【双语阅读】投资人一直在问“为什么”，创业者该怎么办？

编者按：本文作者是知名投资人 Fred Wilson，他在文中写了自己以投资人身份参与创业公司董事会的经历，并探讨投资人该如何与公司管理人配合，让公司更好发展的方法。

Being an investor and board member means that you are close to the companies you invest in but not “in them.”. This near and dear relationship creates some interesting challenges for both the management and the investors. One of them is understanding the difference between information/reporting and a real understanding of what is going on in the business.

如果你是一名投资人，并且在所投资的创业公司董事会上有一个席位，这意味着你与这家创业公司关系比较紧密，但是你并没有“在公司上班”。对公司管理者和投资人来说，这种亲密的关系会带来一定的挑战，其中一项挑战就是分清工作报告与业务上真正发生的事情的区别。

I often find myself saying “but why?” at board meetings:

我发现，我在董事会上经常会说的一句话就是：为什么会这样呢？”

•       “Revenues are soft this quarter” – but why?

•       “这个季度的营收疲弱”——为什么会这样呢？

•       “MAUs are up 150% over last quarter” – but why?

•       “与上个季度相比，MAU 增长了150%”——为什么会这样呢？

•       “We are going to miss our ship dates” – but why?

•       “恐怕我们会赶不上发货日期了”—— 为什么会这样呢？

•       “We expect to decrease our hosting costs by 50% next quarter” – but why?

•       “我们希望下个季度可以将托管费用降低 50%”——为什么要这么做呢？

•       “We can’t seem to get any interest in the next round” – but why?

•       “恐怕我们没法拿到下一轮融资了”——为什么会这样呢？

•       “We are getting a lot of inbound interest from investors” – but why?

•       “很多投资者都有意向投资我们”—— 为什么会这样呢？

•       “We have a lot of turnover in our engineering organization” – but why?

•       “我们的工程组织出现了很多失误”—— 为什么会这样呢？

The beauty of working with investors who see a lot and have seen a lot is that they can often help you diagnose the disease by looking closely at the symptoms. But you have to be willing to engage in that exercise and be open to hearing “but why” and be prepared to answer it.

与见多识广的投资人合作的好处在于，他们可以仔细查看“病症”，帮你诊断疾病。但是公司管理人必须愿意积极配合，听取投资人的疑问，并做好回答投资人问题的准备。

【编译组出品】