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1、How CoVentures Founder Went From Sleeping In Union Square To Investing In 20 CompaniesCoVenture 创始人：从睡大街到投资 20 家初创企业It was 19-year-old Ali Hameds summer before sophomore year at Cornell, and instead of taking a summer job or going home to Southern California he found himself sleeping in Union Square
2、 Park.这是阿里哈迈德（ Ali Hamed）19 岁时在康奈尔大学读大二之前的那个暑假。他没有打暑期工，也没有回到自己南加州的家中，而是睡在了联合广场公园（Union Squre Park）里。Hamed was a former athlete, attending Cornell to play baseball. His dreams of playing pro had been dashed earlier that year in a home run slide gone wrong he broke his back in two places and would nev
3、er play again.哈迈德曾经是名运动员，到康奈尔大学念书的同时打棒球。他想要成为职业运动员的梦想在那年上半年的一次本垒打失误之后化为了泡影他的背部有两处受伤，再也不能打棒球了。And now, he was homeless. “We couldnt make rent on our place in the Bronx so I ended up just napping in a Starbucks during the day and hanging out with my suitcase at night, ” says Hamed.而后，他又陷入了无家可归的状态。“我们付
4、不起布朗克斯的房租，所以我只能白天在星巴克打盹，晚上拖着箱子到处凑活。”哈迈德说。He channeled his energies into a new passion: technology entrepreneurship. During the day he avoided the Barnes and Noble security guards, reading up on computer programming and hiding the books in the kids section where he hoped no one else would find them.他
5、将自己的精力投入到了一项新的兴趣之中：技术创业。白天，他想办法避开巴诺书店（Barnes &Noble）的保安，阅读计算机编程相关书籍，并把那些书藏在儿童读物区域他不希望别人找到这些书。For a while, he was too embarrassed to tell anyone about his situation. “I was the kid starting a company, ” he remembers, ruefully.有一段时间，他都不好意思告诉别人自己的处境。“我当时是个正在创业的孩子。”他回忆道，颇有些自怜自艾。Hameds first company, whi
6、ch used natural language processing to extract sentiment from news articles, had tanked. He lost all of his cash. To get back on his feet, he persuaded a landlady in Brooklyn to let him rent her attic for $250 a month. He slept on the floor while doing consulting work.哈迈德的第一家公司失败了。这是一家采用自然语言处理技术从新闻报
7、道中提取观点的公司。他损失了所有的钱。为了重新站起来，他说服布鲁克林的一名女房东把自家阁楼以每月 250 美元的价格租给了他。哈迈德白天做着咨询工作，晚上就睡地板。Fast-forward three years to 2013 Hamed launches CoVenture. The idea of CoVenture is to build around $30, 000 of software in exchange for a 5% equity stake in a startup. This year, CoVenture worked with six startups, al
8、l of which managed to raise additional capital and gained revenues of around $10 million altogether.三年很快过去，一眨眼到了 2013 年 哈迈德创立了 CoVenture 公司。这家公司的理念是打造价值约 3 万美元的软件，以换取初创企业 5%的股权。今年，CoVenture 和六家初创企业进行了合作；每一家企业都成功筹集了额外的资金，这些企业的营收总额约为 1000 万美元。One portfolio company, Globa.li, makes boutique hotels in f
9、ar-flung places like Sub-Saharan Africa bookable online. Currently a third of the worlds hotels are not bookable online, explained Hamed.其中一家名为 Globa.li 的公司提供偏远地区 如撒哈拉以南非洲精品酒店的在线预订服务。哈迈德解释说，目前全球有三分之一的酒店不能在网上进行预订。CoVenture, which itself raised $500, 000 in 6 weeks from angel investors, is looking to
10、partner with a further 15 startups this year. Investors include chairman of Harmonix, Jason Epstein, Michael Sloan, the cofounder of eLink, and head of EKM Capital, Eric Moen.CoVenture 在短短六周时间内从天使投资人处筹集到 50 万美元，现在它正寻求年内再和 15 家初创企业进行合作。CoVenture 的投资人包括 Harmonix 公司董事长杰森爱泼斯坦（ Jason Epstein）、eLink 公司联合创
11、始人迈克尔斯隆（Michael Sloan），以及 EKM 资本（EKM Capital）掌门人埃里克 摩恩（Eric Moen）。Hameds co-founder Jamil Goheer works as a professor in Pakistan where CoVenture has a team of 40 fulltime developers and designers in a 4, 000-square-foot office. Goheer spends 50% of the time in Pakistan overseeing operations there.哈
12、迈德的联合创始人贾米尔格希尔（Jamil Goheer）是巴基斯坦的一名教授。CoVenture 在巴基斯坦拥有一支由 40 名全职开发人员和设计师组成的团队，在 4000 平方英尺的办公室里办公。格希尔有 50%的时间在巴基斯坦，负责监督那里的运营。CoVenture exists as a way for nontechnical founders to get their software built without billing developers by the hour or searching for a co-founder with a background in codi
13、ng, says Hamed.CoVenture 存在的意义是，为没有技术背景的企业创始人开发软件，使得后者无需按小时支付工资给开发人员，也无需四处寻找一位拥有编程背景的联合创始人。哈迈德如是表示。Hes still a senior at Cornell, where he co-founded Popshop, a collaborative space in Ithaca for would-be student entrepreneurs.哈迈德目前仍是康奈尔大学的一名大四学生。在康奈尔，他与人联合创办了Popshop，这家位于伊萨卡（Ithaca）的公司为未来的大学生创业者提供合作空
14、间。“If you create enough attention around yourself, and then fail, everyone knows, ” says Hamed. “Its hard to talk to friends, even. But failure scares you just enough so that the next time you start something if youre ever able to you have this feeling in your stomach that never leaves, that makes y
15、ou know you cant fail again. Because you know how bad it really is.”“如果你引得太多人关注你，然后又失败了，那么所有人都会知道，”哈迈德说，“甚至都很难和朋友们说上话。不过，失败也会让你害怕，下一次你再创办公司的话如果你还能这么做你脑海中还深深印有这种永远不会忘记的感觉，它告诉你，你不能再次失败。因为你知道失败有多糟糕。” investor investvideo n. 投资者 embarrass imbrsvideo vt. 使局促不安；使困窘；阻碍 extract ikstrkt, ekstrktvideo vt. 提取；
16、取出；摘录；榨取 n. 汁；摘录；榨出物；选粹 entrepreneur ,ntrprn:video n. 企业家；承包人；主办者 sentiment sentimntvideo n. 感情，情绪；情操；观点；多愁善感 stake steikvideo n. 桩，棍子；赌注；火刑；奖金 vt. 资助，支持；系于桩上；把押下打赌 vi. 打赌 scare skvideo vt. 惊吓；把吓跑 vi. 受惊 n. 恐慌；惊吓；惊恐 adj. （美）骇人的 attic tikvideo n. 阁楼；顶楼；鼓室上的隐窝 revenue revnju:, -nu:video n. 税收，国家的收入；收益 equity ekwtivideo n. 公平，公正；衡平法；普通股；抵押资产的净值推荐学习
