面對掌控欲強的投資者

公司名稱：SLI Systems

地點：加利福尼亞州，圣荷西

年收益：銷售額超過1,000萬美元

????公司首席執行官、共同創始人肖恩?瑞恩表示，風險投資家和私募股權機構幾乎每周都會與他這家私營公司接觸。“他們總在尋找交易目標。”但迄今為止，瑞恩對此并不感興趣。這家規模50人左右的公司為網站提供托管網站搜索和導航解決方案。他說：“實際上我們并不需要注資。”

????瑞恩和他的同事于2001年創辦了這家名為SLI Systems的公司。他們認識到，公司的生存發展需要源源不斷的收入來維持，并且公司要圍繞該軟件建立服務模式。這筆收入使得他們得以緩慢但卻步伐扎實地發展業務，從而避免股權投資可能帶來的一些缺陷。瑞恩稱：“我曾經見過，一些創業者在接受投資后就身不由己了，甚至被逼到失控的邊緣。通常，風險投資家會尋求在特定的時間范圍內退出。他們通常會催促企業家作出決策，就是有的時候從公司自身或者市場時機來看并不是最佳時機。”

????對瑞恩來說，他更喜歡擔任公司掌舵人的角色，并在自己認為適當的時候做出決策。他說：“這樣就可以自主選擇最佳時機。”

????譯者：李玫曉/汪皓

When investors get needy

Company: SLI Systems

Location: San Jose, Calif. and Christchurch, New Zealand

Revenues: Over $10 million in sales

????Venture capitalists and private equity firms approach this 50-person, privately held tech firm almost weekly, says CEO and co-founder Shaun Ryan. "They're out there, looking for deals," he says. But so far, Ryan hasn't been interested in making one for the firm, a provider of hosted site search and navigation solutions for websites. "We don't really need the capital," he says.

????When Ryan and his colleagues launched the firm that they eventually named SLI Systems in 2001, they realized they needed recurring revenues to survive and built the company around the software as service (SAS) model. That stream of incoming cash has allowed them to grow the business slowly but steadily by bootstrapping it, avoiding some of the pitfalls of taking an equity investment. "I've seen other founders get pushed to the side and lose control," says Ryan. "Often venture capitalists will have a certain time frame for which they're looking to get an exit. They can often drive an entrepreneur to make decisions or push things to happen that aren't necessarily optimal times for the company and what's happening in the market."

????As for Ryan, he'd rather stay in the driver's seat and make those decisions when they feel right: "You can choose the optimal time yourself," he says.