不願上市的創業型企業帶熱新型分析人才
As Silicon Valley’s biggest start-ups stay private for longer than ever before, there is a new face that is becoming an increasingly familiar sight: the research analyst.
隨着硅谷(Silicon Valley)大型創業型企業保持非上市企業身份的時間超出以往任何時候，一類新面孔正日益爲人們所熟悉：研究分析師。
In an effort to bring more transparency to big private tech companies such as Uber and Airbnb, a growing number of companies are launching research teams to analyse private ventures and produce reports on them.
爲了揭開優步(Uber)、Airbnb等大型非上市科技企業的面紗，越來越多的公司着手組建研究團隊，以分析這些沒上市的創業型企業，撰寫關於它們的報告。
Demand for research on start-ups has grown as investment flows into big, late-stage fundraising rounds, which have come to be known as mini-IPOs.
隨着創業型企業的後期融資吸引了龐大的資金量——這類融資活動如今被稱作迷你IPO——人們對創業型企業相關研究也產生了更多的需求。
Investment in venture-backed start-ups reached $60bn last year, double the level of 2013, as investors such as mutual funds and asset managers enter the scene.
去年，對風投支持的創業型企業的投資規模達到600億美元，較2013年增長了一倍，共同基金和資產管理公司等投資機構紛紛進入這一領域。
This is a new asset class that is emerging, says Greg Brogger, founder of SharesPost, referring to late-stage tech start-ups. These are the same companies that would have been public at year six or seven in a previous era.
這是一個新興的資產類別，SharesPost創始人格雷格•布羅格(Greg Brogger)表示，他指的是進入後期階段的科技創業型企業，在前一個時代，這類企業會在創立六七年時就上市。
These are not start-ups in the garage.
現在這些企業不是車庫裏的創業型企業。
That new asset class calls for new kinds of research, he argues.
他認爲，新的資產類別需要新類型的研究。
SharesPost, which transacts shares in private groups, has launched a research division led by a former RBC analyst.
SharesPost從事非上市企業股票業務，它成立了一個研究部門，由一名前加拿大皇家銀行(RBC)分析師領導。
Other private market brokers have taken similar steps.
其他非公開市場經紀商也採取了類似措施。
Scenic Advisement, a boutique adviser and broker, poached BlackRock director Peter Christiansen, a 17-year veteran of the largest asset manager, to lead its research efforts.
專業顧問及經紀公司Scenic Advisement挖來了在最大資產管理公司貝萊德(BlackRock)工作了17年的彼得•克里斯蒂安森(Peter Christiansen)，由其負責相關研究工作。
We need to service our clients and we also need to provide a voice, says Barrett Cohn, managing director at Scenic. Research standards have been absolutely lacking in our space, just because it’s a bit of a new space and also because there are some absolute yahoos out there.
我們需要服務我們的客戶，也需要提供意見，Scenic董事總經理巴雷特•科恩(Barrett Cohn)表示，在我們的領域一直缺乏研究標準，因爲這在某種程度上算是個新領域，另外有些人絕對是門外漢。
Part of the reason research is so challenging is that start-ups do not publicly disclose financial metrics, such as revenue or net income, making classic Wall Street financial analysis impossible.
此類研究如此具有挑戰的部分原因是，創業型企業並不公開披露收入或淨利潤等財務指標，使得典型的華爾街財務分析沒有用武之地。
Much of the research on start-ups focuses instead on sector-level analysis such as trends and competitors, or relies heavily on news reports of leaked financial details.
大部分針對創業型企業的研究集中在行業層面的分析，比如趨勢和競爭對手。此類研究也極依賴有關財務信息泄露的新聞報道。
At PitchBook, a research firm founded in 2007, chief executive John Gabbertsees the proliferation in start-up research as a sign of the times as more start-ups achieve billion-dollar valuations.
PitchBook是一家於2007年創立的研究公司，其首席執行官約翰•加伯特(John Gabbert)認爲，隨着越來越多的創業型企業達到10億美元估值門檻，針對創業型企業的研究增多是時代的標誌。
Private capital markets are becoming more important than they have ever been, Mr Gabbert says. Everyone is becoming interested in these companies.
非公開資本市場變得比以往更加重要，加伯特稱，所有人都對這些企業產生興趣。
There are more of them and it is becoming harder to find the needle in the haystack, which means that using data and data tools is the only way to do that.
這樣的企業越來越多，大海撈針變得更加困難，這意味着利用數據和數據工具進行分析是唯一途徑。
As one of the oldest companies doing start-up analysis, PitchBook, which sells clients subscriptions to its online database, employs 250 analysts to cull information about private companies.
作爲最早從事創業型企業分析的機構之一，PitchBook聘請了250名分析師收集非上市企業的信息。PitchBook向客戶提供使用其在線數據庫的付費服務。
While financial figures may be impossible for outsiders to obtain, other measures have come to be reference points in the opaque world of start-up finance.
儘管局外人或許不可能獲得創業型企業的財務數據，但在這個不透明的創業型企業財務領域，也有其他指標可作爲參考。
Company filings in Delaware can reveal the share price of each financing round, for example, and brokers such as Equidate have started putting these online in an easy-to-access format.
比如，特拉華州的公司檔案可以查到每一輪融資的股價，Equidate等經紀商開始把這些資料以容易獲取的格式傳到了網上。
Although researchers say they hope to bring more transparency to a market that is often opaque, no one expects start-ups to begin disclosing their financials in the near future.
儘管研究人員稱他們希望爲這個通常不透明的市場帶來更多透明度，但沒有人指望創業型企業不久以後會對外公開其財務狀況。
Mr Brogger says: One of the great advantages to staying private is that you don’t have to show your hand.
布羅格稱：保持非上市身份的一大優勢是你不需要公開。
