中國的大學應該如何扶植學生創業大綱
Think Stanford University is becoming a startup factory? You may be right. The school, along with Stanford Hospitals & Clinics, is investing $1 million to $2 million each month into student and alumni companies participating in StartX, a campus-affiliated accelerator program. That pace of investments may not let up for at least three years, says Stanford chief financial officer Randy Livingston.
沒錯，斯坦福大學（Stanford University）正在變成創業工廠。該大學與斯坦福醫院與門診部（Stanford Hospitals & Clinics）每月將向參加StartX的學生和畢業生創建的公司投資100萬至200萬美元。StartX是斯坦福大學附屬的創業加速器項目。斯坦福大學首席財務官蘭迪o利文斯頓表示，這種節奏的投資將至少持續三年。
Think Stanford University is becoming a startup factory? You may be right. The school, along with Stanford Hospitals & Clinics, is investing $1 million to $2 million each month into student and alumni companies participating in StartX, a campus-affiliated accelerator program. That pace of investments may not let up for at least three years, says Stanford chief financial officer Randy Livingston.
In addition to the fund, Stanford provided a $3.6 million grant to the accelerator program to be doled out over three years. The cash allowed StartX, a nonprofit, to move into a rented 13,000-square-foot office and deck it out with a biotech lab, hardware workshop, coding rooms, event space, outdoor patio, and “pitch elevator,” a working elevator promoted as a place to practice your investor pitch.
除了資金之外，斯坦福大學還將在三年內，向該創業加速器項目陸續撥款360萬美元。憑藉這筆資金，作爲非盈利機構的StartX租下了一間13,000平方英尺的辦公室，並將其重新裝修，配備有一間生物科技實驗室、硬件車間、編程室、活動場地、戶外露臺和“遊說電梯”——這部工作電梯被提升爲練習遊說投資者的場所。
Dorm-room innovation is not new. But the big financial push by Stanford raises startup culture to a new level, far exceeding the impact of accelerator programs and business plan competitions offered by most universities. The free-flowing capital also renews old questions about the school’s role in luring bright students to drop out of school for the next big thing. Last year, debate ignited after more than a dozen students left Stanford for a startup called Clinkle, backed and advised by a number of professors.
宿舍創新並不新鮮。但斯坦福大學如此大的資金扶持力度，卻將創業文化推向了新的高度，其影響力遠遠超過大多數大學提供的創業加速器項目和商業計劃競賽。自由流動的資本再次提出了一個老問題：在引誘聰明的學生退學創造下一個大事件的過程中，學校究竟扮演了什麼角色？去年，十多名學生離開斯坦福大學，創立了一家名爲Clinkle的公司，該公司得到了多位教授的支持和建議。此事引發了激烈爭論。
“The volume of investments is astounding,” says Phineas Barnes, a partner at First Round Capital, one of several venture capital firms that set up investment funds aimed at college entrepreneurs. In comparison, First Round’s fund, called the Dorm Room Fund, invests just $2 million over four years, spread across startups at a dozen schools. Barnes argues that the smaller amounts, typically $20,000 or less, allow students to run their companies and stay in school—as well as boost their entrepreneurial education by forcing them to be scrappy and resourceful. “There’s a danger when larger investments force students to choose between the university and the start-up, and choose before they have tested the idea and gathered enough market feedback to make an educated choice,” Barnes says.
首輪資本公司（First Round Capital）合夥人菲尼亞斯o巴恩斯表示：“（斯坦福大學的）投資數額令人震驚。”首輪資本公司是少數幾家針對大學創業者成立投資基金的風險資本公司之一。相比而言，首輪資本公司的基金——宿舍創業基金（Dorm Room Fund），在4年內僅投資200萬美元，投資的對象是十多所學校的初創公司。巴恩斯認爲，20,000美元或者更少數額的投資，可以讓學生既能運營自己的公司，又能留在校園——同時還能促使他們變得更加勇於拼搏和機智靈活，進而讓他們更好地學習創業。巴恩斯說道：“投資數額較大，會迫使學生在大學和創業之間做出選擇，這是危險的，因爲在選擇之前，他們的創意還沒有經過檢驗，沒有收集足夠的市場反饋，因此無法做出明智的選擇。”
Livingston counters that the university is committed to seeing students continue their education, and only a small fraction of StartX founders enter the program without having finished their undergraduate degree. The school still has one of the highest graduation rates in the country, he says.
但利文斯頓並不認同這種觀點。他表示，學校會努力確保學生繼續學業，從StartX走出的創始人中，僅有很少一部分沒有完成本科學習。他表示，斯坦福大學依舊是美國畢業率最高的大學之一。
The new Stanford-StartX investments are funded by the hospital’s and university’s capital reserves and have no limit. For the university, the dealmaking complements more than $20 billion it already has invested in everything from public stocks to venture capital funds to real estate. It may be up to a decade before Stanford sees a return on its StartX investments, Livingston says. Yet it makes sense for a school that has a storied history of spawning innovators and entrepreneurs. “We train and house these creative minds,” Stanford president John Hennessy says, “and it is only fitting that we invest in their future success.”
StartX獲得的最新投資源自斯坦福大學醫院和該校的資本儲備，沒有使用方面的限制。對於學校而言，此項投資補足了學校的其他投資。目前，學校投資的對象涉及公共發行的股票、風險資本基金、房地產等各個領域，投資規模超過200億美元。利文斯頓表示，斯坦福可能要在十年之後才能看到投資收益。然而，對於一所盛產創新者和企業家的名校而言，這樣的投資很有意義。斯坦福大學校長約翰o亨尼斯表示：“我們爲這些創新思想提供指導和支持，我們投資於他們未來的成功，這是再合適不過的。”
Other universities are watching carefully and will likely follow Stanford’s lead, says Chris Lesmes, former director of the Big Red Venture Fund, a student-run $2 million investment fund targeting startups at Cornell University and financed by alumni, not the school. Cornell recently opened a tech campus in New York City to be closer to the startup scene and is pouring more resources into its biotech labs and incubators. “The whole purpose of a degree from any institution is to advance opportunity,” Lesmes says, “so it would be unwise for universities to discount the startup scene.”
大紅風險基金（Big Red Venture Fund）前董事克里斯o萊斯梅斯表示，其他大學正在密切關注此事，並且有可能會效仿斯坦福的做法。大紅風險基金是由學生運營的一隻200萬美元規模的投資基金，目標是康奈爾大學（Cornell University）的初創公司，該基金的資本來源是該校畢業生，而不是學校。最近，爲了緊跟創業風潮，康奈爾大學在紐約市成立了一座科技園，並且爲生物科技實驗室和創業孵化器投入了更多資源。萊斯梅斯說道：“獲得任何機構的學位，最終目的就是提前抓住機會。對任何大學來說，如果忽視學生創業的前景，都是不明智的。”
In Palo Alto, the pace of activity at StartX is a dizzying mirror of for-profit companies in Silicon Valley. The nonprofit has 50 volunteers and staff who put on 60 social mixers, speakers, and educational workshops every three months. As many as 100 people work inside the two-story office. Since September, the Stanford-StartX fund has backed 50 ventures with $16.4 million. In 12 months, the accelerator helped 70 companies get off the ground, and 16 startups have been acquired since 2009 by such giants as Google , Dropbox, and Yahoo .
在帕洛阿爾託，StartX的投資“舞步”簡直令硅谷其他盈利性公司眼花繚亂。這家非盈利機構有50名志願者和員工，每三個月會舉辦60次聯誼會、演講和培訓研討會。在兩層樓的辦公室裏，有100個人在裏面工作。自九月份以來，斯坦福-StartX基金已經向50家公司提供了1,640萬美元投資。在12個月裏，該創業加速器已經幫助70家公司順利起航，自2009年以來，已經有16家初創公司被谷歌（Google）、Dropbox和雅虎（Yahoo）等巨頭收購。
The Stanford-StartX fund does not invest in every company accepted into the StartX program, but any company that gets 30% of its capital from institutional investors is guaranteed a cash infusion from the StartX fund. The fund provides 10% of a company’s investment round. “It’s trigger-based,” says Alexa Lee, StartX’s spokeswoman. “If you qualify, you get the money.”
斯坦福-StartX基金不僅會投資StartX項目接受的所有公司，只要能從機構投資者獲得30%資金的公司，也可以得到StartX基金的資金注入。基金可以爲一家公司提供融資總額的10%。StartX發言人亞歷克莎o李表示：“這是一種觸發式的投資方式。只要你符合資格，就能得到資金。”
MindSumo was one of those companies that qualified for cash. In 2011, two recent Stanford grads and a pal started the company because they wanted to create a place where students could work on projects for companies that would give them experience and job prospects. StartX welcomed the startup into the incubator and in its second year, MindSumo nabbed nearly $2 million from investors that included the new Stanford-StartX fund. The company has since signed up 350 corporate clients and hired 10 people. Trent Hazy, MindSumo’s co-founder, says participating in StartX felt like getting an education in entrepreneurship, with expert help on tasks such as designing the site, pitching clients, and negotiating terms with investors.
校園招聘平臺MindSumo便是一家符合條件的公司。2011年，兩位即將畢業的斯坦福大學學生和一位朋友共同創建了這家公司，因爲他們希望提供一個平臺，讓學生爲公司完成項目，同時讓學生積累經驗，在未來就業時更有優勢。StartX歡迎該公司進入孵化器，第二年，MindSumo得到了投資者約200萬美元的投資，其中便包括斯坦福-StartX基金。如今，公司已經與350多家公司客戶簽約，並聘用了10個人。MindSumo聯合創始人特倫特o哈茲表示，參加StartX就像參加一次創業培訓，你可以隨時得到專業的幫助，比如設計網站，向客戶推銷，以及與投資者談條件等等。
“While other accelerators focus on how much traction you’ve made, the emphasis at StartX was always ‘what did you learn this week?’” he says. “Plus, it puts you in touch with some of the greatest Stanford minds who literally open their Rolodex to you.”
他說道：“其他創業加速器注重的是產品的市場認可度，而StartX注重的則是‘你本週學到了什麼？’此外，StartX能讓你接觸到斯坦福最出色的人才，他們很樂意與你分享他們的關係網。”
