营收1亿美金的美国软件公司
重点 (Top highlight)
Not many people can say they’ve come within a whisker of $100 million, but that’s my claim to fame right now. Five years ago, I was known as the goofball who thought there was money to be made by disrupting the kitty litter industry. Now I’m known as the goofball who lost a fortune when someone else turned that much-derided idea into a lucrative business.
没有多少人可以说他们的身价在1亿美元之内，但这是我现在成名的说法。 五年前，我被称为愚蠢的人，他认为通过破坏小猫垃圾行业可以赚钱。 现在，我被称为愚蠢的人，当别人将这个愚蠢的想法变成一笔有利可图的生意时，他就发了财。
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It was just another forgettable shelter-in-place Wednesday when an ex-girlfriend called me out of the blue to tell me that I had to turn the TV to RuPaul’s Drag Race immediately. I flipped through the channels until I found a drag queen auditioning for the title of Kitty Girl 2020. It was a mini-challenge sponsored by PrettyLitter, the company I’d co-founded. The company I’d let slip through my fingers.
这只是另一种遗忘她升叔就地周三时的前女友打电话给我出蓝色的告诉我，我不得不把电视机鲁保罗变装皇后秀马上。 我翻阅了各个频道，直到找到扮作《 Kitty Girl 2020》的扮装皇后试镜。这是我共同创立的公司PrettyLitter赞助的一次迷你挑战赛。 我要让我的手指滑过的公司。
As the queens scrambled into cat drag, racing to out-feline one another around a giant PrettyLitter-branded cat box, I plopped down on the couch to watch. I was torn by competing emotions: vindicated because this display was clear proof that the naysayers had been wrong about the kitty litter idea, but also gutted for having lost out on such a monumental opportunity. The long nights of product iterations, the sweaty practice pitches in front of the cameras, the high-stakes reality TV, the betrayal, the absurd heartache — it had all been for nothing. Well, maybe not nothing. I did get some fodder for a blog post. Let me back up and tell you the full story.
当皇后们争先恐后地躲在猫咪争奇斗艳的比赛中，我围着一个巨大的PrettyLitter品牌的猫咪盒子争相躲猫猫，我俯伏在沙发上看。 我被竞争的情绪所折磨：被证明是正确的，因为这种展示清楚地表明了反对者对小猫乱扔垃圾的想法是错误的，但也因为失去了如此巨大的机会而感到内g。 漫长的产品迭代之夜，汗流practice背的练习摆在镜头前，高风险的真人秀电视，背叛，荒谬的心痛-一切都没有。 好吧，也许不是没有 。 我确实得到了一些博客文章的饲料。 让我备份一下，并告诉您完整的故事。
加州梦想 (California dreamin’)
Like so many other people in Silicon Valley, I’m not a Bay Area native. I came to California by way of Toronto. Back home, I’d attended a hacker bootcamp talk entitled “Top Things I Hate about Silicon Valley Culture.” The speaker, a jaded Canadian technologist, ranted about a crazy billionaire who’d bought a chunk of downtown San Mateo because he thought he could train young people to be superior entrepreneurs. The billionaire hosted a superhero-themed startup incubator and invited his big-wig tech buddies like Elon Musk to teach classes.
像硅谷的许多其他人一样，我不是湾区人。 我经由多伦多来到加利福尼亚。 回到家，我参加了一个黑客训练营的演讲，题目是“我讨厌硅谷文化的热门事情”。 这位演讲者是一位疲惫不堪的加拿大技术专家，对一个疯狂的亿万富翁大喊大叫，因为他认为自己可以培养年轻人成为优秀的企业家，所以他购买了圣马特奥市区的一大部分。 这位亿万富翁主持了一个以超级英雄为主题的创业孵化器，并邀请了像埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)这样的大假发技术伙伴来授课。
“He’s a phony!” the speaker grumbled. “He’s spreading idiotic ideas about company building! And, anyway, doesn’t a venture capitalist have better things to do?”
“他是个骗子！” 演讲者发牢骚。 “他在传播关于公司建设的愚蠢想法！ 而且，无论如何，风险投资家没有更好的事情要做吗？”
Sitting in the audience, I thought, Actually, that sounds kind of amazing!
坐在观众席上，我想， 实际上，这听起来很棒！
Later that night, I went home and researched the billionaire’s school. Draper University of Heroes was unconventional, to say the least. Its founder, Tim Draper, was Theranos’ first investor — and its last staunch defender. He famously spends his free time trying to split California into three states. He also compels startup trainees to kill chickens, sings while keynoting business conferences, and jumps into swimming pools fully clothed. And yet Draper U still seemed like a much better way to learn about startups than anything else I’d ever heard about.
那天晚上晚些时候，我回到家研究了亿万富翁的学校。 至少可以说，德雷珀英雄大学是非常规的。 它的创始人蒂姆·德雷珀 ( Tim Draper )是Theranos的第一位投资者—也是其最后的坚定捍卫者。 著名的业余时间是他试图将加利福尼亚州分为三个州。 他还强迫初学者接受培训，以杀死鸡只，唱歌并在商务会议上作主题演讲，然后跳入穿着衣服的游泳池。 然而，Draper U似乎仍然比我从未听说过的了解初创企业更好的方法。
At the time, I was trying to transition from a career in PR sales to early stage tech companies, and I was willing to try just about anything to get there. I decided to put my sales skills to work. I tracked down Tim Draper’s email, pitched him on my entrepreneurial experience, negotiated the price of tuition, and enrolled in the program at cost.
当时，我正试图从公关销售职业过渡到早期的科技公司，并且我愿意尝试一切尝试。 我决定运用我的销售技能。 我追踪了蒂姆·德雷珀(Tim Draper)的电子邮件，向他介绍了我的创业经验，协商了学费，并按成本参加了该计划。
A few months later, I graduated from Draper U, a tad older and a tad wiser. I had a couple of pivotal experiences, a new network of professional contacts, and one failed startup idea under my belt. I was more eager than ever to dive into the world of entrepreneurship. It was right around then that I met the cat lady who changed my life.
几个月后，我毕业于德雷珀大学(Draper U)，年纪稍大，才华横溢。 我有一些关键的经验，一个新的专业联系人网络以及一个失败的创业想法。 我比以往任何时候都更渴望进入创业世界。 就在那时，我遇到了改变我一生的猫女。
猫砂Carly (Cat litter Carly)
Carly Martinetti was a charming animal lover from L.A., and, like me, she had a background in PR. She had recently been cast in Startup U, a short-lived reality TV show on ABC in 2015. Carly was cast by the production company along with nine other actors and models that made up the 10 “stars of the show.” They also included students picked by Draper U like me, but we were in the background with no speaking roles. The 10 cast members, once selected by the production company, then also applied to Draper University and had to be accepted.
Carly Martinetti是来自洛杉矶的迷人动物爱好者，和我一样，她有PR的背景。 她最近一直在投启动ü ，在ABC短命的电视真人秀在2015年卡莉是与由10个其他九名演员和模特一起投公司所生产“的表演明星。” 他们还包括像我一样被Draper U挑选的学生，但我们在后台没有演讲角色。 制作公司选择了这10名演员，然后又申请了德雷珀大学，并被接受。
The show was a $250,000-per-episode money pit that cost ABC a pretty penny, but it was a good opportunity to spotlight some inventive ideas and to promote the Draper U brand.
该节目是一个每集25万美元的资金坑，使ABC付出了几分钱，但这是一个很好的机会，可以凸显一些创新的想法并推广Draper U品牌。
Carly reached out to me to ask my advice about her idea: color-changing kitty litter. She proposed making the unpleasant chore of changing the litter box less dusty and smelly. I immediately latched onto the wacky idea. It seemed more investable than other Draper U ideas, it had a catchy name, it seemed made for TV, and it was bolstered by the 300,000 people who visited Carly’s popular animal blog every month.
凯莉(Carly)向我寻求关于她的想法的建议：变色小猫砂。 她建议减少更换垃圾箱的麻烦，减少灰尘和气味。 我立即陷入了古怪的想法。 它似乎比Draper U的其他构想更具投资价值，它的名称易上乘，似乎是为电视制作的，每个月访问Carly受欢迎的动物博客的300,000人为其提供了支持。
I hate to brag, but I happen to be something of a pet-tech expert. That was the reason Carly had approached me. I’d previously worked on a project with a good friend named Mu-Chi, who’d spent years running a Taiwanese A.I. lab. We worked on the world’s first facial-recognition cat feeder, Bistro, a product that could recognize your cat, monitor its health, and tell you if it was eating properly. I’d also launched a side project called Petsy, the world’s first loyalty card for pet owners, and it had made a splash in the press.
我讨厌吹牛，但我碰巧是宠物技术专家。 那就是卡莉接近我的原因。 我以前曾与一个名叫Mu-Chi的好朋友一起进行过一个项目，Mu-Chi在台湾的AI实验室工作了数年。 我们开发了世界上第一个面部识别猫喂食器Bistro ，该产品可以识别您的猫，监测猫的健康，并告诉您它是否饮食正确。 我还启动了一个名为Petsy的附带项目，这是世界上第一个针对宠物主人的会员卡，它在媒体上引起了轰动。
Carly asked me to join her on the reality show as her co-founder. I had a decent-paying sales job at a PR startup, but this seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I could play a substantial role in a TV production and launch a fascinating — though admittedly unusual — product. But was it worth the risk of looking like a fool if it flopped?
卡莉让我以她的联合创始人的身份参加她的真人秀。 我在一家PR初创公司有一份体面的销售工作，但这似乎是千载难逢的机会。 我可以在电视节目制作中扮演重要角色，并推出令人着迷的产品，尽管这是公认的不寻常产品。 但是，如果它失败了，就值得冒一个傻瓜的风险吗？
I had no idea if PrettyLitter would take off, but I knew that if I didn’t try, I’d always wonder, What if? I decided to pounce on the opportunity like a kitten on a feather teaser wand. I quit my job, packed my bags, and bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco. I’ll bet that in the history of the world, I’m the only person who ever came to the city in search of riches in the litter box.
我不知道PrettyLitter是否会起飞，但是我知道，如果我不尝试，我总是会怀疑， 如果呢？ 我决定抓住机会，就像羽毛挑逗棒上的小猫一样。 我辞掉工作，收拾行装，买了去旧金山的单程票。 我敢打赌，在世界历史上，我是唯一一个来到城市寻找垃圾箱里的财富的人。
纯粹命题 (Purr-fect proposition)
During the time I was on the show, I worked day and night. I took power naps — cat naps? — rather than sleeping because I was afraid of missing out on some opportunity. I reached out to contacts in my network and called in favors from people I’d known for years. I pulled every trick in the book to give PrettyLitter a leg up on the competition and to increase our chances of winning Startup U.
在表演期间，我昼夜不停地工作。 我小睡了—猫睡了？ -而不是睡觉，因为我害怕错过一些机会。 我与网络中的联系人联系，并征求了我多年认识的人的青睐。 我竭尽全力使PrettyLitter在竞争中立于不败之地，并增加了赢得Startup U的机会。
Carly’s idea was definitely interesting, but I had a hunch about a way to make it more marketable: making the litter medically diagnostic. If we modified the composition of the litter, it could track the health of cats by changing color based on different chemicals in their urine. The litter could help cat owners determine whether their kitties might need to visit the vet. With help from a friend at MIT, I found a chemist whose research specialty was color-changing polymers. He agreed to become PrettyLitter’s official scientist. It was a small step for us, but a giant leap for kitty-kind.
Carly的想法确实很有趣，但我对使它更具市场价值的方法有预感：使垫料具有医疗诊断性。 如果我们修改了猫砂的成分，它可以根据猫尿中的不同化学物质改变颜色，从而跟踪猫的健康状况。 垃圾可以帮助猫主人确定他们的小猫是否需要去看兽医。 在麻省理工学院的一个朋友的帮助下，我找到了一名化学家，其研究专长是变色聚合物。 他同意成为PrettyLitter的正式科学家。 这对我们来说是很小的一步，但是对于小猫来说却是巨大的飞跃。
I was also familiar with a phenomenal branding company called Sketch Deck. They were way outside of our price range, but I decided to try to make a deal with them. In exchange for creating free marketing materials for PrettyLitter, Carly and I promised them outsized exposure, an on-camera talk to the other Startup U teams, and free broadcasting on ABC’s networks. Fortunately for us, they agreed to our terms. We now had a marketing team behind us. We seemed to be going places.
我还熟悉一家名为Sketch Deck的惊人品牌公司。 它们超出了我们的价格范围，但我决定尝试与它们达成协议。 为了换取PrettyLitter的免费营销材料，Carly和我答应了他们加大曝光率，与其他Startup U团队进行相机对话以及在ABC的网络上免费播放。 对我们来说幸运的是，他们同意了我们的条款。 现在，我们拥有一支营销团队。 我们似乎要去的地方。
Armed with some stellar marketing materials, I brought onboard an intern who had studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Daniel was diligent and enthusiastic, and we were both convinced that he had a bright future.
带着一些出色的营销材料，我带了一个曾在哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院学习的实习生。 丹尼尔勤奋而热情，我们都深信他的前途光明。
I felt like we were really chugging along, which, ironically, worried me a little. I didn’t want to fall prey to a business shark like Tim Draper, so I suggested that we draft some legal documents. I dug into my own pocket to hire an attorney who could help us navigate the dangerous waters we were wading into.
我觉得我们真的很在意，讽刺的是，这让我有些担心。 我不想成为蒂姆·德雷珀(Tim Draper)这样的商业高手的牺牲品，所以我建议我们起草一些法律文件。 我自己掏腰包，聘请了一位律师，他可以帮助我们驾驭涉水的危险水域。
Tensions were high as we raced to prepare for Demo Day when we would present on stage in front of the Startup U judges. After all the teams made their pitches, the judges would select their winners and offer term sheets. Before the competition, the Draper U admin gave us a list of the judges, all of whom were investors, and they asked us to research them in preparation for our presentations.
当我们竞相为演示日做准备时，紧张感很高，当时我们将在Startup U法官面前登台表演。 在所有团队参赛后，评委将选择获奖者并提供期限表。 比赛开始前，Draper U管理员给了我们法官名单，他们都是投资人，他们要求我们对其进行研究，为演讲做准备。
The night before our pitch, I sleuthed the investors’ emails and sent them our professionally designed materials in advance. We got positive feedback, but when the judges asked about the other teams’ pitches, word got back to the school about my extracurricular emailing. The other teams howled in protest. “That’s unfair!” they cried. The program admin gave me a stern talking to, but the social hack worked. We were the only team that got prearranged meetings. We also got the investors’ attention. At the time, it seemed like a reasonable business gamble that had paid off.
我们上场的前一天，我窃听了投资者的电子邮件，并提前向他们发送了我们专业设计的材料。 我们得到了积极的反馈，但是当评委询问其他团队的音调时，有关我的课外电子邮件的消息又回到了学校。 其他队伍大声抗议。 “这不公平！” 他们哭了。 程序管理员给了我一个严厉的谈话，但是社交黑客确实奏效了。 我们是唯一召开会议的团队。 我们也引起了投资者的注意。 当时，这似乎是一场合理的商业赌博，已经取得了回报。
After a long, sleepless night, Demo Day had arrived. All the nervousness that had been building for weeks culminated in an intense few minutes on stage in front of dozens of investors and hundreds of thousands of television viewers. Carly and I pitched PrettyLitter together. She was a little annoyed with all my unconventional tactics, and, to be honest, I don’t blame her. But there was nothing we could do now but cross our fingers and hope for the best.
经过漫长而无眠的夜晚，演示日到了。 数周来积累的所有紧张情绪在数十名投资者和成千上万的电视观众面前登上了紧张的几分钟。 Carly和我一起推销PrettyLitter。 她对我所有的非常规战术都有些恼火，老实说，我不怪她。 但是，我们现在无能为力了，只是指望着最好的。
休斯顿，我们有一个爪子问题 (Houston, we have a paw-blem)
Fundamental differences in personality doomed my relationship with my co-founder. Carly was undeniably the outgoing star of the show, the face of the company, while I did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. I’m the first to admit that some of my tactics were… off the beaten path. But that’s not to say that they didn’t work. They did make Carly uncomfortable, especially after the admin called her into a meeting to discuss, among other things, my pre-competition emails to the judges. They told her that what I’d done was “against the rules.” Carly decided that from then on, I couldn’t do anything without checking with her first. That didn’t bode well for our relationship.
人格的根本差异注定了我与联合创始人之间的关系。 毋庸置疑，卡莉(Carly)是该节目的离任明星，是公司的面Kong，而我做了很多幕后工作。 我是第一个承认我的一些策略是……人迹罕至的人。 但这并不是说它们没有工作。 他们的确让Carly感到不舒服，尤其是在管理员召集她参加会议讨论我的赛前电子邮件给评委之后。 他们告诉她，我所做的只是“违反规定”。 卡莉决定从那时起，我必须先与她核实，才能做任何事情。 那对我们的关系来说不是好兆头。
Tensions between us escalated in the weeks that followed. Then, not long after pitching on Demo Day, after I’d put in a lot of 16-hour days, she gave me the hook.
在接下来的几周中，我们之间的紧张局势升级。 然后，在演示日进行推销后不久， 在我投入了很多16小时的时间之后，她给了我很大的帮助。
被国家电视台解雇的喜悦 (The joys of being fired on national TV)
“You know, Colin,” Carly told me on camera. “I just don’t think we’re meant to work together on this… it’s my thing and I don’t want to do it with you, that’s really what it comes down to.”
“你知道，科林，”卡莉在相机上对我说。 “我只是不认为我们打算在这个问题上共同努力……这是我的事，我不想和你一起做，这才是真正的结果。”
And just like that, I was yanked off the stage and out of the program, before I’d even heard the official results of the pitch competition. I later found out that PrettyLitter placed in the top three and won a $50,000 investment offer from Tim Draper. Part of me was truly happy for her, but a less generous part of me was jealous of her success.
就像那样，在我什至没有听到音高比赛的正式结果之前，我就被拉下了舞台，退出了节目。 后来我发现，PrettyLitter进入前三名，并从蒂姆·德雷珀(Tim Draper)赢得了50,000美元的投资要约。 我的一部分真正为她感到高兴，但我的一部分慷慨地嫉妒她的成功。
Early investors struck gold because, over the next few years, PrettyLitter became a thousand times more successful than the other startups on that stage. It was the only company on Startup U that actually realized hockey-stick growth. PrettyLitter eventually achieved the rarest of feats: product-market fit.
早期的投资者之所以能投资黄金，是因为在接下来的几年中，PrettyLitter的成功率是当时其他创业公司的千倍。 这是Startup U上唯一一家真正实现曲棍球增长的公司。 PrettyLitter最终实现了最罕见的壮举：产品与市场的契合。
But wait, there’s more!
但是，等等，还有更多！
你一定要成为我的小猫！ (You’ve gotta be kitten me!)
A few weeks after the show ended, I got a call from Daniel, the intern we’d brought aboard to help with the workload. After we exchanged pleasantries, he casually asked me whether I planned to work on my own cat litter product. I told him that without Carly, I didn’t see a way forward. I also admitted that some of the wind had been taken out of my sails after she unceremoniously booted me from her company.
演出结束几周后，我接到了丹尼尔打来的电话，这名实习生是我们带来的，可以帮助减轻工作量。 我们交换了愉快的饭后，他随便问我是否计划开发自己的猫砂产品。 我告诉他，没有卡莉，我看不出前进的方向。 我还承认，在她毫不客气地从公司陪伴下将我赶走之后，我的船帆已被风吹走了。
“Oh, good,” he said, his voice cheery. “Just so you know, I’m the new CEO of the company. Talk later!”
“哦，很好。”他说，很高兴。 “就知道，我是公司的新任首席执行官。 待会儿再聊！”
He hung up before I could react, and that was the last I ever spoke with him.
他挂了电话，然后我才React过来，那是我最后一次与他交谈。
It’s worth noting here that Daniel was uber-professional from the start. He’s charismatic and clever, and he struck all the right chords in conversations. Prior to taking on PrettyLitter, he’d worked for the congressional chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I’d hired him from a large pool of applicants because I saw tremendous talent in him — talent that helped him rise from unpaid intern to CEO in a matter of months. Machiavelli couldn’t have done it better.
这里值得一提的是，丹尼尔从一开始就是超级专业。 他具有超凡的魅力和机智，在交谈中打动了所有正确的和弦。 在担任PrettyLitter之前，他曾担任众议院外交事务委员会国会主席。 我之所以从众多应聘者中聘用他，是因为我看到了他的才能，这些才华使他在几个月内从无薪实习生提升为首席执行官。 马基雅维利不可能做得更好。
To be fair, Daniel would have been successful in whatever passion he pursued. But he certainly took our kitty litter idea and ran with it all the way to the bank. His masterstroke was licensing. Carly and I dreamed up the product; Daniel found a comparable product launched in 2012 overseas under a defunct label, licensed it, and slapped branding on it to make it commercially successful. He truly has the heart of a CEO.
公平地说，丹尼尔无论追求什么激情都会取得成功。 但是他当然接受了我们的小猫垃圾想法，并一直将其运用于银行。 他的绝技是发牌。 Carly和我梦up以求的产品； 丹尼尔(Daniel)于2012年在海外发现了一款已作废的可比较产品，并贴上了已失效的标签，获得了许可并在其上打上了商标，以使其在商业上取得成功。 他确实拥有首席执行官的心。
After Daniel took Carly’s job, she ended up at the niche startup PR firm that I’d left to work with her on PrettyLitter. I’d told her about my former employer, and she reached out to them about a job shortly after the show wrapped. Life has a funny way of coming full circle sometimes.
丹尼尔(Daniel)接管卡莉(Carly)的工作后，她最终来到了一家小众创业公司PR公司，我现在要和她一起在PrettyLitter上工作。 我已经告诉过她我的前雇主，在演出结束后不久，她就他们找工作找了他们。 生活有时会以有趣的方式出现。
我不是小女孩 (I’m no sourpuss)
Back in the early days of PrettyLitter, a blunt PhD friend said to me, “Your team has zero expertise, IP, or competitive advantages in manufacturing, chemistry, consumer products, animal health, diagnostics, or distribution. And cat litter isn’t an industry that needs disruption.”
在PrettyLitter成立之初，一位直率的博士朋友对我说：“您的团队在制造，化学，消费产品，动物健康，诊断或分销方面的专业知识，知识产权或竞争优势为零。 猫砂并不是一个需要颠覆的行业。”
The vast majority of my smart, business-savvy friends told me the same thing, after they were finished laughing at me, that is. It’s next to impossible to explain to people working in artificial intelligence, enterprise solutions, or cryptocurrency why I’d quit my job to work on color-changing cat litter. They thought I was settling.
在嘲笑我之后，绝大多数聪明，精通商业的朋友都对我说了同样的话。 几乎不可能向从事人工智能，企业解决方案或加密货币领域工作的人们解释为什么我要辞职从事变色猫砂的工作。 他们以为我正在安顿下来。
But the real kicker is that I was right. I saw a highly unorthodox opportunity to solve a dusty, decades-old problem that everyone else ignored. Granted, my decision to help build a better kitty litter was fueled by the glimmer of Tim Draper’s magic-investor pixie dust, the absurdity of 21st-century reality TV, and the false promise of a conniving cast of characters fit for a Hollywood movie. But in the end, my massive gamble was justified. There was gold in them hills (of kitty poop). I just couldn’t cash in.
但是真正的关键是我是对的。 我看到了一个极不合常规的机会来解决一个尘土飞扬，已存在数十年的问题，其他人都忽略了这个问题。 诚然，蒂姆·德雷珀(Tim Draper)的魔法投资人小精灵粉尘的微光，21世纪真人秀电视的荒谬以及为好莱坞电影装扮出令人生畏的角色的虚假承诺助长了我决定帮助建造更好的小猫窝的决定。 但最后，我的大规模赌博是有道理的。 他们山上放着金子(小猫屎)。 我就是无法兑现。
According to a 2019 Forbes article, “More than 2 million bags of PrettyLitter have been purchased since 2016 at $22 a bag, and it’s the fastest-growing feline-focused company in the U.S.” In the article, Daniel cheekily added that by the end of 2019, “PrettyLitter will have grown 4,500% in four years. And we’ve done it profitably the entire time.”
根据《福布斯》(Forbes) 2019年的一篇文章 ，“自2016年以来，以每袋22美元的价格购买了超过200万袋PrettyLitter，这是美国增长最快的以猫科动物为主的公司”。在2019年，“ PrettyLitter将在四年内增长4,500％。 而且我们一直都在盈利。”
The “we” part gets me.
“我们”部分吸引了我。
I can estimate, conservatively, that the valuation of PrettyLitter is more than $100 million based on the $44 million in stated revenue as of May 2019 and the CEO’s quote of growth of 4,500%.
我可以保守地估计，基于截至2019年5月的4400万美元声明收入和CEO的4500％增长报价，PrettyLitter的估值超过1亿美元。
Having lost out on being part of such a massive fortune, I feel like I’m entitled to drop the occasional nugget of wisdom into the palm of those who stick with me to the end of my story. Hard-learned lessons are character builders, after all. So here’s my sage advice to my readers:
失去了成为如此庞大财富的一部分之后，我感到自己有权将偶尔的智慧掘进那些坚持我到故事结尾的人们的掌中。 毕竟，难学的课程是角色构建者。 因此，这是我对读者的明智建议：
Believe in your bat-shit crazy ideas. Start where no one else is looking, and do what no one else is doing. Put in the time, trust the process, and when the rules don’t suit you, break them. If you can do all that, and if you’re blessed with a healthy dose of good luck, you might find yourself building a global kitty litter empire.
相信您的疯狂击球想法。 从没有其他人正在看的地方开始，然后做其他人没有在做的事情。 投入时间，信任流程，当规则不适合您时，打破规则。 如果您能做到所有这些，并且如果您拥有健康的好运气，那么您可能会发现自己正在建立一个全球性的小猫垃圾帝国。
Failing that, you’ll have one hell of a story.
否则，您将陷入一个故事的地狱。
翻译自: https://thebolditalic.com/how-to-lose-100-million-in-60-days-9de849b8e3ad
营收1亿美金的美国软件公司
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