三名MBA的創業歷程 TubeMogul成功上市

Earlier this year TubeMogul signalled its intention to join that elite group of new technology companies that have done well enough to float shares on a stock exchange. The video advertising software company is aiming to raise $75m in its initial public offering.

新科技公司中的佼佼者往往選擇在證券交易所上市，TubeMogul如今也加入了這個精英行列。TubeMogul是一家視頻廣告軟件公司，從首次公開發行(IPO)中籌到了7500萬美元資金。

Things have certainly come a long way for the three MBA alumni from Haas School of Business at Berkeley, who formed the company in 2007 with a small amount of money they won in a Haas business plan competition. But their journey to their current success has not been straightforward.

2007年，加州大學伯克利分校哈斯商學院(Haas school at Berkeley)的三名MBA學生，用在哈斯商業計劃競賽中贏得的微薄獎金開創了這家公司。他們如今已經取得了很大的成功，但他們的成功之路並非一帆風順。

“One day you think you’re going to take over the world and the next you think you’re going to go out of business,” says John Hughes, co-founder and president of products. He and co-founder and chief executive Brett Wilson agree, however, that they could not have done it without their business school.

聯合創始人兼產品總裁約翰•休斯(John Hughes)說：“今天你覺得自己要統治世界了，明天你又覺得自己要破產了。”不過，他和另一位聯合創始人、首席執行官佈雷特•威爾遜(Brett Wilson)都覺得，沒有哈斯商學院，就沒有他們的今天。

“There would definitely have been no TubeMogul if it had not been for Haas,” says Mr Wilson.

威爾遜說：“要不是哈斯商學院，TubeMogul肯定不會誕生。”

The three men were in the same cohort at Haas. “We identified each other fairly early on as people who wanted to do something really great after we graduated,” says Mr Wilson. Mr Hughes and Mr Wilson were in an entrepreneurship class together and started talking about business ideas with another student, Mark Rotblat, who was also to become one of TubeMogul’s co-founders.

在哈斯商學院，這三人是志同道合的同學。威爾遜說：“我們很早就發現彼此是同一類人，我們都希望在畢業後做一番大事。”休斯和威爾遜上了同一門創業課，後來他們又開始跟另一個同學——馬克•羅特布拉特(Mark Rotblat)討論創業想法。羅特布拉特也成爲了TubeMogul的聯合創始人。

Mr Hughes and Mr Wilson entered their initial idea into a business plan competition in their first year, but it did not win. The pair went on to do summer internships in Silicon Valley. Mr Hughes had a role with Adobe and Mr Wilson was with Yahoo.

第一學年時，休斯和威爾遜帶着初步構想參加了一個商業計劃競賽，但沒有獲獎。到了暑期，兩人就去硅谷實習了。休斯在Adobe實習，威爾遜在雅虎(Yahoo)。

“We used to get the train down together to these great companies and get the train home again after work,” says Mr Wilson. They used that travelling time to bounce ideas off one another.

威爾遜說：“那時我們總是一塊兒乘火車去那些了不起的公司裏實習，下班後再一塊兒乘火車回家。”他們利用上下班路上的時間來討論創業想法。

In their second year their business idea gelled around the first incarnation of TubeMogul, which was originally conceived as an analytics platform for YouTube. They started to build the site and enlisted Keith Eadie, a first-year student friend, in January 2007, persuading him to write their new business plan.

第二學年的時候，他們的創業想法逐漸成型——爲YouTube建一個分析平臺。那是TubeMogul的第一個前身。他們開始着手創建這個網站，2007年1月，他們把一個一年級的朋友——基思•伊迪(Keith Eadie)——拉入了夥，說服後者爲他們撰寫新的商業計劃。

“We were literally building it while we were at school. Every single class was an incubator,” says Mr Hughes. They found software tech interns from Berkeley and paid them out of their own pockets.

休斯說：“我們還在學校的時候就着手創建網站了。每一門課都像是孵化器。”他們從加州大學伯克利分校找了一些軟件技術實習生，自掏腰包付實習生工資。

Mr Rotblat started working with them in earnest in February 2007 in a customer development role. Customers were signing up for free access to the data analytics, he says. “I would figure out who the customers were and what exactly they cared about. I’d take their pain points and share that feedback with the team.”

2007年2月，羅特布拉特正式入夥，負責客戶開發。他說，當時客戶開始註冊，然後可以免費試用數據分析平臺。“我的工作是找出這些客戶是誰，他們真正在乎的是什麼。我會找出他們的‘痛點’，將反饋信息分享給團隊的其他成員。”

“We were able to do a lot with a little,” says Mr Wilson. Their efforts paid off and they were able to provide a software demo of a functioning entity in the business plan competition. The plan won, and Mr Hughes, Mr Wilson and Mr Rotblat found themselves with $20,000 from Berkeley and the use of a “grungy basement” in the Haas start-up incubator.

威爾遜說：“當時我們能用很少的資源做很多事。”他們的努力獲得了回報——帶着一個實際運行平臺的軟件模型，他們參加了商業計劃競賽並獲獎，然後休斯、威爾遜和羅特布拉特發現，他們有了加州大學伯克利分校提供的2萬美元獎金，還可以使用哈斯商學院創業孵化器的一個“簡陋的地下室”。

Mr Eadie, who ought to have been one of the co-founders, had another year of MBA study and, on graduation, went to Boston Consulting Group. However, three years later he joined TubeMogul. “He now runs marketing for us. He would have had a lot more equity had he joined back then,” jokes Mr Wilson.

伊迪原本也可以成爲聯合創始人，但他當時MBA還差一年沒有畢業，畢業後他又去了波士頓諮詢集團(Boston Consulting Group)。不過，3年後，他還是加入了TubeMogul。“他現在負責市場營銷這一塊兒。他要是當初就加入了我們，拿的股份就遠不止現在這麼多了，”威爾遜開玩笑道。

In fact, the grubby basement was not an easy decision for any of them to make. “It’s difficult starting a company and working for free when you have just invested quite a lot in an MBA education and then find yourself jumping off a cliff into the unknown,” says Mr Wilson. Both he and Mr Hughes remember turning down a number of attractive job offers.

事實上，選擇“簡陋的地下室”對他們中的任何一個人都不是個容易的決定。威爾遜說：“選擇創立一家企業、無償工作，不是件容易的事情，特別是你剛剛爲念MBA投資了一大筆錢，然後發現自己跳下了懸崖，不知道未來會有什麼結果。”

But the basement won out and they set about trying to raise more money for the business. One of the first investors was a classmate from Haas, but they also managed to persuade friends and family to put money in. These angel investors between them contributed $750,000, enough to get TubeMogul off the ground.

但“地下室”成功了，他們開始嘗試爲自己的公司籌集更多資金。早期的一筆投資來自哈斯商學院的一個同學，他們還說服了一些親友投錢。這些天使投資人總共投資了75萬美元，足以讓TubeMogul啓動了。

The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at Haas was integral to their early progress, says Mr Wilson. It provided a forum for them to talk to investors and build a “map” of the company. They practised their pitch on other students and received valuable feedback. The centre also hosted events that attracted angel investors and venture capitalists.

威爾遜說，哈斯商學院萊斯特創業中心(Lester Center for Entrepreneurship)對TubeMogul早期的發展功不可沒。利用中心的一個論壇，他們能夠遊說投資人、設計公司的發展“藍圖”。他們在其他學生身上練習推銷策略，收到了有用的反饋。中心還舉辦了一些活動，吸引了天使投資人和風投資本家參加。

“Our first board member came from one of those meetings,” says Mr Wilson.

威爾遜說：“我們的第一位董事就是參加了其中的一個會議和我們遇上的。”

The business plan competition was also integral to their later success. Their pitch on the winning day eventually yielded their first venture capital funding. Someone in the audience on that day made a personal commitment to follow their progress.

商業計劃競賽對他們後來的成功同樣必不可少。他們在獲獎那天的宣講後來爲他們帶來了第一筆風投。那天的觀衆中有人以個人身份承諾會關注他們的進展。

“We had some street cred because he had watched us do exactly what we said we were going to do,” says Mr Wilson.

威爾遜說：“我們的實際表現爲我們贏得了一些信譽，因爲他看到我們所做的跟我們那天宣稱要做的完全吻合。”

Listening to their initial outline would have given a clue to what was to happen a few years down the line, when the company changed tack. Mr Wilson and Mr Hughes had said they wanted to create an industry giant.

如果聽過他們最初的宣講，你或許可以猜到幾年後會發生的事情——公司轉變了發展方向。威爾遜和休斯說過，他們想打造一個行業巨頭。

“We did not see the analytics as a major disruptive business and we wanted to build something really big,” says Mr Wilson.

威爾遜說：“我們覺得分析平臺不是一項很大的顛覆性業務，而我們希望開創一項真正了不起的事業。”

“It’s part of the evolution. Customers were saying to us: ‘It’s great that you’re tracking my video but I really want people to watch it’,” explains Mr Hughes.

休斯解釋說：“那是發展的一個階段。當時，客戶對我們說，‘你們能追蹤我的視頻當然很棒，但我其實想要的是人們會打開我的視頻觀看’。”

As a result, in 2010 they convinced their board and made the “pivot” into being a brand advertising sales platform for video, mobile and even television. They then sold the original business.

因此，在2010年，他們說服董事會，開始轉型做一個面向視頻、移動設備甚至電視等媒介的品牌廣告銷售平臺。隨後他們賣掉了原先的業務。

“A lot of credit to Brett for making the bold move,” says Mr Hughes.

休斯：“我們能勇敢邁出這一步，佈雷特立了大功。”他說的是擔任CEO的佈雷特•威爾遜。

“It’s nice of John to give me the credit but it’s been a great partnership over the years. We all argue like spouses,” says Mr Wilson.

威爾遜說：“謝謝約翰把功勞計到我頭上，這些年來我們合作得很好。就像夫妻一樣，我們也會爭吵。”