編者按：本文作者是知名投資人 Fred Wilson，他在文中寫了自己以投資人身份參與創業公司董事會的經歷，並探討投資人該如何與公司管理人配合，讓公司更好發展的方法。
Being an investor and board member means that you are close to the companies you invest in but not “in them.”. This near and dear relationship creates some interesting challenges for both the management and the investors. One of them is understanding the difference between information/reporting and a real understanding of what is going on in the business.
如果你是一名投資人，並且在所投資的創業公司董事會上有一個席位，這意味著你與這家創業公司關係比較緊密，但是你並沒有“在公司上班”。對公司管理者和投資人來說，這種親密的關係會帶來一定的挑戰，其中一項挑戰就是分清工作報告與業務上真正發生的事情的區別。
I often find myself saying “but why?” at board meetings:
我發現，我在董事會上經常會說的一句話就是：為什麼會這樣呢？”
• “Revenues are soft this quarter” – but why?
• “這個季度的營收疲弱”——為什麼會這樣呢？
• “MAUs are up 150% over last quarter” – but why?
• “與上個季度相比，MAU 增長了150%”——為什麼會這樣呢？
• “We are going to miss our ship dates” – but why?
• “恐怕我們會趕不上發貨日期了”—— 為什麼會這樣呢？
• “We expect to decrease our hosting costs by 50% next quarter” – but why?
• “我們希望下個季度可以將託管費用降低 50%”——為什麼要這麼做呢？
• “We can’t seem to get any interest in the next round” – but why?
• “恐怕我們沒法拿到下一輪融資了”——為什麼會這樣呢？
• “We are getting a lot of inbound interest from investors” – but why?
• “很多投資者都有意向投資我們”—— 為什麼會這樣呢？
• “We have a lot of turnover in our engineering organization” – but why?
• “我們的工程組織出現了很多失誤”—— 為什麼會這樣呢？
The beauty of working with investors who see a lot and have seen a lot is that they can often help you diagnose the disease by looking closely at the symptoms. But you have to be willing to engage in that exercise and be open to hearing “but why” and be prepared to answer it.
與見多識廣的投資人合作的好處在於，他們可以仔細查看“病症”，幫你診斷疾病。但是公司管理人必須願意積極配合，聽取投資人的疑問，並做好回答投資人問題的準備。
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