最爲不堪的創業故事擊碎了硅谷夢

SAN FRANCISCO — Like so many bright, young entrepreneurs these days, Isaac Choi arrived here last year, set up shop and promised employees that he would lead them to the Silicon Valley dream.

舊金山——就像如今許多聰明的年輕創業家一樣，艾薩克•崔(Isaac Choi)在去年來到這裏，創立了一家公司，承諾員工他會帶領他們實現硅谷夢。

That dream is turning out mostly to be a mirage.

這個夢最終被證明基本是鏡花水月。

This week, Choi’s company, WrkRiot, began unraveling in a highly public fashion.

本週，崔的公司WrkRiot開始以一種極其公開的方式崩塌倒下。

Its former head of marketing revealed that the startup had been mired in chaos and had sometimes paid employees in cashier’s checks before delaying payment altogether.

它的前市場部負責人對外披露，這家創業公司已經陷入混亂，此前有時用銀行本票給員工支付工資，後來乾脆開始拖欠工資。

She also alleged that Choi had forged wire transfer documents to make it look as if compensation were on the way.

她還宣稱，崔曾僞造電匯文件，製造他正在進行補償的假象。

By late Tuesday, WrkRiot had taken itself offline.

至週二晚間，WrkRiot的網站已經關閉。

The veracity of Choi’s credentials are also in question.

崔的文憑的真實性也開始受到質疑。

While WrkRiot is not widely known, the startup’s collapse has gripped Silicon Valley.

WrkRiot並不出名，但這家創業公司的倒閉在硅谷引發關注。

Choi’s situation may be extreme, but the company’s implosion has a familiar ring to many who came west to be the next Mark Zuckerberg — but ended up instead at the next WrkRiot.

崔的情況可能比較極端，但這家公司垮掉的故事，對許多來硅谷創業、想要成爲下一個馬克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)——但最終可能成爲了第二個WrkRiot——的人來說並不陌生。

Silicon Valley is eager to celebrate its success stories, but the reality is that numerous tiny startups that few ever hear about form the tech industry’s dysfunctional underbelly.

硅谷熱衷於宣揚自己的成功故事，但現實是無數基本上籍籍無名的微小創業公司構成了科技行業那有些病態的軟肋。

With the exception of the alleged fraud, almost anyone who has worked at a startup has experienced most everything that went wrong at WrkRiot, said Semil Shah, a startup investor based in Menlo Park, California.

除了被指詐騙的那個部分，幾乎所有在創業公司工作過的人都經歷過WrkRiot出現的大多數問題，位於加州門洛帕克的創業公司投資人澤米勒•沙阿(Semil Shah)說。

People don’t realize the word startup is a broad concept that includes everything from a proven entrepreneur raising $15 million to a guy with money from friends and family.

人們沒有意識到，創業公司是一個寬泛的概念，既包括得到市場證明、已經融到1500萬美元資金的創業者，也包括拿着親戚朋友的錢創業的人。

To an outsider, he said, they’re both the same.

他說，在局外人看來，他們是一樣的。

On Hacker News, an online forum for techies, WrkRiot’s tale has exploded into one of the most popular threads, attracting more than 500 comments, including one from a poster who said that the startup’s experience was pretty much a rite of passage here.

在服務科技人士的在線論壇黑客新聞(Hacker News)上，WrkRiot的故事被引爆，成爲跟帖最多的熱門話題之一，引發500多條評論。

Tech blogs have also seized upon the tale; one called it one of the ugliest startup stories we’ve ever heard.

其中一條表示，這家創業公司的經歷基本上是這裏每家公司都要經過的成人禮。各個科技博客也在談論這個故事；其中一個稱它是我們聽說過的最不堪的創業故事之一。

Penny Kim, the former head of marketing at WrkRiot who wrote about her experience at the company, including the forgery allegations, said, I’d heard stories about late paychecks or startups failing, but who expects fraud in Silicon Valley?

WrkRiot前市場部負責人彭尼•金(Penny Kim)把她在該公司的經歷寫了下來，其中包括前面提到的僞造文件行爲。她說，我聽說過拖欠工資或創業失敗，但誰會想到硅谷還有欺詐？

WrkRiot terminated Kim’s employment in mid-August after she filed a wage claim.

在金提出工資申訴之後，WrkRiot於8月中終止了與她的僱傭關係。

She has since filed a retaliation complaint against the company and moved to Dallas, where she previously lived.

之後她報復性地對該公司發起控訴，也搬回了自己之前居住的達拉斯。

In an interview this week, Choi, 35, said WrkRiot, which is based in Santa Clara, California, near where Intel is headquartered, was like any company.

WrkRiot的辦公地點位於加州的聖克拉拉，離英特爾(Intel)的總部不遠。35歲的崔在本週接受採訪時說，WrkRiot和其他公司一樣。

If you want to talk startups, all startups have problems. When asked about the forgery claims, Choi said that Kim was a disgruntled employee who was fired for cause and that the accusations were unfair to my guys.

如果你想談論創業公司，它們都有問題。當被問到有關僞造文件的指控時，崔說金是一名心懷不滿的員工，她被辭退是有正當理由的，並表示她的指控對我的員工不公平。

Choi’s credibility is on the line.

崔的個人信譽也面臨危機。

As he built WrkRiot, the entrepreneur said that he had graduated from the Stern School of Business at New York University and that he had worked at JPMorgan for nearly four years as an analyst.

這名創業者曾表示，在創立WrkRiot時，他已經從紐約大學斯特恩商學院(Stern School of Business at New York University)畢業，而且在摩根大通(JPMorgan)做了近4年的分析師。

NYU and JPMorgan both said they had no record of Choi.

但紐約大學和摩根大通都表示，他們沒有艾薩克•崔的記錄。

At least one company listed on his LinkedIn profile could not be found.

在他LinkendIn頁面上的簡歷中列出的供職公司中，至少有一家是無法找到的。

Choi, whose LinkedIn profile has since been wiped clean, did not respond to questions about his résumé.

之後，崔將自己在LinkendIn上的簡歷全部抹去。他沒有迴應有關簡歷的質疑。

His lawyer, Bernard Fishman, said he was not aware of the allegations against WrkRiot until contacted by The New York Times.

他的律師伯納德•菲什曼(Bernard Fishman)表示，在《紐約時報》聯繫崔之前，他並不知道有人針對該公司提出了這些指控。

Choi set up his startup in June 2015 under the name , with a mission of helping people find the perfect job online.

崔是在2015年6月成立了自己的創業公司，最初取名，目標是幫助人們在網上找到最合適的工作。

He brought in advisers with expertise in recruiting and data science and eventually hired nearly 20 people, including Chinese nationals under work visas.

他找來招聘和數據科學方面的專家做顧問，最終僱用了近20人，其中包括幾名持工作簽證的中國人。

The company later changed its name to JobSonic with a tagline, Finally, a lightning fast job platform that cares.

這家公司後來改名爲JobSonic，並配了這樣一句宣傳口號，一家關心用戶需求、快如閃電的招聘平臺終於出現了。

Eventually, the startup settled on the vowel-challenged name of WrkRiot.

最終，這家創業公司定名爲缺少元音的WrkRiot。

Choi said that the company had not raised any money from venture capital firms but that he had a bunch of private investors who are high-net-worth individuals who believe in the company.

崔表示，公司還沒有獲得任何風險投資，但他有幾名個人投資者，都是高淨值人羣，對公司的未來有信心。

He said one investor was related to him and one was not, but he would not say how much money the company had.

他說有一位與他有親戚關係，另一位沒有，但他不願透露公司有多少資金。

WrkRiot’s former chief technology officer and co-founder, Al Brown, said Choi had intended to put $2 million of his own money into the company but that only $400,000 had materialized.

WrkRiot前首席技術官兼聯合創始人阿爾•布朗(Al Brown)表示，崔原計劃個人注資200萬美元，但後來只投了40萬美元。

I did not find out till the beginning of August that the money for the last payroll came from one of the employees, Brown wrote in online comments this week.

直到8月初我才發現，公司上一次發工資的錢來自一位員工，布朗在本週發表於網上的評論中寫道。

In Kim’s post about her experience at the company, which she did not initially identify but later confirmed was WrkRiot, she wrote that the startup, without consulting her, had hired someone who would report to her, did not plan ahead on its business — and had no idea what its business really was — and was repeatedly turned down by investors.

在記敘自身經歷的帖子中，金一開始並沒有透露公司的名稱，後來才確認是WrkRiot。她在其中寫道，這家創業公司在沒有諮詢她意見的情況下就招進來一個需要向她彙報的人，公司沒有就自身業務提前做計劃，甚至不知道自己的業務真正是什麼，並且不斷被投資者拒之門外。

The chief executive, later identified as Choi, also borrowed money from employees, she said.

她說首席執行官還向員工借了錢，也是後來才確認此人就是崔。

Nothing about that startup surprises me anymore and it all seems like a horrible nightmare I was lucky enough to wake up from, she wrote.

有關這家公司的任何事都不會再讓我感到驚訝，所有的一切看起來就像一個可怕的噩夢，真慶幸自己醒過來了，她寫到。

At WrkRiot, a handful of the startup’s remaining 10 or so employees gathered Tuesday night to discuss their situation, according to a person who attended the gathering and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was concerned about retaliation.

目前WrkRiot大約還剩十名員工。週二晚上，其中一部分人聚在公司裏，討論了他們目前的狀況。該消息來自一名參與了討論的員工，此人要求不具名，因爲擔心遭到報復。

A few were hopeful that Choi could save the of the Chinese nationals whose work visas were tied to their employment said their visa extensions were in limbo, partly because WrkRiot had missed a payment to the paycheck-processing company ADP, making it impossible for the government to verify their employment through ADP.

一些員工仍抱有希望，覺得崔有能力挽救這家公司。有幾名中國員工的工作簽證與自身的受僱情況相關聯，他們表示自己的簽證延期申請之所以陷入困境，部分原因就在於WrkRiot沒有給薪酬管理企業ADP付錢，導致政府無法通過ADP覈實他們的受僱情況。

By then, WrkRiot had shut down its website, its Facebook page and its Twitter account.

截止那時，WrkRiot已經關閉了自己的網站，也關掉了它的Facebook頁面和Twitter賬戶。

Many of the employees are hunting for other Silicon Valley startup jobs.

許多員工正在尋找其他硅谷創業公司的工作機會。