'I slept in a cupboard for three months'
挪威新创企业家：“我在衣柜里睡了三个月”

Mathias Mikkelsen was so keen to get his business up and running that he slept in a cupboard for three months.

麦科勒斯非常热切希望创立自己的公司，为了创业他甚至睡了三个月衣柜。

Back in late 2013, the then 23-year-old entrepreneur had moved on his own from Norway to Silicon Valley in California, to try to secure backing for his start-up idea - an online project and time management tool called Timely.

2013年年末，当时只有23岁的企业家从挪威搬到加利福尼亚的硅谷，试图为其初创公司寻求支持。他想做一种线上时间管理项目，并取名为Timely。

There was just one big problem for the Norwegian - he didn't know a single person in the wider San Francisco Bay Area.

但他有一个大问题：他在旧金山湾区不认识任何一个人。

"At the time there wasn't really a tech start-up scene in Norway, so I decided that moving to Silicon Valley - the tech capital of the world - would be the best thing for me to do," says Mathias.

“当时在挪威实际上还没有技术型初创企业，所以搬到‘世界科技之都’硅谷对我来说是最好的选择”，麦科勒斯说。

"But I didn't know anyone at all out there. So when I landed human instinct kicked in, and the first thing I knew I needed to do was make friends. Then I realised that most people make friends via work or at college, and I wasn't going to be joining a workplace or going to be a student."

“但我根本不认识任何人。所以当我到达时，本能告诉我要先结交朋友。然而我意识到，大多数人都是通过工作或在大学时结识朋友，但我不会出现在工作场所或成为学生。”

So faced with the prospect of getting very lonely very quickly, Mathias devised a cunning plan.

面对很快变得非常孤独的前景，麦科勒斯想出了一个狡猾的计划。

"I decided that I would hire rooms in shared Airbnb houses, and move somewhere new every week," he says. "That way, law of averages, I would start to make friends."

他说：“我决定在爱彼赢（Airbnb）上租房间，每周搬新地方。那样的话，我就会认识新朋友。”

Thankfully for Mathias his idea worked, and over the following months he slowly built up a circle of mates. But his next challenge - the holy grail - was to get himself into a "hacker house".

幸好麦科勒斯的想法成功了，在随后的几个月中，他慢慢认识了一群朋友。他的下一个最大挑战是：打入“黑客之家”。

A hacker house is a property shared by a number of similar young tech entrepreneurs, who are all trying to get their business proposals off the ground. The idea is that everyone can help each other and share advice, inspiration and contacts.

“黑客之家”有许多兴趣相投的年轻科技企业家住在一起，他们都试图将商业计划书付诸实践。住在一起的想法是每个人可以互相帮助，分享建议、灵感和联系方式。

In mid-2014 he was finally able to get himself into such a property in Silicon Valley, but there was a catch - all 15 of the proper beds were taken. So if he wanted in, he would have to sleep on an airbed in a windowless cupboard.

2014年年中，他终于得以进入硅谷的一处“黑客之家”，但有个不足之处：所有15张床都有主。如果他想进来，他不得不睡在无窗衣柜的充气床上。

Mathias, now 29, says he jumped at the chance. "I slept in that cupboard for three months. Did I feel stupid or embarrassed? Not at all.

今年29岁的麦科勒斯说他抓住了这个机会。“我在那个衣柜里睡了三个月。我会觉得愚蠢或尴尬吗？完全没有。”

"Being in the hacker house was invaluable. It pushed me so much as an entrepreneur. It was extremely valuable and without it I don't think I would be where I am today."

“住进黑客之家是无价的。它把我推向企业家的高度。这是非常宝贵的，没有它，我不会有今天。”

Fast forward to the present day, and Mathias' Timely app is now used by more than 5,000 companies across 160 countries.

时至今日，全球160个国家或地区的5,000多家公司正在用麦科勒斯的Timely应用。

Born in the far north of Norway, Mathias was raised in a town just outside the capital Oslo.

麦科勒斯出生在挪威的最北端，在首都奥斯陆郊外的一个小镇长大。

As a child he says that his initial dream was to become a professional football player, specifically for the English team Manchester United, but then as a teenager he discovered that he was much better at computer programming.

小时候，他的梦想是成为一名职业足球运动员，特别是为英格兰队曼彻斯特队效力。但年少时，他发现自己擅长计算机编程。

While still at secondary school he started to get paid to design websites for companies on a freelance basis. Mathias says his parents were initially not happy about this, "until I got my first paycheque".

还在读中学时，他开始做兼职赚钱，为公司做网站设计。麦科勒斯说，“直到我拿到第一张支票”，父母最初对此并不满意。

Leaving school at 18, he then worked for a number of digital design companies in Oslo, where his work including making the in-flight entertainment system for airline Norwegian Air, and a Facebook campaign for charity Unicef.

18岁离开学校后，他在奥斯陆的多家数码设计公司工作过，工作内容包括为挪威航空的机上娱乐系统和为慈善机构联合国儿童基金会（Unicef）做“脸书”上的推广活动。

But wanting to be his own boss, and wishing to develop his own business idea, he started work on Timely. Mathias launched its first iteration in May 2013 while still living in Oslo, but "nothing happened".

但他想自己当老板，实现自己的理念。他开始在Timely上花时间和功夫。 2013年5月，麦科勒斯还在奥斯陆居住，他发布了第一版Timely，但“什么都没发生”。

"I got some likes on Facebook, and some thumbs up from friends, but no real customers signing up," he says. "It went completely to hell. I'd put my all into it, night after night, then it launched and all I could hear was the sound of crickets. It was devastating, it takes the breath out of you."

他说：“朋友们在脸书上给我点赞，但没有真正的客户来注册。”“像进了地狱。我日复一日地全情投入，然后发布，我能听到的只有失败的声音。那是毁灭性的，让人喘不过气来。”

With his savings running low, Mathias says he realised he "only had one more shot" at making Timely a success. So it was time to place a big bet - he sold his apartment in Oslo to raise more funds, and moved to Silicon Valley.

麦科勒斯的积蓄越来越少，他意识到自己只能孤注一掷“让Timely取得成功”，因此该下大赌注了：为了筹集更多资金，他卖掉了自己在奥斯陆的公寓后搬到硅谷。

After his time in the hacker house, and working with a fellow programmer in India, Mathias launched the second iteration of Timely at the end of 2014. Sales to businesses - who pay a subscription then slowly started to grow.

自从在“黑客之家”呆了一段时间后，麦科勒斯与印度的一位程序员一起工作，于2014年底发布了Timely的第二版：企业付费订阅，销售开始逐渐缓慢增长。

A year later, Mathias decided to move the business - which he called Memory - back to Oslo. "While there was no tech start-up scene in the city when I left, it has subsequently boomed. Oslo is now a great place to find tech staff."

一年后，麦科勒斯决定将取名为“记忆”（Memory）的公司搬回奥斯陆。 “虽然我当初离开这座城市时还没有技术型的初创企业，但后来蓬勃发展。奥斯陆现在是寻找技术人员的好地方。”

Backed by $6m (£4.6m) of funding from investment firms in the US, UK and Norway, Memory now employs 45 people, and has annual sales of more than $2m.

在美国、英国和挪威投资公司600万美元（460万英镑）资金支持下，“记忆”公司现在有45名员工，年销售额超过200万美元。

Entrepreneurs like Mathias "tend to have certain innate characteristics when compared with the general population", says Brian Morgan, professor of entrepreneur at Cardiff Metropolitan University. This means that they are more likely to take risks and grasp opportunities.

英国卡迪夫城市大学企业学教授布莱恩·摩根（Brian Morgan）说，像麦科勒斯这样的企业家“与普通人相比往往具有某些先天性，”他们更有冒险精神，懂得把握机会。

In the early years of product development it's always about resilience - the ability to keep going when the outlook looks bleak - and also self-reliance - the capacity to be resourceful and confident enough to depend only on yourself.

在产品开发的早期，总与坚忍有关：在前景黯淡时仍有发展的动力，以及有自力更生的能力，足智多谋和单打独斗的能力。

"Renting a cupboard in Silicon Valley to help get a start-up business to first base would seem to me to be a perfect example of the persistence and passion needed to become a successful entrepreneur."

“为了挖到第一桶金，在硅谷租衣柜，在我看来，这是成为一名成功企业家所需的坚持和热情的完美例证。”

Looking back on his three months living in a cupboard, Mathias says it was "a crazy time, but super cool". He adds: "I was working every minute of every day, so I honestly didn't care where I was sleeping."

回顾睡在衣柜里的三个月，麦科勒斯说那是“疯狂的时刻，但超酷”。他补充说：“我每天都在工作，所以老实说我不在乎睡觉的地方。”

来源：好英语网