Why I'll Be a Solo Founder Next Time 下次我要独自去创业
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我们都知道，相比起单干，成立一个团队能让你的创业更容易成功(来自创业基因研究项目的数据和《创业迷思》都证明了这一点)。合伙创业能让每个人的技能优势相互补充，能提供相互的心理支持，你防止你掉入无底的兔子洞或在计划蓝图上迷失方向。全都说的很对，但大前提是你要找到正确的合伙人。跟错误的人一起干事业会把你带入完全相反的方向，必败无疑。
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We’ve all heard that founding teams are more likely to succeed than solo founders (data from the Startup Genome project and The Founder’s Dilemma seems to prove that). Co-founders can complement each other’s skillsets, provide psychological support, and prevent you from chasing down a rabbit hole or losing sight of the big picture. All true, but only if you’ve found the right co-founders. Working with the wrong people can lead to exactly the opposite and guarantee failure.
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我相信，我的前两次创业失败的原因主要是创业团队的组建出了问题(我也是团队中的一员)。我是如何知道的？因为具有相同产品和相同价值体现的其它公司成功了。那么，当产品“正确”时，什么样的团队会导致公司失败呢？下面是一些我和我的合伙人所犯的错误：
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I believe that my previous two ventures failed mainly because of the founding team (which I’m included in). How do I know? Because companies with almost identical products and value propositions succeeded. So, what are the characteristics that led to failure when the product was “right”? I believe these are the mistakes me and my previous co-founders made:
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(因为我自己也是这个“糟糕”的创业团队的一员，也为此感到羞愧，所以我不打算在这里责怪他人)
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(I myself was one of the “bad” founding members who was guilty of the below, I’m not just trying blame other people)
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缺乏投入 Lack of commitment
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不要跟有其它事情要做、把创业当成‘业余事情’的人一起合作。特别的，不要和还在忙于学业、有个人问题、在外旅游、有全职工作的人合伙开公司。这些人将会成为创业的瓶颈。要么分配的任务完成不了，要么做的很慢。一旦定下的目标没有实现，这很容易发展成责怪抱怨，而不是你自己去主动做些什么。我两种错误都犯过。我为不能更多的投入而抱歉，下次我一定会改正。这也就是为什么年轻人尤其适合当优秀的合伙人的原因。他们没有其它的拖累。
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Don’t work with people who have other time-consuming commitments and consider the startup a “side project”. In particular, don’t found a startup with people that are busy with school, have personal issues, are traveling, or are working a full-time job. These people will become the bottleneck. Tasks either don’t get done, or they get done at a very slow pace. And once stuff doesn’t get done it’s easy to blame someone else instead of doing something about it yourself. I’ve been on both sides of this. Sorry for not being committed, I’ll know better next time. This is one of the reasons why young people often make for particularly good founders. They don’t have a lot of other commitments.
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缺乏共识和共同的目标 Lack of a shared vision/goal
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不要跟那些和你没有共同愿景或长期奋斗目标的人一起合作。警惕那些一心只为钱的人。作为创业者，你一天也许要工作48小时，所以，必须确保你的人都是关心你们正在做的事业，否则，你的斗志很快就会耗干。
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Don’t work with people that don’t share your vision or long-term goal for the venture. Be wary of people that are in it for the money alone. As a startup founder you’ll be working 48 hours a day, so you better make sure that you care about what you’re working on, or your energy will drain very quickly.
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缺乏技能 Lack of skills
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不要跟那些不能给你们的创业带来独特技能补充的人一起创业。这些人会给团队中其他能提供各自价值的人带来消极的心理影响。但有一点例外：积极吸收那些聪明且积极学习任何被交给的任务的人。特别要警惕的是那些有某些技能，但却不热心学习跟创业相关的新技能的人。
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Don’t work with people that don’t bring unique skills (applicable to a startup) to the table. Having someone like this in your team will down the mood of the other teams members that are providing value. There is one exception to this: Bring on smart people that are motivated and willing to learn whatever it takes. Be particularly wary of people that have a certain skillset, but are not motivated to learn new skills relevant to a startup environment.
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不能在一起工作 Not being in the same physical location
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不要跟不愿意和你在同一个办公室里工作的人合作创业。虽然在线项目管理和协助开发工具近些年来取得了巨大的提升，但它们无法替代在同一间办公室里肩并肩工作、一起对着白板进行头脑风暴。你们必须一起度过有质量的合作时间。这样做可以促进维持斗志高昂，让每个人都在同一个舞台上。
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Don’t work with people that are not willing to be in the same location as you. While online project management and collaboration tools have gotten significantly better over the past few years there is no substitute for being in the same office and brainstorming ideas on a whiteboard. You need to spend quality time together. Doing so makes sure that motivation stays high, and that everyone is on the same page.
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如果你没有找到合适的团队，继续寻找。不要停步。你最好自己先单干，当遇到了合适的人后再扩充队伍。没有人能保证创业成功，但一个糟糕的创业团队却能保证你失败。
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If you haven’t found the right team yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. You are better off starting alone and adding the right people to your team when you find them. No one can guarantee startup success, but a bad founding team is a guarantee for failure.
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