Saeed Amidi -- Plug and Play

Hello and welcome to the LA Venture podcast. This is Minnie Ingersoll, host to the podcast and partner at 10110. 10110 is a seed stage fund here in LA. All opinions expressed on this show by being my guest are Sully our own. If you are interested in LA Venture, go to 10110.net slash podcast where I've made a sort of a list of all of the great LAVC's who've been on this show.

你好，欢迎来到LA Venture播客。我是米妮·英格索尔，主持人和10110的合伙人。10110是一个位于洛杉矶的种子阶段基金。本节目中所表达的所有观点都是我的嘉宾自己的。如果你对LA Venture感兴趣，请到10110.net/podcast，我已经制作了一个伟大的LAVC名单。

Sayyid Amiti is the CEO and founder of Plug & Play. Plug & Play connects startups with corporate partners and is one of the most active investors in the world in terms of number of deals done per year. Sayyid is also a partner at Amid Zod with prior guest, PageMondoZod. Sayyid has a portfolio that includes PayPal, Dropbox, Danger and many others. Sayyid, great to see you. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

赛义德·阿米提是Plug＆Play的CEO和创始人。Plug＆Play将初创企业与企业合作伙伴联系起来，并且每年完成的交易数量在世界上是最活跃的投资者之一。赛义德还是Amid Zod的合伙人，以前的嘉宾PageMondoZod。赛义德的投资组合包括PayPal，Dropbox，Danger和许多其他公司。赛义德，很高兴见到您。感谢您来参加我们的播客节目。

It is great to be here. Well, I thought let's start by establishing some of the scale of Plug & Play. Maybe I'm just going to fire a few questions at you. First, how many investments a year does Plug & Play do? About 250 per year these days. Wow.

在这里真的很好。嗯，我想让我们首先来确定一下Plug＆Play的规模。也许我会向你问一些问题。首先，Plug＆Play每年有多少投资？现在大约有250笔。哇。

And about how many companies are coming through the accelerator program every year? That's a great question. You know, we are nowadays running 17, what we call innovation platform and each platform also runs two batches per year. So in US, it's a little bit over a thousand startups per year and internationally in Europe and Asia, we have going through our platform. Another 1000 plus startups.

每年有多少家公司参加加速器计划呢？这是一个非常好的问题。你知道，我们现在运营着17个我们所谓的创新平台，每个平台每年也运营着两批。所以在美国，每年有一千多家初创公司参加我们的计划，在欧洲和亚洲，我们的平台有1000多家初创公司通过。

So I'm going to let you tell me more about how you manage run thousands of companies through your innovation platform. But one more question of how many corporate partners do you have? Wonderful. We have the over 500 and 40 corporate partner. But the interesting thing is if you take some of them like Cargel or Walmart or may it be McDonald's or Pepsi, they are some of the incredibly successful companies around the world that would like to use the platform to help them understand the future of commerce.

所以我想请您告诉我更多关于您如何通过创新平台管理成千上万家公司的方式。但是我还有一个问题，您有多少个企业合作伙伴？太棒了，我们有超过500个企业合作伙伴。但有趣的是，如果你看看其中的一些公司，比如Cargel、沃尔玛、麦当劳或百事，它们都是全球非常成功的公司，想要使用这个平台帮助他们了解商业的未来。

But the whole world is going through digital transformation so fast that all of these large companies may be Mercedes or Ford or Chrysler. They are all hunting startups that can help them electrify faster, you know, beat Tesla in the autonomous race. And you know, if you come to CES these days, instead of electronic show, it has become a car show. And like everybody says, the biggest electronic product you have these days is a car. And everybody says Tesla is an electronic device, sort of like your iPhone that actually has wheels and you can drive it versus all of the other car companies that are trying to become electrified.

整个世界正在经历数字转型的迅速变革，以至于所有这些大公司都可能像梅赛德斯、福特或克莱斯勒一样。他们都在寻找能帮助他们更快地电气化的初创企业，与特斯拉在自动化竞赛中一决胜负。如果你现在来到CES展会，会发现它已经不只是一个电子展，而成了一个汽车展。而所有人都说，你现在最大的电子产品是一辆汽车。而特斯拉就像是一个有轮子可以驾驶的iPhone，相对于其他试图实现电气化的汽车公司而言。

Hmm. Yeah. How are they thinking about competing with Tesla? We've been working with the automotive or mobility industry now close to eight years. And we have for example, office in Stuttgart with Mercedes and Porsche and Bosch and you know, the legacy companies and I consider Mercedes one of the best companies in the world with over seven B 1000 engineers.

哦，嗯，他们怎么考虑和特斯拉竞争呢？我们已经与汽车或移动行业合作了近八年了。例如，我们在斯图加特有办公室，与梅赛德斯、保时捷、博世等传统企业合作。我认为梅赛德斯是世界上最好的公司之一，拥有超过7千名工程师。

But they mentioned to me, Said, the whole industry is moving so fast that a lot of the CEO who is a friend of mine says, I have to look outside for the best entrepreneur for the best technology to bring it to Mercedes. That's really interesting.

他们跟我说了，我的朋友是CEO，他们说整个行业发展速度如此之快，以至于我必须在外面找到最好的企业家和最好的技术，带到奔驰来。这真的很有趣。

So maybe let's use the automotive transportation sector as sort of a case study, if you will, about how you connect the startups with the corporations. And you know, how do they connect? And also how does it potential investment or pilot work? Excellent.

那么，我们可以把汽车交通领域作为一个案例研究，来看看如何将初创企业和大型公司联系起来。你知道，他们是如何联系的呢？以及潜在的投资或试点项目是如何运作的？太好了。

You know, we run this mobility platform first of all here in our headquarters in Silicon Valley, including Nissan Toyota, Chrysler Ford, etc. But then we figured out that the automotive industry asked us if you are closer to our headquarters, we first can identify our needs better. Then when we find the right startup to solve that need, they can do a pilot faster. But most importantly, they can implement the technology in the car.

你知道吗，我们首先在硅谷总部运营这个流动性平台，包括了日产、丰田、克莱斯勒、福特等公司。但我们发现汽车行业要求我们离总部更近，这样可以更好地识别他们的需求。然后当我们找到合适的初创公司来解决这个需求时，他们可以更快地进行试验。但最重要的是，他们可以在汽车中实现这项技术。

Normally, there was a five year cycle from the time they would see it technology till they could implement it and produce car with that technology in it. And we've been able to reduce that to under two years. And if I can again use Mercedes as an example, they specify what they want. Then we searched the world for the best startups. And then the startup actually comes physically to Stuttgart for three months. And they do a pilot with Mercedes. We have done over 150 pilots with Mercedes in the past five years. 70 of the technologies are in production or going through production route. And about 30 of them have been already implemented in the car.

通常情况下，从他们看到新技术到实现并生产一辆装有该技术的汽车，需要五年的时间循环。而我们已经成功将这个时间缩短到不到两年。如果我再以奔驰为例，他们确定他们想要的技术，然后我们在世界各地寻找最好的创业公司。这些创业公司会亲自前往斯图加特与奔驰做为期三个月的试点测试。在过去的五年里，我们已经与奔驰进行了超过150次的试点测试。其中70种技术正在生产或正在通过生产路线进行推进，而已经有约30种技术已经被实现到汽车中了。

So, I mean, that's a fantastic number, just with one partner. What if I'm a startup and I don't want to relocate? Can I be part of this? Can I get exposure to the corporate partners without moving to Germany, say?

所以，我的意思是，这个数字太棒了，只需要一个合作伙伴。但如果我是一家初创公司，不想搬迁呢？我能否成为其中一员？我能否在不搬到德国的情况下接触到企业合作伙伴？

Absolutely. In fact, we highly recommend that if you're a great startup out of Toronto or Waterloo, you should remain there. But just send a couple of engineers to Stuttgart. Maybe a biz-deaf person for a short period of time. And then if you do land a huge contract, you may have a satellite location in Germany.

当然啊，事实上我们强烈建议如果你是来自多伦多或滑铁卢的优秀创业公司，最好留在那里。但是可以派几名工程师去斯图加特看看，并可能派一位商务不佳的人去短期工作。如果你们确实签下了一份巨大的合同，那么在德国设立一个分支机构也许是不错的选择。

So we do not recommend just for one of our programs for the startup to totally relocate. But we tell them to come here for a few months to learn how the culture of entrepreneurship is in Silicon Valley. And then actually go back to their city or the country to develop their product and launch it.

所以我们不建议初创公司将所有的计划都搬到这里，而是告诉他们来这里几个月，学习硅谷企业家文化。然后回到他们所在的城市或国家，开发自己的产品并推出它。

Just to share something with you and the audience, we had a startup come to us from Brazil called Cloud Walk and they wanted to do something in payment and FinTech infrastructure. They only spent three to six months with us. And again, last month, they raised money at $2.1 billion valuation. And that's a pretty successful startup if you look at Brazil market. And the two founders which I had lunch with on Sunday, Bruno and Gail, they said, Said, what we learned in that six months in Silicon Valley, we could have never learned that in San Paulo, Brazil.

只是想和你和观众分享一件事，我们有一家来自巴西的初创公司叫做Cloud Walk，他们想在支付和金融科技基础设施方面做些事情。他们只和我们呆了三到六个月。而且，上个月他们以21亿美元的估值筹集了资金。如果你看巴西市场，这是一个相当成功的初创企业。我星期天和两位创始人Bruno和Gail一起吃午饭，他们说，Said，在硅谷的那六个月里，我们所学到的东西，在圣保罗巴西，我们永远也学不到。

Well, and we are going to talk about 1010, Will Sher, which is your LA location. But I have been to your Silicon Valley location. It's huge. I'm saying I'm my scale question. Can you give me a sense? I have no idea how many square feet it is or how many startups there, but it seemed vast. And Loharj. Yes. You know, it's we have about 180,000 square feet. Wow. Space here.

嗯，我们将要谈论1010威尔谢尔，那是您在洛杉矶的位置。但我去过您在硅谷的地方。那儿非常大。我的问题是在我的标度下。你能让我感受一下吗？我不知道有多少平方英尺或者多少初创企业，但它似乎是广阔的。还有Loharj。是的。您知道，我们这里有大约180,000平方英尺的空间。哇。

And you know, pre-COVID, we would have approximately 350 residents start up every year. And as I mentioned, we would have another 650 that would come here temporary to go through one of our batches. And the reason why they join is because if you have a technology that can help the insurance company process claim faster and cheaper, we could put the startup in front of 13 insurance company in 90 days. And we have about 50 corporations that have their innovation arm in our headquarter as well.

你知道，在COVID疫情爆发之前，我们每年大约有350位居民加入我们的项目。另外，像我之前提到的，我们还会有650人来这里临时参加我们的一些批次。他们之所以加入，是因为如果你有一项能够帮助保险公司更快、更便宜地处理理赔的技术，我们可以在90天内将你的创业项目推荐给13家保险公司。我们的总部还有大约50家公司的创新部门。

But they also bring the business unit of the company here quarterly. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a big value proposition. But correct me if I'm wrong. Another one is you are not initially charging anything. No, no, no, actually everything for the startup is free.

他们还每季度把公司的业务部门带到这里。是的，我觉得这是一个很大的价值主张。但如果我错了，请纠正我。另一个是你最初不收费。不，不，不，实际上，对于初创公司，一切都是免费的。

But it has to be a great team, great technology. And then if they get accepted in one of our programs together with meeting some of this corporate partner, they can pivot a little and solve a real problem that the insurance companies or the banks are willing to pay for. And again, some of the serial entrepreneur maybe could get through some of these corporate giants, but it's not easy to navigate these field. And we feel we kind of have a right connection and the right interested party to come and see the technologies.

这需要一个伟大的团队，伟大的技术。如果他们被接受参与我们的项目，并且能够满足一些合作伙伴的需求，那么他们可以稍微调整一下，解决保险公司或银行愿意为之支付的真正问题。或许一些连续创业家可以通过一些企业巨头，但这些领域并不容易。我们觉得我们有正确的联系和正确的感兴趣的人来看这些技术。

Yeah, I'm really interested in that piece. Like how have you built this up and attracted so many corporates to work with you? And do you have a business dev team that goes and builds those connections? Yes, absolutely. You know, just you talked about scales. We have approximately 100 venture team, analyst and partner that continuously look for great startups.

是的，我真的对那个项目很感兴趣。比如你是如何建立这个项目并吸引那么多公司与你合作的？你有一个业务开发团队去建立这些联系吗？是的，绝对是的。你说到了规模，我们大约有100名风投团队成员、分析师和合伙人不断寻找伟大的初创公司。

Quite frankly, we get some startups coming to us, but we also have to look for great startups both in the US and around the world. But on the corporate side, we have roughly 200 people. In fact, we haven't announced it yet, but we were asked by Jack War Land Rover, can you please build the same thing as you have built in Stuttgart in UK? Because the UK government does not want to lose this industry, the auto industry. And we feel as we would build the platform next year, we would put through the platform, 100 startups that would help Jack War and Land Rover.

说实话，我们有一些创业公司来找我们，但我们也要在美国和世界各地寻找优秀的创业公司。但在公司方面，我们大约有200人。事实上，我们还没有公布，但杰克沃尔路虎问我们，你们是否能在英国建造与斯图加特相同的东西？因为英国政府不想失去这个行业，即汽车行业。我们觉得如果明年建立平台，我们将推出100家创业公司，这些公司将帮助杰克沃尔路虎。

So I'm a startup. How do I know the timing of these cohorts and when to apply to join the program? Perfect. You know, let me pick on another industry supply chain. So we run supply chain or sustainability, which are two of my favorite verticals. We run them in California, like starting February, we select the companies and in June, they graduate.

所以我是一个初创企业。我如何知道这些队列的时间和何时申请加入计划呢？非常好。你知道的，让我说说另一个产业供应链。所以我们经营供应链或可持续发展，这是我最喜欢的两个垂直领域。我们在加利福尼亚州进行这些项目，从二月开始选择公司，六月毕业。

But we also run supply chain in Benton's will, Northwest Arkansas. So we try to run that at a little bit of a different calendar time. So a startup could both attend our California program, then go to Benton's will to do a trial with JB Hans and Walmart. And then if they have to bandwidth, we'll invite them to Hamburg, which also runs a supply chain program to, you know, try their luck with Kun and Nagel or BD Shanker, which run the biggest freight companies in the world. You could really get your top five customers through us.

我们还在阿肯色州西北部的本顿斯威尔运营供应链业务。因此，我们试图在稍微不同的日历时间内运行。因此，一家初创公司可以参加我们加利福尼亚计划，然后前往本顿斯威尔与JB汉斯和沃尔玛试验。如果他们有带宽，我们将邀请他们前往汉堡，那里也运营供应链项目，让他们试试与Kun和Nagel或BD Shanker合作，这些公司是世界上最大的货运公司。你真的可以通过我们找到你的前五个客户。

And so you don't take, you don't take a payment and you don't take equity up front. When do you decide to invest? Great, great question. We feel like going back to early days, we consider ourselves a okay businessman, but we did not know technology deeply.

所以，你不会拿到付款，也不会预先拿到股权。你何时决定进行投资呢？好问题。我们觉得回到早期阶段，我们认为自己是一个还行的商人，但我们并不深入了解科技。

So we used to like when we met Dropbox, we took them to Sequoia to help us to do due diligence. And when Sequoia becomes excited, we become excited and we coinvest with them. So we have taken that concept to like a great lens that when we find a great entrepreneur team and technology, we generally show them to 10 VCs and 10 corporate partners and we capture their thoughts. What they think it's great, what they think the startup may need to improve on. And you could say collectively, we come up with the best decision, but everybody does their own final decision to invest or not to invest. As well as the corporate partners, make a final decision to license the technology or not license the technology.

我们曾经很喜欢 Dropbox，所以我们带他们到 Sequoia 帮助我们进行尽职调查。当 Sequoia 也变得兴奋时，我们也会变得兴奋，然后和他们共同投资。所以我们提出了一个伟大的观点，当我们找到一个伟大的创业者团队和技术时，通常会向 10 个 VC 和 10 个公司合作伙伴展示他们，并获取他们的想法。他们认为什么很棒，他们认为这个创业公司可能需要改进什么。我们可以说，我们集体做出了最好的决策，但每个人都会做出自己的最终投资决定。此外，公司合作伙伴也会做出最终决定，是否许可技术。

Right, well, you're making 250 investments a year, right? I made four today. We have Monday and Thursdays. We have investment committee, but I mean, normally it's not four, but today was actually four because I just came back from Canada and I was very excited that we are opening the office in Calgary and Edmonton. So I wanted to do a couple of investment from the people I met over there. Just for context for people who are listening to this later, it's 1 p.m. today.

好的，你一年要进行250次投资，对吗？我今天进行了4次。我们在周一和周四进行投资委员会会议，但是通常不会有这么多次，但今天是因为我刚从加拿大回来，非常兴奋地宣布我们将在卡尔加里和埃德蒙顿开设办事处。所以我想从那些我在那儿见过的人中进行几次投资。为了后来听到这个的人们能够有所了解，现在是下午1点。

Fantastic. So you referenced Dropbox. I told you I had PageMon on the show earlier. And he also talked some about the early days. Just bring these two stories together a little bit for me. Were you the owner of the buildings where PageMon got his start?

太棒了。你提到了Dropbox。我之前让PageMon参加了节目，他也谈到了早期的日子。请稍微把这两个故事联系在一起。你是PageMon创业所在建筑的业主吗？

Yes, yes, we are the owner of Medallion, Rod Gallery on University Avenue. And then we purchased the lucky building where we met PayPal and then Google grow there from three, four people to 50 people. But they really like sometimes when you do real estate, they say location, location, location are the three most important things. I think in the technology world, location and timing and connections are the most important thing. So like many other business people, we were on University Avenue and the way to Stanford. So we just took advantage of being there, getting to know down entrepreneurs and making a lot of angel investing, which brought us to this plug and play platform right now. And in plug and play, these entrepreneurs built their dreams and they changed the world. And I'm really privileged to be part of their journey and make a little money along the way. Yeah, but it's amazing. I mean, that, you know, I was at Google early, but not that early. That was out of Susan's garage into your building, right? Exactly. If you remember, it was Larry Sergei, Salar who later on ran YouTube and then later on, Omit Kordistani joined them. And then the rest this history. Your friends with the meat, if I remember correctly. Yes, absolutely. He's semi-retired and he's trying to make me retired. He thinks two days of golf per week is not enough. And so Omit Zod, which I referenced, that was you, your brother, Pajemon coming together, hosting Sukhoj at your rug gallery, that sort of thing. Exactly. And I believe that we made around 65 investments over seven, eight year period. It was small investment, but the results were great. So that is why slowly, at least my hobby, became my main business. Hey, amazing.

是的，我们是在大学大道上的Medallion和Rod Gallery的所有者。然后，我们购买了那座幸运建筑，在那里我们遇见了PayPal和Google，他们从3到4个人发展到50个人。但有时候，房地产的关键是位置，位置和位置。在技术世界里，位置、时机和联系是最重要的。像其他商业人士一样，我们在大学大道上，通往斯坦福的路上。因此，我们利用了这个机会，认识了不少企业家，并进行了许多天使投资，这将我们带到了Plug and Play平台之中。在Plug and Play中，这些企业家实现了他们的梦想，改变了世界。而我很荣幸能够成为他们旅程中的一部分，并在其中赚取一些钱。确实令人惊奇，我在Google时期比较早，但不是那么早。那起初是从Susan的车库搬到你们的建筑里，对吧？没错。如果你记得的话，那时是Larry Sergei、Salar和后来管理YouTube的Omit Kordistani。然后就是历史了。如果我没记错，你和那个肉店老板是朋友吧。是的，完全正确。他半退休，正在努力让我退休。他认为每周两天高尔夫球不够。所以，我提到的Omit Zod，就是你、你的兄弟Pajemon在你们的地毯画廊一起接待了Sukhoj。确切地说，我相信我们在七八年的时期里进行了大约65项投资。虽然投资不大，但效果很好。所以，我的兴趣慢慢成为了我的主要业务。太棒了！

And so what did you just say? Location, timing and connection. And that kind of brings me to Los Angeles or the media industry. We are really planning and hoping that we'd our location in LA. We would have major content producers, major advertisers, join the platform. And so I believe every industry has to be quiet, agile, like the same way as, for example, Netflix has become one of the top valued media companies. We don't know what is next. How the media world will change, the sports world will change, but the one thing is 100% sure, there will be a change.

那么，你刚才说了什么？地点、时间和联系。这让我想到洛杉矶或媒体行业。我们真的在计划和希望我们的位置在洛杉矶。我们将有重要的内容制作人和重要的广告商加入平台。所以我相信每个行业都必须安静、灵活，就像 Netflix 成为顶级媒体公司之一的方式一样。我们不知道接下来会发生什么。媒体世界和体育世界将如何改变，但有一件事是100%肯定的，就是将会发生变化。

And do you have any trends that you're watching in the media world? Web three NFTs?

你有在观察媒体世界的任何趋势吗？比如Web 3.0的NFTs吗？

Yes, you know, like we ran the first Bitcoin meetup in the world. I think it was a roughly 10 years ago. And it's a new world. And I think it like every asset class, you have real estate, stock, bond, etc. Dewey will have a cryptocurrency or digital assets as part of their portfolio. And I think it's just the tip of the iceberg.

嗯，你知道的，就像我们在世界上举办了第一次比特币聚会。我想那大概是10年前的事情。现在是一个新世界。我认为像每个投资类别一样，你有房地产、股票、债券等等。杜威（Dewey）将会把加密货币或数字资产作为他们投资组合的一部分。我认为这只是冰山一角。

Great. So you're going to be or you have set up this innovation platform in LA at 1010 Wilshire. So we've got location. And tell me about connection and how you build that connection, that community in a new location.

好的，那么你要在洛杉矶1010 Wilshire建立创新平台，对吧？我们已经有了地点。告诉我关于联系的事情，以及你如何在新地点建立联系和社群。

So we are planning to have an event possibly every week, Friday at 12 o'clock, where we would like to feature around five start-ups from Southern California. And it will piggyback our Friday events in Northern California, where we have about 50 VCs and 50 corporate partner looking at about 20 start-ups per week.

我们计划每周五12点左右举办一次活动，可能会邀请来自南加州的五家初创企业展示。同时，这个活动也会和我们在北加州的周五活动结合起来。那里会有大约50个风投和50个企业合作伙伴参加，每周会看到约20家初创企业。

So we love to add another five from Southern California. And interestingly enough, every week we have a special theme. We have a mobility and IoT theme one week. Then the following week we may have financial services. So I would very much welcome your audience and people from Southern California to join us and guide us for these weekly events.

所以，我们很喜欢从南加州加入另外五个人。有趣的是，每周我们都有一个特别的主题。有一周我们讲移动和物联网，接下来一周我们可能会讲金融服务。因此，我非常欢迎你的听众和来自南加州的人加入我们，为这些每周活动提供指导。

For the people who haven't come and visited us, we have perhaps the best rooftop in LA with the 400 trees, swimming pool, etc. We have about two acres of rooftop. So we would love to hold this event and try to build again a community and connections.

对于那些没来过我们这里的人，我们拥有洛杉矶最好的屋顶，有400棵树，游泳池等等。我们的屋顶大约有两英亩。因此，我们很乐意举办这个活动，试图再次建立社区和联系。

It sounds like you just invited us all to come up parties on your roof on Friday afternoons. Absolutely. Great.

听起来你刚邀请我们都来参加周五下午在你屋顶上的派对。是的，非常好。

So you've built this international program with thousands of start-ups every year. What was your vision when you started and what is your vision for the future of plug-and-play?

那么，你已经建立了一个每年有数千个初创企业的国际项目。你开始时的愿景是什么，Plug-and-Play的未来愿景又是什么呢？

I have to be transparent. Initially when I started plug-and-play, it was called plug-and-play real estate. And it was a co-working space. And I thought, you know, I purchased this building from Philips Electronics.

我必须保持透明。一开始我开启插拔式，它被称为插拔式房地产。它是一个共同工作空间。我认为，你知道，我从飞利浦电子公司购买了这座建筑。

And then you know, when I filled it up with start-ups and some corporates, the value of the building went up by 5x. So I thought it was great. And then I, as I talk to everyone on my start-ups, I realize other than real estate, what they need is money and customers.

你知道吗，当我把这栋大楼里租给了一些初创企业和一些大公司，房产的价值增加了5倍。所以我觉得这太棒了。之后，我和我的所有初创企业谈话后，我发现除了房地产，他们需要的就是资金和客户。

So I could say like plug-and-play kind of evolve, you know, starting with real estate and data center before ABWS. We actually offer the start-ups they could come in and run their servers in two hours. So then we kind of expanded the products that we offer to our start-ups, which by 4 is the corporate connections.

那我可以这样说，就像即插即用那样的演变，你知道的，从房地产和数据中心开始，然后才是ABWS。我们实际上为初创公司提供了可以在两小时内运行服务器的服务。然后我们还扩展了我们为初创公司提供的产品，其中第四项服务就是企业联系。

And then if a start-up is very successful in the financial industry here and they want to penetrate Japan, which is one of the biggest markets in the world, they could arrive in Tokyo or Osaka at our office and they will have 10 free-scheduled appointments with the biggest bank, MUFG or Somitomo or the biggest insurance company like Daiichi Life or Sample.

如果一家创业公司在这里的金融行业非常成功，并希望进军日本，这是世界上最大的市场之一，他们可以来到我们在东京或大阪的办公室，将会和三菱日联或三井住友或最大的保险公司，如第一生命或サンプル安排10次免费预约。

Yeah, and I also see it very differentiated in the other direction. I mean, this is sort of a marketplace, if you will, which is corporate partners. They could work with any VC and yet I don't really know that even Sequoia has built out the depth of corporate partnerships.

是的，我也看到在另一个方向上的区别非常大。我的意思是，这种情况有点像一个市场，那就是企业合作伙伴。他们可以与任何风投公司合作，但我并不确信连 Sequoia 都已完全建立企业合作伙伴关系的深度。

We know how did you get that going and how have you thought about really nurturing the corporate side of things? You know, again, it was not easy or it didn't happen overnight.

我们知道你是如何开始这件事情的，你也考虑过如何真正培养企业的一面吗？你知道的，这并不容易，也不是一夜之间就能实现的。

In the beginning, I remember J&J came to us and they asked us, can you run an accelerator for us? And we said absolutely yes. So that went incredibly well and that kind of jump started us in this vertical accelerator. Then Munich 3, which perhaps is the largest re-insurance company in the world and they have about 3,000 insurance companies as clients and they also asked us, the whole insurance industry is moving so fast, can be jointly open up an innovation platform in short-tech.

一开始，我记得J＆J来找我们，问我们能不能为他们运行一个加速器？我们说当然可以。所以那个项目很成功，也是我们在这个垂直领域的起点。接下来，慕尼黑3号找到了我们，他们可能是世界上最大的再保险公司，拥有约3,000家保险公司客户。他们也问我们，整个保险行业发展很快，能不能一起开发一款短期技术的创新平台。

So I wish I was smart enough to tell you I had a grand plan and I execute on it really well. But it was not like that. It's like I had a lot of trial and error. And then when something worked, I just expanded on it. And, you know, in Southern California, I have a funny story. The two founders of Honey came to see us up here, the company that PayPal just purchased for Billion.

我希望我聪明到足以告诉你我有一个伟大的计划，并且我成功地执行了它。但事实并非如此。我经历了很多试错。当一些事情起作用时，我就会扩大它。你知道，在南加州，我有一个有趣的故事。Honey的两位创始人来看我们这里，这家公司被PayPal以10亿美元购买了。

And we thought it was an incredible idea, you know, to serving coupon instead of cutting coupons from magazines or newspapers. But they really executed well. And again, I used to go to the business plan competition in Stanford, USC or UCLA. And I was like, my God, these people talk to each other. Every business plan competition had five of the same ideas. But you just have to say which team can execute better?

我们认为这是一个很棒的点子，你知道，可以提供优惠券而不是从杂志或报纸上剪下优惠券。但他们真的很好地执行了。再说一遍，我曾经去过斯坦福、南加大或加州大学的商业计划比赛。但我想，天啊，这些人之间都在说同样的想法。但你只需要说，哪个团队能够更好地执行呢？

So say you're flying around the world, you're connecting people, your open new innovation platforms. You know, how do you think about where to spend your own time and to focus plug and play for what needs to be focused on to bring it into the future?

假设你正在环游世界，连接人们，开创新的创新平台。你知道，你应该如何考虑在哪里和如何花费自己的时间，以及如何将plug and play的重点放在未来需求上？

You know, first of all, like I am the audience cannot see me, but I'm pretty mature, elderly guy. So people will also tell me say, why do you work so hard or when is the retirement coming? I tell them, if I find something else to do that I will have more fun, I will do it.

听着，首先，就算观众看不到我，我也不是个年轻的小伙子了。所以有人就会问我，你为什么要这么拼命工作，或者什么时候退休呢？我告诉他们，如果我找到了更有趣的事情做，我就会去做。

But in general, what drives me is how many entrepreneurs or startups use the platform to build their dreams. And VR had around 2000 per year right now. And with or without me, I think this number will grow. You know, like last week, I was in Edmonton and Calgary and we're going to put through the program there for clean resources, digital health and AI, 100 companies per year.

总的来说，我驱使我前进的动力是有多少企业家或初创公司利用这个平台来实现他们的梦想。现在VR每年大约有2000个，无论有没有我，我认为这个数字会不断增长。你知道，像上个星期我在埃德蒙顿和卡尔加里，我们计划每年为清洁资源、数字健康和人工智能推出100家公司的计划。

It's really, I don't know what drives me, but I enjoy meeting the startups, I enjoy making a positive impact in their startups. And you ask me, what is the future like? You know, I think we have enough verticals. What I hope to do is to expand these verticals in different geographic cities or countries. Then what I'm doing is we are having a fund on top of each one of these verticals.

其实我也不知道是什么驱使着我，但我很喜欢接触初创企业，也很享受对它们的积极影响。你问我未来会怎样？我认为我们已经有足够的垂直领域了。我的希望是在不同的地理位置或国家扩大这些垂直领域。我现在在做的是为每一个垂直领域设立一个基金。

But I am, I believe incredibly content and happy where I am. So all I hope to do is to make plug and play a lasting innovation platform for everyone to benefit from. So keep going on this thought, which is more about you. I like to ask, how do friends describe you?

我相信，在我现在的位置上，我非常满意和开心。所以我希望能够为每个人开创一个持久的创新平台，让大家受益。所以继续思考这个想法，这更多关于你。我想问一下，你的朋友们是怎么形容你的呢？

That's a very interesting question. I would hope they would say, you know, I am passionate. And what I do, I give it 100%. I am incredibly optimistic. And I, again, people talking about retirement, I play about 120 days of golf per year. So I don't know if I can play anymore. You know, I take at least a month vacation here. I'm sort of European style. And I really enjoy my family, my children, and even more my granddaughter. So I don't know. I think they would say I'm quite lucky guy. I love that.

这是一个非常有趣的问题。我希望他们会说，你知道，我很有热情。我做的事情，我会百分之百投入。我非常乐观。对于退休的事情，我每年会打大约120天的高尔夫球。所以我不知道我还能不能打球了。我至少会在这里休息一个月。我有点像欧洲人的生活方式。我非常喜欢我的家人，我的孩子，还有我的孙女。所以我不知道。我觉得他们会说我是一个非常幸运的人。我喜欢这个。

So just positive for a second. Is there anything else I feel like we covered so much? Was there anything else you'd like to talk more about?

那么，让我们先积极一点。我们讲了这么多，还有其他的事情吗？你还想再谈论什么吗？

The only thing is again, as your audience is a very Southern California centric. I would love to ask you as well as your audience that if you have any advice for us, and if you do want to become connected to plug and play, please reach out to me personally. And I make sure the right people will follow up. But I am very much looking forward to making LA as one of our strongest offices and hubs in the world.

唯一需要注意的是，您的听众是来自南加州的。我想问问您和您的听众是否有什么建议可以分享，如果您想加入Plug and Play，请与我联系，我会确保让正确的人跟进。我非常期待让洛杉矶成为我们全球最强劲的办事处和中心之一。

Fantastic. Well, I look forward to crossing paths much more in the LA ecosystem with you, with your colleagues, with your rooftop. I'm really glad to have you in LA. And I look forward to all that we're going to hear about plug and play in the future. Thank you so much for having me in your podcast.

太好了。我很期待在洛杉矶的生态系统中更常与你、你的同事、你们的屋顶相遇。我非常高兴你在洛杉矶。我期待未来听到Plug and Play的所有消息。非常感谢你让我参与你的播客。