硅谷》（Silicon Valley）推廣了這樣一個觀點：創業只需要動力和決心。那些一流的加速器和孵化器都收到了大量的申請，而且正在滿負荷運轉當中。例如，Y Combinator據稱每分鐘就會收到一個申請，而通過率僅在1%左右。

There also tends to be a self-selecting group that applies for early-stage funding and mentorship. In March, YC founding partner Jessica Livingston told Slate that while she thinks 2014 will be a tipping point year for women in tech, only 84 of the 633 startups YC funded over the years had at least one woman founder. "In the mid-2000s, we were lucky to get one female per batch," she said.

而且往往會有一個自選團體，他們會申請初創資助和指導。3月份，Y Combinator創始人傑西卡o萊文斯通對《Slate》雜誌說，儘管她認爲2014年將是技術行業女性創業的轉折點，但在過去幾年YC所資助的633家初創公司中，只有84家擁有至少一名女性創始成員。她還說：“2005年前後，每一批企業裏面哪怕有一名女性創始人就不錯了。”

That's changed, of course. But the numbers of non-white, non-male accelerator applicants still lag far behind. In venture capital, the gender imbalance is even worse; women comprise just four percent of all VCs. "When I was at True Ventures," Tate-Di Donna says, "I was the only woman for the first five years. And I was the only woman on the investment team for seven years."

當然，這一點已經發生了變化，但是非白人、非男性加速器申請人的數量仍遠遠落後。在風投世界中，性別比例失衡這個問題更嚴重；女性僅佔所有風投人員的4%。唐納說：“在頭5年裏，我是唯一的女性。7年來，我是公司投資團隊中唯一的一位女性成員。”

She also saw an obvious gap in the current swath of entrepreneur-centric opportunities. "There's not a trusted, gold standard, de facto place that will help move a business forward through its life cycle as a company," she says. "YC good for early-stage. There are incubators and accelerators focused on periods of time or specific skill development. But peer-led education support—that's where we see the enormous opportunity." (Also, a note about the name: Zana was a goddess in Romanian mythology known for giving life and generously bestowing gifts.)

在眼下一系列以企業家爲中心的機遇中，她也注意到了這個明顯的差距。她說：“現實中並沒有備受信賴的金科玉律，也不存在一個既定的場所，能夠幫助某項業務渡過生命週期成爲一家公司。YC有利於早期發展。有些孵化器和加速器專注於不同的時期或具體的技能發展。但是我們發現，以同行爲主導的教育支持存在巨大的機遇。”（此外，在此對名稱做一下解釋：Zana是羅馬尼亞神話中的一位女神，因賦予生命和慷慨地賜予禮物而富於盛名。）

With Zana, there aren't any real barriers to entry, as it's free and available on demand. (The revenue structure is a basic freemium model with a premium option available to companies. There will also eventually be a certification program enabling employers to test employees on various modules.) It also promises to unite entrepreneurs from various industries and from all around the world.

在Zana的幫助下，一切准入障礙都不復存在，因爲這是一種按需分配的免費服務。（營收構架是一個基礎的免費增值模式，爲企業提供高級選項。最終還會有一個認證項目，讓僱主按照不同的模塊來測試僱員。）它的另一項任務就是聯合全球各個行業的企業家。

Even Tate-Di Donna's team speaks volumes about her commitment to recruiting top talent with varied interests and expertise. Zana's lead developer Joel Burton is a skilled programmer and trainer who is also a sex educator with a degree in women's studies. (Only in San Francisco.) Respected technologist and Zana advisor Ian McFarland recommended Burton after Tate-Di Donna explained her need for a robust platform that will scale to accommodate the thousands of users she hopes to eventually attract.

甚至連唐納的團隊成員都充分顯示了她在招聘擁有不同興趣愛好和專長的頂級人才方面所做的努力。Zana的首席開發人員喬爾o伯頓是一名技能嫺熟的編程人員和培訓師，他還是一名性教育家，擁有女性研究學位（僅在舊金山）。唐納解釋說，她最終希望吸引幾千名用戶，因此，她需要一個強有力的平臺，並按照自己的預期實現規模化，容納這些用戶。於是，備受尊敬的技術人員和Zana顧問伊萬o麥克法蘭德向她推薦了伯頓。

Even after you've been using Zana for a while, she explains, your company will have new needs. In a similar way that Amazon suggests products based on previous purchases, Burton's algorithm will introduce new, relevant resources as your business (and your needs as a founder) evolves.

她解釋道，即便在使用Zana一段時間之後，你的公司仍會出現新的需求。伯頓的算法與亞馬遜依據歷史購買信息而推薦產品的方式類似，能夠隨着業務（以及創始人需求）的變化而引進相關的新資源。

With inclusivity as the backbone of the new resource, it's the Zana content that takes center stage. "With True University, it was great to have annual event," she says. "But entrepreneurship is a 24/7 business. At one True University conference, I recorded videos, and then put them up on private site. But most were 60 to 90 minutes long." Many Zana videos last just one minute; none are longer than five.

新資源的核心特質是包容性，因此，Zana內容就成了焦點。她說：“有了True University之後，我們每年會舉辦一次活動，這是件好事，然而創業是全天候不停歇的事業。有一次True University開會的時候，我錄下了視頻，然後放到了我的私人網站上。但大多數都是60-90分鐘的視頻。”很多Zana視頻時長只有一分鐘，沒有超過5分鐘的。

There are 10 Step Lessons applicable to a variety of early- and mid-stage businesses across all sectors. In her instructive series of videos about design research, Erika Hall, co-founder and director of strategy at Mule Design, reminds fledgling entrepreneurs to research adding value to the world, not just focus on creating something cool. "The very definition of design is solving a problem," she explains. "[Research] really is just asking questions to make sure that you're not basing your key business decisions on things you made up out of your head—or things you wish to be true. But if what you actually want to do is create a product that serves real needs and is gonna succeed in the marketplace, you need to understand how those needs are being met and the structure of that marketplace and where it's going." Hall, like many experts lending their voices to Zana's talent pool, offers sound advice at a time when founders are (sometimes rightly) mocked for waxing poetic about making the world a better place.

有一個10步課程適用於所有行業中處於早期和中期發展階段的各類企業。Mule Design聯席創始人和策略總監艾瑞卡o哈爾在她談設計研究的系列教育視頻中提醒初出茅廬的創業家們要研究如何爲世界增添價值，而不僅僅是專注於創造一些新奇的東西。她解釋說：“設計的定義就是解決問題。研究的真實意義在於詢問探究，以確保自己的關鍵業務決策並不是基於自己的幻想和想象。如果你的確想創造一種產品，能夠滿足真實需求並有望在市場獲得成功，那麼你就需要了解如何去滿足這些需求，以及市場的結構和發展動向。”創始人們因爲高舉“讓世界更加美好”這面旗幟而遭人嘲笑的時候（有時候確實值得嘲笑），哈爾與其他很多聲援Zana人才的專家一樣，爲他們提供了很好的建議。

Zana isn't the only newcomer to the incubator space. Fast Forward, an incubator exclusively for non-profits, launches this summer and has already accepted five companies (two of which were also in Y Combinator). But for now, Zana is the only incubator open to any founder with a laptop, anywhere in the world.

Zana並不是孵化器領域唯一的新秀。專門針對非營利性組織的孵化器Fast Forward將於今夏啓動，而且已經投資了五家公司（其中兩家同時也進入了Y Combinator）。但是目前而言，Zana是覆蓋範圍最廣的孵化器，而且沒有地域限制，創業人員只要有一臺筆記本電腦就可以參與Zana。

"We're just here to connect people so they can talk," Tate-Di Donna says.

唐納說：“我們只是爲人們提供互相連接的機遇，讓他們能夠相互溝通交流。”