初創企業的幕後英雄

On April 1, 2004, Eileen Burbidge stepped off the overnight flight from San Francisco to London. After years of working in various roles at Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems, she was taking up a job in the UK as Skype’s product development director.

2004年4月1日，艾琳•伯比奇(Eileen Burbidge)搭乘隔夜航班從舊金山抵達倫敦，她將擔任Skype英國分公司的產品開發總監。此前數年，她在蘋果(Apple)、雅虎(Yahoo)和太陽計算機系統公司(Sun Microsystems)等硅谷企業歷任多個職位。

The internet video calls company then employed about 20 people across offices in London and Tallinn, Estonia. Ms Burbidge’s plan was to go to her hotel for a shower, then head straight to work to show how keen she was. But before she could even wash, her eager colleagues sent a message asking when she would arrive.

Skype是一家互聯網視頻電話公司，當時在倫敦分部和愛沙尼亞的塔林(Tallinn)分部差不多有20名員工。伯比奇本來打算先去酒店洗個澡，然後直奔公司，以示自己對工作很用心。但她還沒開始洗，心急的同事們就給她發了一條信息，問她什麼時候能到。

Her arrival was a matter of urgency because of the speed at which Skype was expanding. She describes the next year as the “rocket ship” phase. Given her prior experience, she could advise how to steer it. “It helped that somebody had a playbook in mind, to map how we should grow.”

由於Skype急速擴張，伯比奇的上任成了一件緊急的事情。她形容之後的一年好比乘坐“火箭船”。憑藉之前的工作經驗，她能爲如何“駕駛”這艘船出謀劃策。“有人胸有成竹是件好事，有助於勾勒出我們的發展路線圖。”

When Ms Burbidge arrived, tens of thousands had downloaded Skype. Within weeks that became hundreds of thousands. Soon it was millions. Over the next 12 months, the London office went from a staff of five to 50. In 2005, shortly after Ms Burbidge left Skype, it was sold to eBay for $2.6bn.

伯比奇剛到Skype的時候，已有幾萬人下載了Skype。在數週之內，這個數字變成了數十萬。不久又變成了數百萬。而她上任一年後，倫敦分部的員工從5人增長到了50人。2005年，伯比奇離開Skype後不久，Skype被eBay以26億美元的價格收購。

When the tale of a tech success such as Skype is told, much of the credit — rightly — goes to the boss. In start-up land, all hail the cult of the young founder. These origin stories follow a pattern. Twenty-something male, through inspiration and pluck, builds tech company that changes the world (through an app, available to download). But among these founder myths, few odes are sung to middle managers such as Ms Burbidge. Less is known about these sometimes older, often wiser heads. They are the product managers, sales executives and marketing heads who transform a start-up into a grown-up.

當人們說起Skype這樣的科技公司的成功故事時，大部分的讚譽會歸於老闆，這樣說也的確有其道理。在初創公司的世界裏，所有人都對年輕創始人推崇備至。這些創始故事都有一個模式。二十多歲的男性，憑藉靈感和魄力創辦了一家（通過一款可供下載的應用）改變世界的科技公司。但在這些創始人的神話中，很少有人爲伯比奇這樣的人唱讚歌。人們對這些雖然可能年紀大些、通常卻更加聰明的主管知之甚少。他們是幫助初創公司走向成熟的產品經理、銷售主管和營銷主管。

Ms Burbidge, now a partner at Passion Capital, a London-based venture capital firm, says there are a few prerequisites that budding tech groups need to bloom: lots of money, skilled computer engineers and, yes, compelling leadership. But also, she adds, a bench of experienced executives who know how to scale a fast-growing tech company.

伯比奇現在是倫敦一家風險投資公司Passion Capital的合夥人。她說，剛起步的科技企業要發展成熟，需要幾個條件：大量資金和技能熟練的電腦工程師，當然也需要令人信服的領導層。除此之外，還需要一批經驗豐富、知道如何管理一家快速發展的科技企業的管理者。

In California, hot start-ups already know this. They poach key staff from the trailblazers that went before them. These savvy hires soon become industry stars in their own right.

在加利福尼亞，那些紅火的初創企業已經明白這一點。他們從更早的創業者那裏挖走關鍵員工。這些精明的僱員很快就憑藉自己的能力成爲了行業明星。

When Mark Zuckerberg needed someone to build the advertising business for his social network, he grabbed Sheryl Sandberg from Google. She had previously run the search company’s sales operation.

當馬克•扎克博格(Mark Zuckerberg)需要有人幫他的社交網絡打造廣告業務時，他從搜索引擎公司谷歌(Google)挖來了謝里爾•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)，後者此前負責谷歌的銷售業務。

When Evan Spiegel, chief executive of Snapchat, needed someone to do the same for his ephemeral-messaging app, he nabbed Emily White, a former lieutenant of Ms Sandberg, who had negotiated the first advertising deals for Instagram, the social network’s photo app service.

當閱後即焚應用Snapchat首席執行官埃文•斯皮格(Evan Spiegel)需要有人來幫他做同樣的事情時，他挖來了曾擔任桑德伯格副手的艾米麗•懷特(Emily White)，後者爲這家社交網絡公司的照片應用服務Instagram談成了第一批廣告協議。

Miracle-Gro executives are abundant in the Valley. Elsewhere, they are harder to unearth. Hiroki Takeuchi, 28-year-old founder and CEO of GoCardless, a London-based online payments group, says he can find computer engineers aplenty. But for months he has failed to find the ideal candidate for the post of vice-president for marketing. “These are people who will have a large amount of influence,” he says. “A year ago, there were no layers of managers here. But once you get to a certain scale, you need a certain level of management, as long as they have an appreciation for the need for speed.”

在硅谷，這種幫助創造奇蹟的高管比比皆是。在其他地方就比較難找到。28歲的武內宏樹(Hiroki Takeuchi)是倫敦一家在線支付集團GoCardless的創始人、首席執行官。他說，他能找到大量的計算機工程師。但是，他花了好幾個月也沒找到擔任營銷副總裁的理想人選。“這些都是將擁有很大影響力的人物，”他說，“一年前，這裏並不存在多個層級的管理人員。但是，一旦你發展到了一定規模，你就需要有一定的等級，只要他們能理解快速發展的需要。”

Tech’s tender entrepreneurs are often mocked for monumental egos and megalomaniac ambitions. But I’ve found the very best are humble enough to know the debt they owe their teams.

科技企業的年輕創業者經常被人嘲笑極端自我，野心勃勃，不知天高地厚。但我發現，最優季的創業者都很謙遜，知道自己欠手下團隊的情。

Patrick Collison is CEO and co-founder of Stripe, a San-Francisco based payments group recently valued at $3.5bn. A couple of years ago at the Dublin Web Summit, the 26-year-old Irishman was feted like a rock star. As local techies lined up to take selfies with him, Mr Collison seemed embarrassed. He told me the founder’s role has been overplayed, reckoning that, once the company reached a certain size, it was the executive bench that made the real difference.

帕特里克•科利森(Patrick Collison)是總部在舊金山的支付集團Stripe的首席執行官、聯合創始人，該公司估值最近達到35億美元。在幾年前的都柏林網絡峯會(Dublin Web Summit)上，這位時年26歲的愛爾蘭人受到了搖滾明星般的對待。當地IT人士排隊要和他一起自拍，這似乎令他感到難爲情。他告訴我，創始人的作用被誇大了，他認爲，一旦公司到了一定規模，真正起作用的是高管團隊。

“I’m the CEO and the buck stops here on every decision we make,” he told me. “But everything we do, that is not my work. I help steer it . . . but it’s not my work. If it is, then it’s a small part and an increasingly small part.”

“我是首席執行官，我要對我們做出的每項決策負責，”他告訴我。“但我們做的每一件事，都不是我的工作。我只是幫助掌舵……但那不是我的功勞。即使是有我的作用，也只是很小的一部分，並且分量越來越小。”

The writer is the FT’s European technology correspondent

本文作者爲英國《金融時報》歐洲科技記者