As if having an awesome product isn't hard enough: A study published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Venture Capital has found that a startup's name can seriously affect how a company is perceived by investors.
拥有一款出色的产品似乎还不够难,同行评议学术期刊《风险资本》上刊登的一项研究发现,一家初创公司的名字会影响投资者对该公司的印象。
Names are easily pronounced, such as Uber and Lyft, are preferred by both early and late stage investors. They tend to be offered more money, whether its through crowd funders, angel investors, VCs or IPO investors.
对初期和后期的投资者来说,朗朗上口的名字是他们的首选,比如Uber和Lyft。不管是众筹者、天使投资人、风投还是IPO投资者,都愿意给这样的公司提供更多资金。
Uniqueness is also virtue, but only with early-stage investors. The study found that since very little is known about a company in the early stages, unique names give the impression there is something special about the company.
与众不同的名字也不错,但是这只是对初期的投资者来说。该研究发现,由于初创公司在初期阶段鲜为人知,独特的名字能给人留下一个特别的印象。
Difficult names "evoke cues of unfamiliarity and create a perception of high novelty, which is valued by these pre-venture stage investors," according to the study.
据该研究称,晦涩的名字“给人一种陌生和非常新颖的感觉,而这正是初期风投人所看重的。”
But don't go registering for that unintelligible URL just yet: The novelty wears off by later stages, when unique names can make investors feel uncomfortable.
但是,这种新奇性后期便会消失,这时别致的名字会让风投人感到不悦。不要急着去注册这个让人费解的域名。
Think about now-shuttered companies like Xobni, which was purchased in 2013 by Yahoo for $60 million, before being shut down just one year later. Then there are other departed startups like Oooooc, and Bawte.
想想现在已经倒闭的公司,比如Xobni,该公司在2013年被雅虎以6000万美元收购,一年后被关闭。还有Oooooc、Bawte等已经黄了的初创公司。
There is just not much of a benefit to having a unique name in later stages, according to the study. Investors looking at a company after it's proven to be successful — around the time of an IPO, for example — care more about accurate valuation, so linguistics have less of an impact on financing outcomes.
该研究称,一个别致的名字在后期对公司是没什么好处的。投资者们在考察成熟的公司时,比如对即将上市的公司,他们更看重的是精确的估值,所以在名字上咬文嚼字对融资结果的影响较小。
These results came from researchers in the business schools at Stony Brook University, Drexel University, and Villanova University, who conducted a two-part study which analyzed how names affect funding. In the first part, the researches looked at 131 crowd-funded projects. In the second study, the researches analyzed 1681 IPOs.
这一研究结果是来自石溪大学、德雷塞尔大学以及维拉诺瓦大学的研究人员得出的。他们的研究由两部分组成,分析了公司名称对融资的影响。在第一部分中,研究人员调查了131个众筹集资的项目。在第二部分中,研究分析了1681例IPO案。