一个顶级吃货的创业史

The Story of a Food Entrepreneur 一个顶级吃货的创业史 Joe Ariel is a New York City transplant who opened up shop in San Francisco with his startup Goldbely The idea is simple a food delivery service 乔 埃里尔属于纽约市外来人口 他的初创型公司 Goldbely 在旧金山设有门店 业务思路很简单 递送食品 That s not new of course But the company distinguishes itself by finding locally sourced gourmet foods from around the country and delivering them to a person s doorstep And not just so called gourmet food either Think cannolis from Carlo s Bake Shop of Cake Boss fame in New Jersey sourdough bread from Boudin in the Bay Area Blue Bell ice cream from Texas or a pastrami and corned beef sandwich from Katz s Delicatessen in New York City 这当然不是什么新事物 但 Goldbely 的与众不同之处在于 它在美国各地寻 找当地生产的精美食品 然后把它们送到人们的家门口 而且并不仅仅是一般 所谓的精美食品 想想看 新泽西州 Carlo s Bake Shop 制作 因为电视真人 秀节目蛋糕大王 Cake Boss 而名声大噪的奶油甜馅煎饼卷 旧金山湾区的 Boudin 酵母面包 来自得克萨斯州的 Blue Bell 冰激凌 还有纽约市 Katz s Delicatessen 的五香熏牛肉和腌咸牛肉三明治 Ariel 37 wants to help local purveyors gain a national audience He calls it democratizing the food industry And lest you think he is just one more in a long line of trendy food entrepreneurs Ariel insists that he dislikes the pretension of the word foodie preferring to call himself a food explorer and simply wants to share the best that America has to offer 37岁的埃里尔希望帮助当地食品供应商获得全美国消费者的关注 他把这称为 食品行业民主化 为了避免人们只是把它看成流行食品创业者大军中的普通 一员 埃里尔坚持说他不喜欢 美食家 这个词带来的自负感 他更愿意把自 己称为 食品探索者 而且他只是希望和别人分享美国最好的东西 Ariel is a serial entrepreneur he was once the CEO of D and E and holds a bachelor s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University He spoke with us 埃里尔已经连续多次创业 他曾是食品快递网站 D 和美食网站 E 的首席执行官 他在范德堡大学 Vanderbilt University 获得了经 济学学士学位 他和我们的谈话如下 1 Who in technology do you admire most Why 1 你在技术领域最欣赏的人谁 为什么 Steve Jobs Richard Branson Jeff Bezos They re all entrepreneurs who play by their own rules For Jobs it s his vision and true emphasis on design For Branson creativity and wildness For Bezos it s building for the long term and being unapologetic about it that idea is very freeing for entrepreneurs who are trying to build their own business As a marketer I also admire Hugh Hefner He s created his own reality He saw something that he wanted to build and marketed it like no one else could I feel the same way about Goldbely 史蒂夫 乔布斯 理查德 布兰森和杰夫 贝佐斯 他们都是按自己的规则行事的 企业家 对于乔布斯 我欣赏的是他的眼光和对设计的真正重视 至于布兰森 则是因为他的创造性和无拘无束 对于贝佐斯 则是他的长期投入和无怨无悔 对于正在设法构建自身事业的创业者来说 这个想法非常自由 作为推广者 我还欣赏休 海夫纳 他创造了自己的现实 他发现了自己想要的东西 而且用 唯我独尊的方式进行推广 我对 Goldbely 有同样的感觉 2 Which companies do you admire Why 2 你欣赏哪些公司 为什么 One company that I admire is Y Combinator for realizing that there s a new economy coming It s one thing for investors to make investments for financial gain but it s another to actively help thousands of entrepreneurs build out their dreams and give them a better chance to succeed We re fortunate to have been a part of the program and I admire a lot of what they do In the e commerce space I admire Amazon and Zappos for pretty obvious reasons With Zappos the customer service first focus is something we instill deeply in our team and Amazon s ambitiousness is inspiring 我欣赏的公司是 Y Combinator 原因是它意识到了一种新经济的到来 投资 者为了金融收益而投资是一件事 但去积极地帮助数千名创业者实现自己的梦 想 帮助他们提高获得成功的几率则是另外一件事 我们很幸运能参与这项活 动 对他们所做的许多工作我都很赞赏 在电子商务领域 我欣赏的是亚马逊 Amazon 和鞋类网站 Zappos 原因很明显 Zappos 以 客户服务至上 为重点 这一点深植在我们的梦想里 亚马逊的远大抱负让人很受启发 3 What advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do 3 你对那些希望从事你这样工作的人有什么建议 Travel eat repeat When I was planning this venture I knew it had to be something that I was super passionate about But at the same time you can have ideas that you re really passionate about that at the end of the day don t align with your skill set So find the intersection of what you love and what you re good at and identify any and every potential opportunities in the market Once you find the sweet spot dig in like you never have before 旅行 品尝 反复这样做 筹划这家公司时 我知道它必须能引起我极大的热 情 但同时 你可以有这样的想法 那就是你真正热衷的东西最终并不和你的 技能相匹配 所以 要在你所热爱的东西和你所擅长的东西之间找到交叉点 同时发现市场中所有的潜在机遇 只要找到了最佳结合点 就用前所未有的力 量进行发掘 4 What is the best advice you ever received 4 别人给你的最佳建议是什么 As an entrepreneur Paul Buchheit who is one of the partners at Y Combinator and the creator of Gmail always said build something that a few people absolutely love rather than build something that a lot of people just kind of like For any startup entrepreneur those are some of the wisest words because it s easy to push out something that s kind of good but it s really really hard to push out something that s amazing That s what you should strive for 身为创业者 Y Combinator 合伙人之一 Gmail 之父保罗 布赫海特总是说 要做出有些人绝对热爱的东西 而不是许多人仅仅有些喜欢的东西 这对任何 一位创业者来说都是最高明的建议 因为拿出较好的东西很容易 但要拿出令 人叫绝的东西真的 真的很难 那就是我应该为之奋斗的目标 5 What s the next big project you want to tackle 5 你打算着手的下一个大项目是什么 I think we ve really hit on something with the convergence of content and commerce in food specifically in the way we tell the stories of the products and artisans we showcase We view ourselves equally as an e commerce company as we do storytellers Video has always been a fascinating medium for me and we ve just started delving further into video based content Photography has always been core to our user experience but I think there s an exciting opportunity for us to use video to take our content far deeper 我想 我们真的已经在食品领域找到了把内容和商业结合在一起的东西 特别 是通过我们讲述产品的故事以及对那些制作者的介绍 我们觉得自己既是电子 商务公司 又是讲故事的人 我一直觉得视频是一种奇妙的媒介 摄影一直是 我们用户体验的核心 但我想我们可以借助视频把我们的内容深入到远远超过 现在的深度 这是一个令人兴奋的机遇 6 What challenges are facing your business right now 6 你的公司目前面临着哪些挑战 We re fortunate in that we re growing pretty quickly The challenge with that is continuing to grow at a fast pace and at the same time maintain focus on culture and quality of hiring while at the same time building for speed If there s one thing that keeps me up at night it s that Making sure we find the right spot 很幸运 我们增长得相当迅速 由此带来的挑战是继续高速增长 同时保持对 文化和招聘质量的关注 而且还要为增长速度搞好积累 如果说有什么让我夜 不能寐 那就是这件事 确保我们找到了正确的位置 7 What is one goal either personal or professional that you would like to accomplish during your lifetime 7 无论是个人方面 还是职业方面 你希望自己能够实现的终身目标是什么 Building an industry changing business To create something that not only serves millions of consumers but also empowers an entire industry of producers would be something really special I think Etsy has done this for the crafts industry and that is something I admire There s a lot of symmetry with what we re doing for gourmet and specialty food It s exciting to create a platform that uplifts an entire industry 打造一家能改变整个行业的公司 一个人创造的东西不仅能服务于数百万消费 者 还能赋予整个行业的生产者一些能力 确实是件很特别的事 我认为手工 艺品交易网站 Etsy 已经为手工产品制造者做到了这一点 对此我很欣赏 我们 正在为精美食品和招牌食品所做的工作和 Etsy 极为相似 创建一个能提升整个 行业的平台让人很振奋 8 What do you do to live a balanced life 8 你怎样平衡自己的生活 Since I was a kid if I don t run around or play a sport and work up a sweat I get antsy If I go a few days without exercise I have a hard time focusing It can be anything from playing tennis or basketball to going for a run or a hike The gym is super important for me 从小时候起 如果不到处跑 如果不参加体育活动 出一身汗 我就会坐立不 安 如果有几天不运动 我就难以集中精力 可以是任何运动 网球 篮球 跑步或者骑自行车都行 体育馆对我来说超级重要 9 What was the last book you read 9 你最近读了哪本书 David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell I love his books in general with the intersection of psychology and business and history This one in particular talks about the advantages of being an underdog In my world that means a startup and it s very inspiring to hear historical takes about little upstarts that can do amazing things 马尔科姆 格拉德韦尔的 大卫与歌利亚 David and Goliath