风投（风投公司）

精读|翻译|词组

Venture capital

风险投资

英文部分选自经济学人20220122期文艺版块

Risky business

财富的风险

A history of the venture-capital industry defends its contribution to capitalism

一部风投史，彰显了风投行业对资本主义的贡献

网页版标题如下：

A history and defence of venture capital in “The Power Law”

《权利法则》一书回顾了风投行业的历史，力证其价值所在

It is a vital feature of modern capitalism, says Sebastian Mallaby）

塞巴斯蒂安·马拉比（Sebastian Mallaby）表示，风投是现代资本主义的关键特征

The Power Law. By Sebastian Mallaby. Penguin Press; 496 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £25

Not everyone is a fan of venture capitalists (VCS). One academic famously questioned whether they were “soulless agents of Satan, or just clumsy rapists?” Paul Graham, the co-founder of the Y Combinator startup incubator, published a “unified theory of VC suckage”, in which he likened the industry’s investment process to a body-cavity search by someone with a faulty knowledge of anatomy. Venture capitalists, he concluded, resembled classic villains: “alternately cowardly, greedy, sneaky and overbearing”.

并非所有人都喜欢风险投资家（venture capitalists，VCS）。一位学者曾发出过著名的疑问：风投家们是否就是一群 “被摄了魂的撒旦代理人”，抑或是“笨拙的暴徒”？ Y Combinator初创企业孵化公司的联合创始人保罗·格雷厄姆（Paul Graham）曾发表过“一套风投嗜血论”：他把风投行业的投资过程比作让带着错误解剖学知识的人对人体体腔进行探索。他总结说，风投家就像是典型的恶棍，“懦弱、贪婪、阴险和盛气凌人这些特质在他们身上轮番展现”。

注释：

Y Combinator（简称YC）成立于2005年3月，是一家以投资种子阶段初创公司为业务的创投公司

More recently, VCS have been blamed for propagating some of the ills of Big Tech: the monopolisation of markets, the erosion of privacy and the degradation of workers’ rights in the gig economy. By prioritising growth over governance at all costs, they stand accused of feeding a recklessly aggressive capitalist culture that contributed to scandals at Uber, WeWork and Theranos.

就在最近，又有人指责风投人士是使大型科技公司不端行为不断蔓延的罪魁祸首：例如市场垄断、隐私侵犯以及零工经济中工人权利受损。风投人士罔顾监管，不惜一切代价追求经济利益增长，人们指责他们的行为助长了一种肆无忌惮的激进资本主义文化，由此造成了发生在优步（Uber）、WeWork与Theranos等公司的丑闻。

In “The Power Law”, Sebastian Mallaby acknowledges some of the industry’s shortcomings, most notably its shocking lack of diversity. But he zealously defends the overall achievements of the VC industry, which has funded many of the modern world’s most useful inventions (search engines, smartphones, vaccines), disrupted cosy monopolies and generated eye-popping wealth. He even claims that VCs have emerged as a “third great institution of modern capitalism”, combining the organisational strengths of companies with the flexibility of markets. Little surprise that the VC model has now gone global, with particularly striking results in China.

在《权力法则》一书中，塞巴斯蒂安·马拉比（Sebastian Mallaby）承认风投行业确实存在一些缺点，最显著的地方莫过于行业中多样性的奇缺。然而，他十分热切地为风投行业的整体成就辩护：正是得益于风投家们的投资风投，才有了如今包括搜索引擎、智能手机以及疫苗等极其重要的发明。也正是有了风险投资，才打破了传统行业的垄断舒适圈，创造了惊人的财富。他甚至声称，风投公司已经成为 “现代资本主义的第三大机制”，将公司的组织优势与市场的灵活性完美结合。因此，风险投资模式在全球流行，尤其是在中国取得了令人瞩目的成果，就不足为奇。

In his well-researched book, leavened by lively portraits of leading figures, Mr Mallaby explores the history of the VC industry and the reasons for its vitality. A journalist at The Economist in the 1980s-90s (and husband of the current editor-in-chief), he previously wrote a study of the hedge-fund industry and an acclaimed biography of Alan Greenspan.

马拉比写书时做了深入研究，而对主要人物的生动描绘为书增色不少，他探讨了风投行业的历史及其充满活力的原因。上世纪八九十年代，他曾担任《经济学人》的记者（他也是现任主编的丈夫），此前著有一本研究对冲基金行业的书籍和艾伦·格林斯潘（Alan Greenspan）的传记，广受好评。

Some histories of Silicon Valley, such as Margaret O’Mara’s “The Code”, have emphasised the importance of American military spending in seeding the west-coast tech industry. Mr Mallaby’s focus is overwhelmingly on the entrepreneurs, investors and firms that nurtured its growth. Much of the VC industry’s success is attributed to its mentality. In evaluating investments, VCS still take after the pioneering Arthur Rock, who zeroed in on the “intellectual book value” of a company rather than the financial kind. They accept extreme financial risk, embrace immigrants and tolerate nerds and misfits, who account for so many successful entrepreneurs. Four of PayPal’s six early employees reputedly built bombs in high school.

还有一些书籍记录了硅谷的发展历史，例如玛格丽特·奥玛拉（Margaret O’Mara）的《守则》一书，它重点描述了美国的军费开支对培育西海岸科技产业发挥的重要作用。马拉比则聚焦于助力科技发展的企业家、投资者和公司。风投行业的多数成功都应归功于思维模式。风投家在进行投资评估时，仍追随先驱阿瑟·洛克（Arthur Rock）的脚步，专注于公司的“智力账面价值”，而非财务状况。他们接受极端金融风险、欢迎移民，能够容忍书呆子和不合群的人（很多成功的企业家都属于这几类群体）。据说，PayPal的六名早期员工中有四人在高中时就制造过炸弹。

注：zero in on:

To zero in on a target means to aim at it or move towards it.

If you zero in on a problem or subject, you give it your full attention.

While VCs love backing companies that enjoy so-called network effects, they benefit from their own version of this phenomenon, too. Sand Hill Road, where many of the leading VC firms are clustered, may have the air of a row of gentlemen’s clubs but it has enabled the free flow of ideas, favours and connections. That is partly why the Silicon Valley model has been so hard to replicate elsewhere.

风投家们喜欢投资具有“网络效应”的公司，其本身也从互联网中受益。沙丘路（Sand Hill Road）聚集着大量头部风投公司，给人感觉像一排排绅士俱乐部，创意、喜好和人情在这里自由流动。这也是为什么其他地方难以复制硅谷模式的部分原因。

As the author describes, the VC world has experienced considerable churn in the past 60 years and has lately been disrupted as much as it has been disruptive. Capital-rich outsiders, including DST Global, SoftBank and Tiger Global Management, have all muscled in on what was once a cottage industry. By deploying masses of money later in the investment cycle, these indulgent newcomers have enabled startups to delay listing on public markets. In Mr Mallaby’s view, that trend partly accounts for the misgovernance at some scandal-ridden tech companies because it has cut the ties between interventionist VC investors and freewheeling entrepreneurs.

此句留给大家，欢迎大家积极留言互动！资本雄厚的外来者，包括数码天空科技（DST Global）、软银（SoftBank）和老虎全球管理公司（Tiger Global Management）等，都纷纷涌入这个曾经规模小众的行业。通过在投资周期的后期配置大量资金，这些出手阔绰的新来者帮助初创企业推迟上市时间。在马拉比（Mallaby）看来，这种趋势在一定程度上造成了一些丑闻缠身的科技公司自我监管不到位的问题，因为它切断了作为干预者的风投家们和肆意妄为企业家之间的联系。

注：muscle in on

If someone muscles in on something, they force their way into a situation where they have no right to be and where they are not welcome, in order to gain some advantage for themselves.

Some west-coast VC firms, such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, have responded to the new challengers by raising ever-bigger funds and diversifying, both geographically and sectorally. This has only fuelled talk that Sand Hill Road is becoming the new Wall Street. Yet even the biggest traditional VC firms remain tiny compared with giant public-market funds. Some investors wonder why they should bother with risky VC bets when the returns in public markets can be so spectacular.

美国西海岸的一些风投公司，如红杉资本（Sequoia Capital）和安德森·霍洛维茨（Andreessen Horowitz），已经通过筹集更多资金、增加区域和行业多样化来应对新的挑战者。这进一步印证了沙丘路（Sand Hill Road）正成为新华尔街的说法。即便如此，即使是最大的传统风投公司，与巨大的公共市场基金相比，规模仍相形见绌。一些投资者想知道，既然公共市场的回报如此可观，他们为何还要费尽心机去做风险投资？

Take Apple, which recently popped above $3trn in market value compared with the $1.8bn it was worth when it floated in 1980. It seems improbable that the VC industry, which has helped so many startups to “blitzscale”, can ever do so itself.

以苹果公司为例，其市值最近突破了3万亿美元。而在1980年刚上市时，其市值只有18亿美元。风投行业帮助众多初创企业实现了“闪电式扩张”，而风投自身似乎不太可能做到这点。

翻译组：

Jeremy，男，在北京，喜欢睡觉

Violet，MTIer，爱思考勤查证风投，es厨

Des，男，在诗和远方的字句里，追寻生命的意义

校对组：

Bavarian，桃爸，语言观决定世界观

Cathy，女，春都MTIer，专业翻译爱好者

Rachel，学理工科，爱跳芭蕾，热爱文艺的非典型翻译

审校漫谈

奥莉，梦想讲相声的中二病患者，猫是本体

自从“我们是如何翻译的”发布以来，形式相似的审校漫谈便没有继续。那这次我就从一个读者的角度，谈一下我看到的译文修改典型，以及一点个人的理解，希望跟大家共同探讨学习。

1. By prioritising growth over governance at all costs, they stand accused of feeding a recklessly aggressive capitalist culture that contributed to scandals at Uber, WeWork and Theranos.

原译：这些公司通过不惜一切代价逃避监管、稳定增长，人们控诉他们的行为无异于为贪婪无情的资本主义文化火上浇油，由此引发的丑闻涉及优步（Uber）、WeWork与Theranos等公司。

改译：风投人士罔顾监管，不惜一切代价追求经济利益增长，人们指责他们的行为助长了一种肆无忌惮的激进资本主义文化，由此造成了发生在优步（Uber）、WeWork与Theranos等公司的丑闻。

翻译时注意代词的翻译，中文译文很多情况都不会直接使用 “他，他们”等代词，而是会具体表明指代对象。这里的they指代前文的VCs，venture capitalist，所以原译这些公司指代不正确。“that contributed…”将译文“由此引发的丑闻涉及…”改为“由此造成了…的丑闻”，突出了行为，所以这里用动词更加合适，关系也更为直接，原译文“丑闻涉及”不够直接反映原文的逻辑。另外语言层面的一些修改润色也值得我们学习。

2. But he zealously defends the overall achievements of the VC industry, which has funded many of the modern world’s most useful inventions (search engines, smartphones, vaccines), disrupted cosy monopolies and generated eye-popping wealth.

原译：然而，他十分热切地为风投行业的整体功绩做出辩护：正是得益于风投家的投资，才有了如今包括搜索引擎、智能手机以及疫苗等极其重要的发明。这些创新的出现打破了（传统行业）的垄断舒适圈，创造了令人瞠目结舌的财富。

改译：然而，他十分热切地为风投行业的整体成就辩护：正是得益于风投家们的投资，才有了如今包括搜索引擎、智能手机以及疫苗等极其重要的发明。也正是有了风险投资，才打破了传统行业的垄断舒适圈，创造了惊人的财富。

这句中disrupted and generated两个谓语实际是从句中并列的谓语，即which has funded，has disrupted and has generated，译为“这些创新”变成了前文提到的搜索引擎、智能手机这些方面，所以不正确，因此译文改为“证书有了风险投资/正是得益于风险投资”。

3. In his well-researched book, leavened by lively portraits of leading figures, Mr Mallaby explores the history of the VC industry and the reasons for its vitality.

原译：马拉比在书中做了精心研究，对主要人物进行了生动描绘，探讨了风投行业的历史及其保有活力的原因。

改译：马拉比写书时做了深入研究，而对主要人物的生动描绘为书增色不少，他探讨了风投行业的历史及其充满活力的原因。

well-researched book这里改的细致入微，well-researched是book的形容词，是表明这本书是做过深入研究的才写就的，相比原译文更加精准。“leavened by”原译文没有翻出来，改译加上了“增色不少”。

4. A journalist at The Economist in the 1980s-90s (and husband of the current editor-in-chief), he previously wrote a study of the hedge-fund industry and an acclaimed biography of Alan Greenspan.

原译：上世纪八九十年代，他曾担任本报记者（也是现任主编的丈夫），此前著有一本研究对冲基金的书籍，还有广受好评的艾伦·格林斯潘（AlanGreenspan）传记。

改译：上世纪八九十年代，他曾担任《经济学人》的记者（他也是现任主编的丈夫），此前著有一本研究对冲基金行业的书籍，和以及艾伦·格林斯潘（Alan Greenspan）传记，广受好评。

这里是一个典型的形容词定语处理问题，原文实际主要想表达这个人写了两本书，一本是关于对冲基金行业的，一本是传记，这个传记深受好评。原译“著有一本…，还有广受好评的传记”，不免不符合中文习惯，因为我们不大会说某人写了一本广受好评的书，而是说某人写了本什么书，广受好评。所以改译将这里的形容词定语后置翻译，十分细致，值得我们学习。