BrightRoll被雅虎收購帶來的啓示 籌資並無既定之規

San Francisco-based BrightRoll raised around $40 million in venture capital funding since being founded in 2006, but its most recent round was a full three years ago. Instead, BrightRoll kept its cash burn in check and focused intently on execution — becoming profitable with what Yahoo says will be more than $100 million in net revenue this year (a figure that I hear is a significant underestimation).

BrightRoll總部設在舊金山，2006年成立以來，該公司籌集的風投資金約有4000萬美元，但BrightRoll上次融資已經是整整三年前的事了。該公司一直在控制自身燒錢的速度，同時全力關注執行。BrightRoll已經實現盈利，據雅虎估算，BrightRoll今年的淨收入將超過1億美元（我瞭解到的情況是，這個數字大大低估了BrightRoll的收入水平）。

“The key is that the company’s sales and marketing efficiency was phenomenal,” says a source familiar with BrightRoll. “They really managed to scale from very small to very large by increasing sales productivity, rather than by raising money to hire more and more salespeople. It was unusual, in a good way.”

熟悉BrightRoll的消息人士稱：“關鍵在於，該公司的銷售和營銷效率極高。他們真的是靠提高銷售生產率，從一家非常小的公司，成長爲規模非常大的企業，而不是靠籌錢僱傭更多的銷售人員來實現增長。這一點非同尋常，BrightRoll可謂鶴立雞羣。”

BrightRoll has been talking to Yahoo about an acquisition for quite some time, with talks really heating up in September. Had the deal not come together, however, there wasn’t much appetite for another venture capital round. Instead, BrightRoll likely would have tried going public sometime in 2015 (depending on the broader market receptivity to ad-tech).

BrightRoll和雅虎就收購磋商了相當長的時間，談判從9月份開始真正升溫。不過，如果未能達成協議，BrightRoll也不大願意再去尋找風投資金。相反，該公司可能會試圖在2015年上市（具體時間取決於整個市場對廣告科技公司的接受程度）。

All of this is a major departure from the recent trend in Silicon Valley, which is for companies like BrightRoll to keep raising large new rounds of VC funding at ever-larger valuations. Not only to fund operations, but also as a sort of rainy day fund in case the markets turn and the venture well runs dry.

所有這些都與硅谷最近的趨勢大相徑庭。通常在硅谷，像BrightRoll這樣的公司，會一輪接一輪地籌集大筆風投資金，在此過程中，公司估值也水漲船高。這些資金不光用於經營，還有點未雨綢繆的意思，以免市場急轉直下，風投資金來源枯竭。

To be sure, BrightRoll didn’t ultimately become a so-called unicorn, selling for $1 billion or more like prior Yahoo acquisition Tumblr. But BrightRoll also raised less than one-third of the venture funding of a company like Tumblr, meaning that its founders likely experienced much less dilution. Just goes to show that there is no “right” path for tech entrepreneurs to follow when financing their companies…

確實，BrightRoll最終未能像此前被雅虎收購的Tumblr那樣，賣出10億美元或更高的天價。但BrightRoll籌集的風投資金，也不到Tumblr的三分之一，也就是說，BrightRoll創始人的股權被稀釋的程度也要小得多。這恰恰表明，科技創業者爲自己公司籌資時，並無既定之規。