如今，亚马逊的市值稳定在2.38万亿美元上下，创始人杰夫·贝佐斯凭借2361亿美元身家跻身全球顶级富豪之列。回到三十年前的1995年，为亚马逊筹措首笔百万美元种子资金的艰难，远超公司此后遭遇的任何挑战。一年前在纽约举办的Dealbook峰会上，贝佐斯向安德鲁·罗斯·索尔金（Andrew Ross Sorkin）坦言，那段早期融资经历堪称一场艰苦卓绝的鏖战，他与数十位天使投资人会面，大多以“费尽心力却屡屡碰壁“告终。
“我不得不安排多达60场会面，”贝佐斯回忆道，“这基本上是我这辈子做过的最艰难的事。”他指的是说服天使投资人向公司投入数万美元所付出的种种努力。
融资架构其实十分清晰：贝佐斯提出，以亚马逊20%的股权，换取公司500万美元的估值。
最终，他成功说服约20位投资者，每人出资约5万美元。但在那段时间进行的60场会面中，有40位投资人选择了拒绝。而这些拒绝尤为令人挫败——因为在得到答复前，每一次洽谈都伴随着“多次沟通”，背后是大量心力投入。
贝佐斯坦言，他很难说服投资者相信在网上卖书这一商业模式蕴藏着巨大潜力。“投资者们提出的第一个问题是什么是互联网？所有人都想知道互联网是什么。”他回忆道。当时鲜有投资者听说过万维网，更遑论洞悉其潜藏的商业潜力。
不过贝佐斯承认，在与潜在投资者沟通时，自己表现出的极度坦诚，或许也是屡屡碰壁的原因之一。
“我总会告诉他们，我认为这笔投资有70%的概率会血本无归，”他表示，"现在回想起来，当时的自己或许有些天真。但我认为那是事实，甚至在我看来，我给出的胜算预估已经比实际概率还高了。”
贝佐斯强调，20世纪90年代中期获得这些投资者的支持至关重要。“若非如此，整个企业可能在当时就夭折了。”（*）
译者：中慧言-王芳
如今，亚马逊的市值稳定在2.38万亿美元上下，创始人杰夫·贝佐斯凭借2361亿美元身家跻身全球顶级富豪之列。回到三十年前的1995年，为亚马逊筹措首笔百万美元种子资金的艰难，远超公司此后遭遇的任何挑战。一年前在纽约举办的Dealbook峰会上，贝佐斯向安德鲁·罗斯·索尔金（Andrew Ross Sorkin）坦言，那段早期融资经历堪称一场艰苦卓绝的鏖战，他与数十位天使投资人会面，大多以“费尽心力却屡屡碰壁“告终。
“我不得不安排多达60场会面，”贝佐斯回忆道，“这基本上是我这辈子做过的最艰难的事。”他指的是说服天使投资人向公司投入数万美元所付出的种种努力。
融资架构其实十分清晰：贝佐斯提出，以亚马逊20%的股权，换取公司500万美元的估值。
最终，他成功说服约20位投资者，每人出资约5万美元。但在那段时间进行的60场会面中，有40位投资人选择了拒绝。而这些拒绝尤为令人挫败——因为在得到答复前，每一次洽谈都伴随着“多次沟通”，背后是大量心力投入。
贝佐斯坦言，他很难说服投资者相信在网上卖书这一商业模式蕴藏着巨大潜力。“投资者们提出的第一个问题是什么是互联网？所有人都想知道互联网是什么。”他回忆道。当时鲜有投资者听说过万维网，更遑论洞悉其潜藏的商业潜力。
不过贝佐斯承认，在与潜在投资者沟通时，自己表现出的极度坦诚，或许也是屡屡碰壁的原因之一。
“我总会告诉他们，我认为这笔投资有70%的概率会血本无归，”他表示，"现在回想起来，当时的自己或许有些天真。但我认为那是事实，甚至在我看来，我给出的胜算预估已经比实际概率还高了。”
贝佐斯强调，20世纪90年代中期获得这些投资者的支持至关重要。“若非如此，整个企业可能在当时就夭折了。”（*）
译者：中慧言-王芳
Jeff Bezos said that getting the first million he needed to start Amazon was the hardest.
Today, Amazon’s market cap is hovering around $2.38 trillion, and founder Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s richest men, worth $236.1 billion. But three decades ago, in 1995, getting the first million dollars in seed capital for Amazon was more grueling than any challenge that would follow. One year ago, at New York’s Dealbook Summit, Bezos told Andrew Ross Sorkin those early fundraising efforts were an absolute slog, with dozens of meetings with angel investors—the vast majority of which were “hard-earned noes.”
“I had to take 60 meetings,” Bezos said, in reference to the effort required to convince angel investors to sink tens of thousands of dollars into his company. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, basically.”
The structure was straightforward: Bezos said he offered 20% of Amazon for a $5 million valuation. He eventually got around 20 investors to each invest around $50,000. But out of those 60 meetings he took around that time, 40 investors said no—and those 40 noes were particularly soul-crushing because before getting an answer, each back-and-forth required “multiple meetings” and substantial effort.
Bezos said he had a hard time convincing investors selling books over the internet was a good idea. “The first question was what’s the internet? Everybody wanted to know what the internet was,” Bezos recalled. Few investors had heard of the World Wide Web, let alone grasped its commercial potential.
That said, Bezos admitted brutal honesty with his potential investors may have played a role in getting so many rejections.
“I would always tell people I thought there was a 70% chance they would lose their investment,” he said. “In retrospect, I think that might have been a little naive. But I think it was true. In fact, if anything, I think I was giving myself better odds than the real odds.”
Bezos said getting those investors on board in the mid-90s was absolutely critical. “The whole enterprise could have been extinguished then,” he said.