姐弟創(chuàng)業(yè)傳奇

阿琳和埃里克•戴維奇姐弟都是音樂學院的學生，一個專攻聲樂，一個夢想成為職業(yè)的音樂人。然而，機緣巧合，兩人最終都踏上了創(chuàng)業(yè)的道路。姐姐成了低收入人群的理財導師，弟弟則用另外一種方式成就了自己的音樂夢想。

《財富》雜志撰稿人貝絲•科維特忙里偷閑，為鮑登學院的校友刊物《鮑登雜志》( Bowdoin Magazine)撰寫了一篇人物特寫，主人公是一對同在紐約創(chuàng)業(yè)的姐弟。與阿琳和埃里克•戴維奇姐弟一樣，作者也畢業(yè)于這家位于緬因州布倫瑞克市的文理學院。本文源自2013年秋季號的《鮑登雜志》，未作任何刪改。     同樣畢業(yè)于鮑登學院的《財富》雜志總編輯蘇安迪為同一期雜志撰寫了一篇關于舊金山市長李孟賢的報道。     對于戴維奇姐弟來說，創(chuàng)業(yè)實屬偶然。在鮑登學院(Bowdoin)，兩人學的都是音樂專業(yè)，從來沒有上過經濟類課程。然而，盡管他們在各自公司的創(chuàng)建歷程中都遵循同一條路徑，最終卻抵達了迥然不同的目標。     由于家中有兩位創(chuàng)業(yè)者，戴維奇一家人的家庭聚會有時候更像是商務會議。今年母親節(jié)那天，吃過早午餐后，埃里克在一旁演練即將給他的父母和姐姐阿琳展示的產品介紹。最近一次冬季滑雪之旅期間，一家人在科羅拉多州住宅的餐桌周圍搭建起了一個臨時辦公室，其實就是一堆雜亂無章的筆記本電腦、iPhone手機和iPad。     決定創(chuàng)業(yè)那一瞬間，這種全天候工作狀況就成了阿琳和埃里克主動選擇的生活方式。阿琳在曼哈頓創(chuàng)辦了PayPerks公司。這是一家培養(yǎng)中低收入消費者理財能力、同時給予他們獎勵的平臺。阿琳親自出任CEO。在東河對岸的皇后區(qū)長島市，埃里克在他參與創(chuàng)建的Songza公司擔任首席內容官，提供經過策劃的流媒體音樂服務。     兩人是在新澤西州蘭多夫市長大的，白手起家的父母早早就鼓勵孩子們要敢于開創(chuàng)一番事業(yè)。“他們給我們灌輸了一種觀點，就是說，變化是不可避免的，”阿琳說。“所以說，那些最靈活的人往往能夠收獲最大的成功。”爸爸開了一家牙科診所，媽媽幫助他打理經營事務，同時不斷地引進最先進的設備。在他們居住的那個社區(qū)內，他們一直是最精通電腦的家長。     然而，戴維奇姐弟走上創(chuàng)業(yè)之路實屬偶然。在鮑登學院，兩人學的都是音樂專業(yè)，從來都沒有上過經濟類課程。然而，盡管他們在各自公司的創(chuàng)建歷程中遵循同樣一條路徑，最終卻邁向了迥然不同的目標。于埃里克而言，Songza是一種不必經歷潦倒的音樂人生活，也是一個能影響音樂界的途徑。另一方面，通過創(chuàng)辦自己的公司，阿琳發(fā)現她有能力創(chuàng)造一種新事物，同時自己做自己職業(yè)生涯的主人。姐弟倆的行業(yè)或許沒有重疊，但他們身處同一個創(chuàng)業(yè)世界。正是這樣一種巧合，促使他們不斷比較、分享各自跌宕起伏的創(chuàng)業(yè)感悟。     早在14歲時，埃里克•戴維奇就展現出了正處于萌芽狀態(tài)的創(chuàng)業(yè)潛質。他擁有一個雄心勃勃的職業(yè)理想——他要成為一位搖滾明星。所以，他死纏爛打地懇求父母給他購買了一套錄音設備。他隨后制作了一張光盤，還成功地在學校餐廳把它賣了出去。     埃里克把這種商業(yè)頭腦帶到了鮑登學院。他在這所大學攻讀音樂專業(yè)期間竭盡全力，盡可能多地吸收行業(yè)相關知識。“我一直在努力學習音樂產業(yè)的方方面面，因為我當時真的認為我能夠建立一個音樂王國，”他說。正是在這種理想的驅使下，他先后在《公告牌》雜志(Billboard )和大西洋唱片公司( Atlantic Records)當實習生，還在大四那年參與了一個被他視為首次創(chuàng)業(yè)經歷的畢業(yè)生榮譽項目——為一個40人的樂團作曲，同時負責料理制作這個曲目的后勤工作。

Beth Kowitt took a break from her day job as a writer at Fortune to profile Arlyn and Eric Davich, siblings who both work in the New York City startup scene, for Bowdoin Magazine, Bowdoin College's alumni publication. The Davich siblings and Kowitt are all graduates of the Brunswick, Maine-based liberal arts school. The following is the entirety of the story from Bowdoin Magazine's Fall 2013 issue.     Fortune managing editor (and fellow Bowdoin graduate) Andy Serwer wrote about San Francisco mayor Ed Lee for the same issue.     At Bowdoin, Arlyn Davich and her brother Eric were music majors who never took an economics course. Yet, in founding their own companies, they've followed a common route to take them toward very different goals.     With two entrepreneurs in the family, get-togethers at the Davich household can sometimes resemble business meetings. Mother's Day this year involved a post-brunch session of Eric rehearsing an upcoming presentation in front of his parents and sister, Arlyn. During a recent winter ski trip, the family set up an ad-hoc office around the kitchen table of their Colorado home -- a mishmash of dueling laptops, iPhones, and iPads.     Being "on" 24/7 is part of the life that Arlyn and Eric signed up for when they decided to build their careers in startups. Arlyn is founder and CEO of Manhattan-based PayPerks, a financial capability and rewards platform for low- and middle-income consumers. Across the East River in Long Island City, Queens, Eric works as chief content officer for Songza, a company he co-founded that offers a streaming music service of curated playlists.     The two grew up in Randolph, New Jersey, with parents who were themselves entrepreneurial and encouraged the same spirit in their kids. "They instilled in us this idea that change is inevitable," Arlyn says, "so the people who are the most flexible are the people who are going to be the most successful." Their mom runs the business side of their dad's dental practice, which has consistently had the most up-to-date equipment. They were always the most computer-savvy parents on the block.     But entrepreneurship was accidental for the Davich siblings. At Bowdoin they were music majors, who never took an economics course. Yet, in founding their own companies, they've followed a common route to take them toward very different goals. For Eric, Songza was a way to impact the music industry without living the life of a struggling artist. By starting her own company, Arlyn discovered she could create something and take control of her own career. Their industries may not overlap, but they share that same startup world -- a coincidence that keeps them comparing notes on a professional existence that can be punctuated with extreme highs and extreme lows.     Even at age fourteen, Eric Davich exhibited the early signs of a budding entrepreneur. He had ambitious career aspirations -- he wanted to be a rock star -- so he finagled his parents into buying him recording equipment, made a CD, and sold it in the school cafeteria.     Eric carried that business savvy to Bowdoin where as a music major he absorbed as much as he could about the industry. "I was always trying to learn every part of the business because I really thought I could make my own music empire," he says. That meant internships at Billboardmagazine and Atlantic Records, along with a senior year honors project that he views as his first startup -- writing a composition for a forty-person ensemble and handling the logistics of producing it.

2006年從鮑登學院畢業(yè)的當天，埃里克就收拾行囊，去紐約市追尋自己的專業(yè)音樂人夢想。爾后的經歷一點也不浪漫。他的樂隊“小澳大利亞”(Little Australia)很難獲得登臺演出的機會——埃里克能夠演奏多種樂器，但主要擔任吉他手。為了更深入地了解一支樂隊如何才能獲得簽約機會，他最終在一家唱片公司找了一份差事。但這份工作帶給他最大的感悟是，原來音樂人和唱片公司的前景竟然如此不堪！“在那家公司，所有員工每天都是一副惶惶不可終日的樣子，因為他們隨時都有可能丟掉飯碗。”正是姐姐的一個問題幫助他理清了思路。阿琳問，他為什么打算進入一個日漸萎縮的行業(yè)，而不是進入一家蒸蒸日上的企業(yè)、成為它的一份子呢？     演出間歇期似乎一眼望不到盡頭的“小澳大利亞”樂隊一直向一家名為艾米街( Amie Street)的動態(tài)定價網站上傳自己的音樂。所謂動態(tài)定價意指，越受歡迎的歌曲定價越高。埃里克向這家網站的創(chuàng)始人發(fā)送了一封主題為“我想為你工作”的電子郵件。他的大膽終于獲得了回報：2007年，他得到了一份工作。“我認為這是一個涉足網絡音樂，獲取經驗的機會，”他說。“我還能賺點錢，也就不必擔心成為一位落魄的音樂人。”一如他此前的經歷，在這家初創(chuàng)公司，他幾乎什么都干。     2008年，艾米街收購了Songza。按照埃里克的描述，Songza這家網站最初提供一種類似于谷歌(Google)的音樂搜索服務——輸入一首歌曲的名稱，互聯網幫你找到它，尋找的渠道通常是YouTube。透過Songza，埃里克和他的合作伙伴發(fā)現了流媒體音樂的發(fā)展?jié)摿Γ核�讓用戶馬上就能聆聽到音樂，而不必把歌曲下載至硬盤里。這支團隊決定把艾米街出售給亞馬遜公司(Amazon)，這樣他們就能夠全身心地經營Songza。很快，Songza就演變?yōu)橐恍┙涍^深度編輯策劃、以20首歌曲為一組的播放列表，每組播放列表都有一個主題。比如，《90年代一曲成名傳奇》(90s One-hit Wonders)或者《熟男催淚金曲》(Grown Men Making Grown Men Cry)。     通過客戶調查，埃里克和其他創(chuàng)始人意識到，這年頭，沒有人認為音樂是一種產品。埃里克說：“人們聽音樂是為了放松心情，以便更好地完成手頭的工作，”讓音樂陪伴他們渡過乏味的工作時間。這支團隊決定把Songza定位為一種幫助用戶增加生活情趣的服務，而不是一個音樂發(fā)現產品。感到焦慮不安？請打開《60年代原型朋克勁爆歌曲集》('60s Proto-Punk Blastoff)。正在戶外燒烤？何不試試《與天王一起野炊》(Cookout with the King)的感覺（對于那些試圖進入你的轎車或健身房的廣告客戶來說，融入這種背景也是頗具吸引力的）。這種看似簡單的思維轉換引發(fā)了一些嚴肅的討論，以及投資者的關注。Songza的iPad和iPhone應用于2012年6月進入蘋果應用商店，之后，它在10天內就增加了100多萬名客戶。     埃里克目前主要從事營銷和業(yè)務拓展工作。名義上，他是首席內容官，但在這家擁有28位員工，正在迅速發(fā)展的公司中，他的職責經常變化。盡管他現在并不是以一位全職吉他手的身份維持生活，但在某些方面，他其實已經實現了當一個音樂人的人生目標。“我在鮑登學院做畢業(yè)生榮譽項目時，我的目標是展示我學到的所有音樂流派知識，”他解釋說。“如今，我采用一種使用起來非常方便，而且契合生活背景的方式，向人們展示所有不同類型的音樂。”現在，他謀求音樂事業(yè)有成的途徑不再是做音樂，而是創(chuàng)造性地生產更多音樂。他說：“說來也怪，我也正是在這個時候，開始走向更大的成功。”     在鮑登學院上大三那年，阿琳•戴維奇曾經遵照老師的要求，設想20年后的自己將身處何方。阿琳的專業(yè)是聲樂，但她并不認為自己具備上好的音樂天賦。所以她回答說，她打算創(chuàng)辦一家唱片公司。她認為，擁有自己的企業(yè)可以讓她經歷一段具有創(chuàng)造性的職業(yè)生涯。“這是創(chuàng)業(yè)最吸引我的地方，”她說。“也正是這種夢想最初驅使我進入鮑登學院學音樂，但我其實并不具備實現這種創(chuàng)造力的才華。”     畢業(yè)后，經鮑登學院的一位好友引薦，阿琳找到了一份公關工作。工作期間，她發(fā)現自己其實最喜歡跟小企業(yè)打交道，甚至有可能親自創(chuàng)辦一家小企業(yè)。2007年，她如愿進入哥倫比亞大學( Columbia University)商學院，進一步學習創(chuàng)業(yè)所需的定量分析技能。     在哥大求學期間，阿琳決定創(chuàng)辦一家企業(yè)，但她缺乏一個基本要素——一個好的創(chuàng)業(yè)點子。在一位教授的頭腦風暴討論課上，阿琳提到了自己在公關公司的工作經歷，說自己非常喜歡與一家為人們的薪金支票提供優(yōu)惠券的公司合作。這位教授的反應是，“哦，現在還有人領取紙質的薪金支票嗎？”阿琳回憶說，“正是這個問題，引導我從事這門生意。”這次面談剛一結束，她就著手研究“沒有享受金融服務的人群”，即那些沒有銀行賬戶的人。這個市場的龐大程度讓她萬分震驚。

The day Eric graduated from Bowdoin in 2006, he packed up and moved to New York City to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional musician. It was by no means glamorous. He struggled to break into the scene with his band, Little Australia. (He plays multiple instruments but is primarily a guitarist.) He got a job at a record label to better understand how bands get signed, but more than anything it helped him gauge how tough the prospects were for artists and record labels. "Everyone that worked there, they were just scared all the time," he says. "Any day they could lose their jobs." It was his sister that helped clarify his thinking: Why was he considering a shrinking industry, Arlyn asked, rather than joining a part of the business that was growing?     Little Australia, which is on an indefinite hiatus, had been uploading its music to Amie Street, a dynamically priced music site -- the more popular the song, the more expensive to buy it. Eric sent the founders an e-mail with the subject line "I want to work for you." His audacity paid off with a job in 2007. "I saw an opportunity to get my foot in the door and get some experience," he says, "and have some cash to work with so I didn't have to worry about becoming a deadbeat broke musician." Typical of life at a startup, Eric did a little bit of everything.     In 2008 Amie Street bought Songza, a service that in its original incarnation was what Eric describes as Google for music. Type in a song, and the Internet would find it, usually via YouTube. Through Songza, Eric and his partners saw the potential in streaming music: It gave users instant access to songs without having to download them to their hard drives. The team decided to sell Amie Street to Amazon so they could focus on Songza, which they evolved into hyper-editorialized twelve-song playlists, each with a theme (think "'90s One-hit Wonders" or "Grown Men Making Grown Men Cry").     Through customer research, Eric and his cofounders realized that nobody thinks of music as a product. "People listen to music to make what they're doing better," Eric says, to get through their run or day at work. The team decided to position Songza as a lifestyle enhancer rather than a music discovery product. Feeling angsty? Check out the "'60s Proto-Punk Blastoff" playlist. Barbecuing? Check out the songs in "Cookout with the King." (Having that context is also attractive to advertisers who want to reach you when you're in your car or at the gym.) That seemingly simple shift in thinking led to some serious buzz and investor attention. After Apple's App Store featured Songza's iPad and iPhone apps on the same day in June 2012, the company added more than a million new users in ten days.     These days Eric works mostly on marketing and business development. He's technically chief content officer, but at a fast-growing company with a staff of twenty-eight, his responsibilities change regularly. Despite the fact that he's not making a living playing his guitar full time, in some ways he's fulfilled his purpose as a musician. "When I did my honors project at Bowdoin, my goal was to showcase my knowledge of all of the genres of music I've learned about in school," he explains. "[Today] I get to expose people to all those different kinds of music in a way that's really easy and contextually relevant." Now that he's no longer trying to make a career out of making music, he's more productive creatively. "Oddly enough," he says, "that's when I started to become more successful."     During her junior year at Bowdoin, Arlyn Davich was given an assignment to envision where she saw herself in twenty years. She was a music major (she sings) but claims not to be the best musical talent, so she answered by saying she was going to start a record label. She thought that having her own business would allow her to have a career where she could create something. "That's what appeals to me about being an entrepreneur," she says. "It's what initially attracted me to music at Bowdoin, but I didn't have the talent to realize that creativity."     After graduating, Arlyn got a job in public relations through a Bowdoin connection. It helped her discover she liked working best with small businesses and could even start one herself. In 2007 she enrolled at Columbia University's business school to get the quantitative skills she needed to launch her own enterprise.     Arlyn was determined to start a business while at Columbia, but she was missing an essential ingredient -- a good idea. In brainstorming with a professor, she mentioned how much she liked working with a company during her PR days that put coupons in people's paychecks. The professor's reaction was, "People still get printed paychecks?" "It was the question that led me to this business," Arlyn says. After that meeting she started researching the "underbanked" -- people without bank accounts, and was shocked by how big a market it was.

當時，預付借記卡還是一個新事物，并沒有被那些本可以從中獲取最大收益的人群充分利用。“營銷任何一種產品的途徑，就是以一種頗具吸引力的方式，教育人民懂得使用它的好處，”她說。“我當時想，‘如果要為這個消費群體創(chuàng)造一種令人愉悅的受教育體驗，會是什么樣子呢？’這就是我試圖通過PayPerks解決的問題。”她的解決方案是一個建立在抽獎基礎上的獎勵計劃，具體來說就是，通過激勵消費者學習金融產品的好處，促使他們使用這些產品。     阿琳決定帶著這個創(chuàng)意去參加哥大的創(chuàng)業(yè)計劃競賽。清晨一起跑步時，阿琳給弟弟試講了一遍她的PayPerks故事。阿琳很善于展示；對她來說，這跟在鮑登學院時常進行的演出排練沒什么兩樣。埃里克使用姐弟倆都心有靈犀的音樂術語，提了幾點反饋建議——強化節(jié)奏，開始時氣息最好更柔和些。阿琳最終成為大賽的贏家，哥倫比亞大學隨即成為她的首位投資者。“那時，除了自己以外，我所擁有的就是一個PPT文檔，和一個夢想，”她開玩笑說。她邀請一位擁有更多技術經驗的伙伴一起創(chuàng)業(yè)，還在創(chuàng)業(yè)的第一年就成功說服萬事達卡(MasterCard)成了公司的簽約客戶。     讓我們一起看看它與美國財政部的合作方式，以了解PayPerks的運營方式。財政部每年撥付數十億美元的社會保障支出，其中很大一部分發(fā)放給了沒有銀行賬戶的人群，這些人大多通過財政部自己的預付費卡——萬事達直通借記卡(Direct Express Debit MasterCard)——接受這筆補助。阿琳說，持卡人經常徑直去自動取款機，一股腦地取出所有錢，根本就沒有利用這張卡的種種優(yōu)勢。4月1日，PayPerks推出一項針對直通借記卡的獎勵計劃。用戶收到一個內置激活碼的刮刮樂拼圖。依據這個激活碼，用戶可以選擇加入這個獎賞計劃。之后，用戶可以遵循一個教育課程，了解使用這張卡的種種好處，同時可贏得積分。很快，他們也可以獲得另一種贏取積分的方式——以有助于他們省錢的方式使用這張卡，比如避免取款手續(xù)費，選擇低結余警示等等。每一個積分都是一次贏取現金獎勵的機會。獎金將自動存入借記卡，以激勵用戶繼續(xù)參加這項計劃。     至今年年底，PayPerks的用戶人數預期將從現在的10萬增長至25萬。鑒于全球一半以上的人口沒有銀行賬戶，阿琳認為PayPerks具備邁向全球市場的潛質。“我們期待成為一家面向全球中低收入消費者的頂級金融服務提供商，”她說。這種商業(yè)模式顯然具有推動“公共利益”的一面，盡管阿琳表示這并非有意為之。她最初并不是打算創(chuàng)造一家全然致力于社會事業(yè)的公司，但在市場調研的過程中，她產生了一個想法，打算創(chuàng)建一家價值觀共擔的公司。在這樣一家公司中，社會使命強化了利潤使命。“這并不是妥協的產物，”她說。“它其實是各種意愿的重疊。”     阿琳和埃里克這些年來為彼此提供的非正式指導正在促使他們重返鮑登學院。埃里克的合作伙伴也是在布朗大學(Brown University)的課堂上構想出了他們最初的商業(yè)創(chuàng)意。戴維奇姐弟真希望他們在本科階段就能夠浸淫在類似的創(chuàng)業(yè)文化之中。他們經常聽聞有過創(chuàng)業(yè)經歷的其他校友表達過類似的情緒。     今年秋天，阿琳和埃里克正式啟動了“鮑登創(chuàng)業(yè)系列講座”(Bowdoin Startup Series)，進而讓在校生有機會親耳聆聽杰出校友以不同方式成為企業(yè)家的創(chuàng)業(yè)歷程。幾位客座講師每周五將蒞臨這個只需要申請就能參與的講座。目前已有20位校友同意重返母校，講述自己的創(chuàng)業(yè)故事。同時，這個講座也有助于學生們建立寬廣的人脈網絡。     雖然埃里克和阿琳不愿透露他們有無一起創(chuàng)業(yè)的打算，但他們正計劃一起投資其他的初創(chuàng)公司。姐弟倆的主要標準是，創(chuàng)業(yè)者必須具備非凡的個人素質。阿琳說：“一個最基本的信念是，為了成為一位成功的企業(yè)家，你必須具備饑渴感和靈活性，還需要堅持不懈，百折不撓。”這種素質是你在紙面上看不到的。而這對姐弟的經歷，恰恰是這種信念最為生動的寫照。（財富中文網）     譯者：葉寒

At the time, prepaid debit cards were a new phenomenon and underutilized by the people who could gain from them the most. "The way you market anything is by educating people on the benefits in an engaging way," she says. "I thought, 'What would it look like to create an engaging and educational experience for this segment of consumers?' That was the problem that I aimed to solve with PayPerks." The solution? A sweepstakes-based rewards program that incentivizes learning about the benefits of financial products and, in turn, helps consumers capitalize off of them.     Arlyn decided to take her idea to Columbia's business plan competition. During early-morning running sessions with her brother, Arlyn practiced telling the PayPerks story to prepare. Arlyn was good at presenting; it was like rehearsing for a performance back at Bowdoin. Eric would give her feedback using the musical terms they both innately understood -- increase your tempo, start softer. Arlyn went on to win, gaining Columbia as her first investor. "It was just me at that point -- just me, a Powerpoint, and a dream," she jokes. She brought in a co-founder who had more experience on the technology side and spent the first year convincing MasterCard to sign on as a customer.     As an example of how PayPerks works, take a look at its partnership with the U.S. Treasury. Every year the Treasury pays billions in social security disbursement. A large portion goes to people without bank accounts, with most receiving benefits through the Treasury's own prepaid card called the Direct Express Debit MasterCard. Cardholders often go right to the ATM, Arlyn says, to take all their money out, negating the card's advantages. On April 1, PayPerks launched its rewards program for the Direct Express card. Users received a scratch-off game piece, which comes with an activation code. After registering the code to opt into the rewards program, users win points by following an educational curriculum on the benefits of the card. Soon they'll also be able to earn points by using the card in ways that help them save money -- avoiding ATM fees, enrolling in low balance alerts. Every point is a chance to win a cash prize with the winnings going back onto the card to drive ongoing engagement with the program.     PayPerks has 100,000 users and is targeting 250,000 by the end of the year. With more than half of the world's population living without a bank account, Arlyn thinks PayPerks has global applications. "We're looking to be the leading financial service marketplace for low- and middle-income consumers globally," she says. The business model clearly has a Common Good aspect to it, which Arlyn says wasn't by design. She didn't start out exclusively looking to launch a social venture, but in doing research she came across the idea of a shared-value company -- one in which the social mission reinforces the profit mission. "It's not a compromise," she says. "It's truly an alignment of intentions."     The informal guidance Arlyn and Eric have provided one another over the years is something they're now taking back to Bowdoin. Eric's partners had come up with the idea of their original business during a class at Brown, and the Davich siblings wished they had similar exposure to a startup culture during their time as undergrads. It was a sentiment they regularly heard echoed by other Bowdoin alumni who had started their own businesses.     This fall Arlyn and Eric are launching the Bowdoin Startup Series, a chance for current students to see firsthand examples of alumni who have been successful in different ways as entrepreneurs. Several guest lecturers will visit the application-only course each Friday. Already, twenty alumni have agreed to come back to tell their stories, which will also help students build a broad network.     While Eric and Arlyn shrug off the idea of starting a business together, they're looking at investing in other startups together. Their primary criterion is that the founders have exceptional personal qualities: "The underlying belief is in order to be a successful entrepreneur you have to be hungry, flexible, and relentlessly persistent," Arlyn says. It's something that you can't see on paper. In their case, it takes one to know one.