????美國科技博客VentureBeat最近撰文探討：“青少年能否成為優秀創業者？”

????作為一個青少年的母親，我對該問題的第一反應是，“對，沒錯，學會收拾桌子和整理房間之后，他們完全可以成為優秀的創業者，不過整天迷戀最新的《暮光之城》電影（Twilight）可不成?！?/p>

????誰知道呢？事實證明，有些孩子確實從舒適的沙發里站起身來，開始進行創業，希望成為下一個史蒂夫?喬布斯。

????VentureBeat上那篇文章講述了一個由科技青訓營（Teens in Tech）組織的創業孵化平臺，通過為期八周的暑期項目，幫助六組年輕的創業者在夏季推出六種產品。各團隊需拿出自己的點子，然后獲得導師和所需資源，在指導下完成將理念轉化為產品的過程。八周之后，各團隊在風險投資家、科技界名流、媒體工作者和其他社會人士面前展示自己的創業成果。這些孩子不像同齡人那樣忙于考駕照或者勾搭畢業舞會的舞伴，而是在學習如何打造一家公司。參與該項目之前還是為青春痘發愁的孩子，離開時可能已與投資人簽下協議。

????該組織成立的前提是：創業精神可以很早就開始培養——這些富有創新精神的青少年需要的是教育和領導，以幫助他們締造充滿創意、變革現狀的企業?？萍记嘤枲I為青少年創業者提供經驗豐富的導師、工作地點和引導，作為回報，其孵化、促成的公司“長大成人”后，該組織可獲得部分股權。

????這很大程度是硅谷獨有的現象，年少得志者在這里隨處可見。若你年滿40還在硅谷工作，那簡直就是以長壽著稱的彭祖。如果你走在街頭，風投扶持的年輕人正意氣風發地踩著滑板去上班，他們或許會停下來攙扶過馬路。實際上年齡問題很有趣，因為風投行業里對年齡和經驗的價值始終存在巨大的爭議。一方面，年輕被視為等同于發現炫酷新事物并真正領會新趨勢和潮流的能力，更不用說年輕人對科技的反應更加靈敏。這還用說嗎？如果你家電腦出毛病了，你是問兒子還是退休的老父親？

????另一方面，專業的風險投資者在衡量企業CEO是否稱職時，非常重視他們的經驗和資質。如果某公司的多數員工都太年輕，早上起床完全不覺得腰酸背痛，那我們甚至要考慮在該公司設置“成人監督者”。

????科技青訓營完全回避了這個問題，聲稱他們注重的不是打造公司，而是培養創業家。其基本理念是，這種創業經驗就像是生意場上的青春期。與一般人青春期經歷的變聲和發育同理，他們經歷的是市場、包裝、制造、定價、銷售、管理和其他相關事宜方面的學習，從而完成從追夢少年到成熟創業者的轉變。不過，我擔心這些青少年與他們的成年人導師合作時，會不會很不耐煩，心想：“天哪，他說的這些東西我早就懂了。”

????科技青訓營孵化項目首批贊助的那六家公司中，好幾個是典型青少年思維模式的產物。其中之一專注于實時了解你的朋友中哪位現在有空出去閑逛（這是對“我太無聊了”這個棘手問題的高科技解答）；另一個的設計目的是幫助高中生分享課堂筆記（過去這可是被當作抄襲的?。?；還有一項是給iPhone開發僵尸題材游戲。不過，剩下的幾項看起來能吸引更廣泛的用戶，分別專注于云計算、個人財務管理和工作場合的分享。

????令我驚訝的是，這些創業者中竟然沒人開發一款對青少年著裝風格進行快速分類的應用，有了這種應用，父母們就可以迅速分清哥特、情緒、硬核和嬉皮，而不用尷尬地開口詢問。或許更有前途的創意是把青少年那難以壓制的性沖動拿來發電，既清潔環保，又能獲得幾萬億美元收入。

????VentureBeat那篇文章指出了幾個有趣的現象，其中之一是：青少年創業者們急切地希望與其合作的成人導師把他們當做大人看待，但一旦項目失敗又不希望真正受到責罰。文章援引一位青少年參與者的話說：“現在是試驗和學習的時間……因為我不用養家糊口，也不會背負房貸，我可以作出高風險決定，然后從慘痛教訓中認識到什么可行什么不可行。”

????這恐怕談不上“慘痛教訓”，不過能在不招致真正嚴重后果的前提下，承擔各種風險并獲得豐厚回報，確實有其優勢。作為一個青少年，跟父母的關系緊張恐怕天經地義，可只有在父母同意的基礎上，你才能參與這個活動，并同意分享股權。

????科技青訓營專門幫助那些不僅有夢想，而且擁有能使夢想成真的點子的孩子門，培養他們的創造力，我覺得這樣一個組織的存在實在是件非?？岬氖虑?。偉大的創意可能隨時隨地涌現，使其最終獲得成功的最大障礙往往是：不知道下一步該干什么。讓經驗豐富的企業家早早參與到成長中的創業者的培養中去，將使這些后起之秀有更大的成功希望，同時也幫助美國維持在世界科技領域的領袖地位。將年輕和激情與經驗和老道摻在在一起，可以調合出一道非常神奇的雞尾酒。

????我對科技青訓營活動唯一一點不滿在于：評選委員會中沒有一位女性成員，參與該活動的61位導師中也只有5位女性。當今的創業與風投世界仍未擺脫“女性不得入內”式的偏見，而這些“下一代”創業家甫一踏入創業圈，就浸淫于同樣的偏見之中，實在令人扼腕。我希望追隨我的腳步進入這個領域的人會更加開明，更愿意改變科技界和風投界男性主導的現有格局。顯然科技青訓營尚未著手解決這個問題，因此，希望他們能把我這篇文章當成一種敦促。此外，考慮到青少年投入大量時間精力，以求與異性共處，引入更多女性導師的裨益是不言而喻的。

????本文作者麗莎?蘇南是風險投資公司Psilos Group的聯合創始人兼管理層成員，該公司專注于醫療保健領域，管理的資金超過5.77億美元。

????譯者：小宇

????VentureBeat recently asked: "Do teens make good founders?"

????As the parent of a teenager, my immediate thought was, "Yeah, sure, right after they clean up their rooms and set the table, they can be totally awesome founders, as long as they can tear themselves away from the latest installment of the Twilight series."

????What do I know? As it turns out, some kids actually do get off the couch and take action to be the next Steve Jobs.

????The VentureBeat post was about an entrepreneurial incubator put together by Teens in Tech, an 8-week summer program that helped six teams of young entrepreneurs launch six products over the course of a summer. Teams came with ideas, got paired up with mentors and resources, and were guided through the process of bringing their ideas to life. At the end of the 8 weeks, the teams presented their startups to a group of venture capitalists, tech influencers, media members and others. Instead of getting their driver's licenses and hooking up with their prom dates, these kids are getting a lesson in how to build a business. Come with your Clearasil, leave with a term sheet.

????The organization was founded on the premise that entrepreneurship can be nurtured from a very early age—all these innovateens need is education and leadership to help them create innovative and disruptive businesses. It provides access to seasoned mentors, a place to work and a guiding hand. In exchange, Teens In Tech gets equity in the companies that they help nurture through adolescence.

????This is very much a Silicon Valley phenomenon, where wunderkinds are everywhere. By the time you're 40 in Silicon Valley you are like Methuselah, hanging on for eternity and likely to get offered assistance crossing the street from venture-backed phenoms riding their skateboards to work. It's funny, actually, because there is a huge tension in venture capital about the value of age and experience. On the one hand, youth is equated with the ability to identify the cool new thing and be truly in-touch with what's up and coming, not to mention facile with technology. I mean seriously, whom do you ask when you can't figure out your computer at home?

????On the other hand professional venture capitalists place a huge emphasis on the experiential qualifications of a company's leader when evaluating CEOs; we even talk about it in terms of ensuring there is "adult supervision" at companies when the preponderance of workers are so young they are still able to get out of bed in the morning without groaning about their backs.

????Teens in Tech skirts this whole issue by saying that they aren't really focused on building companies, but on building entrepreneurs. The basic idea is that this experience is like business puberty. Instead of voice changes and training bras, they get lessons in market savvy, packaging, manufacturing, pricing, selling, managing and all of the other stuff you need to know to matriculate from a kid with a dream to an entrepreneur. I wonder if it's hard for the teenagers to work with their adult mentors without rolling their eyes and thinking, "Oh my god, I totally know that stuff already."

????Many of the six companies that went through the inaugural Teens In Tech Incubator program are definitely products of the teen mind. One is focused on knowing in real-time which of your friends is available right now to hang out (the technology answer to "I am so bored"); another is designed to let high school students share school notes (hey, back in the day that was considered cheating!); another is a Zombie game for iPhones. But some of the others sound like they would have pretty broad appeal, focusing on cloud computing, budgeting and workplace sharing.

????I am surprised that none of the entrepreneurs developed an app for classifying teens on sight so parents can rapidly tell the difference between goth, emo, scene and hipster without having to ask. Even better, there has got to be a mega-billion dollar potential for a product that turns pent-up teen sexual tension into green energy.

????One of the interesting points raised by VentureBeat was how badly the teen entrepreneurs want to be taken seriously by the adult mentors with whom they work, but also how they don't want real repercussions if they fail. One of the teen participants is quoted as saying, "This is a time to experiment and learn... Since I don't have a mortgage to pay or food to buy, I can make risky decisions and figure out the hard way what works and what doesn't."

????That's not exactly "the hard way," but there certainly is an advantage to be able to take all the risk and all the reward with none of the serious consequences. As a teenager, you may be legally required to hate your parents, but they are the ones that had to co-sign to get you into this program and agree to share your equity.

????I think it is really cool that there is an organization like this to help nurture the creative spark in kids who have not just a dream, but an idea for how to make it real. Great ideas can come from anywhere; often the biggest barrier to getting it over the goal line is knowing what to do next. By using experienced entrepreneurs to mentor budding ones early in life, the newbies can have even more shots on goal and help the U.S. maintain its position as the world's technology leader. The combination of youth and enthusiasm with experience and seasoning can be a very powerful cocktail.

????My one complaint about the Teens In Tech program, however, is that none of the selection committee members were women and only 5 of the 61 mentors focused on the program are female. It's unfortunate that the "next generation" of entrepreneurs is being sent out into the world laden with the same female-free bias that is present in the entrepreneurial and venture capital worlds today. I'd like to think that those who will follow me in this field will be more enlightened and less likely to perpetuate the male-dominated reality of our current technology and venture capital landscape. Apparently the Teens In Tech haven't quite tackled that issue yet, so hopefully they will consider this article a challenge to do so. Considering how much time teenagers spend desperately seeking the company of the opposite sex, this one seems like a no-brainer opportunity.

????Lisa Suennen is a co-founder and Managing Member of Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm with over $577 million under management.