美國在線前高管布拉德?加林豪斯入主YouSendIt
????十年前,美國在線(AOL)前高管布拉德?加林豪斯曾掌舵過一家新創企業,而現在時光輪轉,他又重新回到了原點。加林豪斯此次將加盟文件傳送和分享公司YouSendIt,出任首席執行官。 ????加林豪斯于去年12月離開美國在線,雖然此前有人推測他可能會進入投資領域,因為加林豪斯在這些年里投資了不少新創企業,還曾短暫擔任過銀湖私募股權公司(Silver Lake Partners)的高級顧問,但加林豪斯最終選擇了潛力巨大的YouSendIt。 ????YouSendIt位于加州坎貝爾市,自2003年成立以來,已經募集到超過4800萬美元的風險投資,該公司預計今年收益將超過6000萬美元,同比去年增幅高達61%。YouSendIt聲稱其擁有超過3000萬注冊用戶,其中付費用戶接近60萬。每日新注冊用戶達到3萬人。鑒于在過去近8年時間里,加林豪斯一直掙扎在兩家深陷泥潭的技術公司(美國在線和雅虎),這次他選擇一家身家清白的新創企業也就不足為奇了。 ????加林豪斯向《財富》(Fortune)表示“我不想成為逆流而上的大馬哈魚,我過去在美國在線所經歷的已經夠多了。”(加林豪斯并未排除搖搖欲墜的美國在線有東山再起的可能性。)“不過要問我是否認為自己能為YouSendIt或是美國在線創造數十億美元的價值?毫無疑問,這是一定的。”加林豪斯并未透露自己會為YouSendIt制定哪些戰略,他倒是大談特談自己正在積極進行招聘活動,將為 YouSendIt招聘210名左右新員工。 ????時至今日,大家可能都還記得加林豪斯的“花生醬宣言”。2006年,時任雅虎高級副總裁的加林豪斯發出一封公司范圍的備忘錄。在這份甜心先生風格的備忘錄中,加林豪斯批評雅虎缺乏遠見、責任心和決策力,對資源分配不當,就像在面包上抹花生醬一樣,雖然很多,但非常稀薄。2009年,加林豪斯離開雅虎,受蒂姆?阿姆斯特朗邀請,加盟位于帕洛阿爾托的美國在線產品導向部擔任主管。 ????譯者:項航 |
????More than a decade since Brad Garlinghouse helmed a start-up, the ex-AOL president is in, a way, coming full circle. Only this time, he's joining the file-sending and sharing company YouSendIt as CEO. ????Though some had speculated he might go the investor route after his departure from AOL (AOL) last December -- Garlinghouse has invested in several startups over the years and served a brief stint as senior advisor at Silver Lake Partners -- he attributes his new role to the company's quiet growth. ????The Campbell, California-based YouSendIt, which has raised over $48 million venture capital funding since being founded in 2003, is expected to surpass $60 million in revenue this year, a 61% increase over 2011. The company reports 30 million-plus registered users, nearly 600,000 of which pay. Some 30,000 new users sign up daily. And given that Garlinghouse has spent nearly 8 years at two big struggling tech companies -- AOL and Yahoo (YHOO) -- it's not a huge surprise he wants a clean slate to work with. ????"I didn't want to be the salmon swimming upstream, and I think AOL was an experience with a lot of upstream swimming," Garlinghouse told Fortune. (He doesn't rule out the possibility that a struggling AOL may still turn itself around.) "But do I think I can create a billion dollars of value with YouSendIt or AOL? No question. There's no contest." Garlinghouse would not discuss specifics of his strategy for the company other than to say he's actively recruiting to add to the startup's team of 210 or so employees. ????To this day, Garlinghouse may best be remembered in some circles as the former Yahoo senior vice president who sent out the Jerry Maguire-esque "Peanut Butter Manifesto" in 2006, an office-wide memo that chastised Yahoo for lacking vision, accountability and decisiveness, comparing the company's resource spending to spreading peanut butter (thinly) on a slice of bread. In 2009, he was recruited by Tim Armstrong to head AOL's products-driven offices in Palo Alto. |