第二季 第三集：鸟巢

他还满世界跑，负责各种后勤工作，比如给iPod shuffle装固件这些杂事全都经手。

He was traveling around the world handling logistics for, like, installing firmware on the iPod shuffle with all this stuff.

所以他给托尼留下了特别深的印象。

So he makes a big impression on on Tony.

而且暑假结束的时候，托尼给了他一笔现金奖金，奖励他这几个月的工作——这在苹果甚至iPod团队里都是从来没有过的事。

And apparently, the end of the summer, Tony gives him a a cash bonus, for his work during the summer, which, like, the the Apple and the iPod team had never done before.

之前从没人享受过这个待遇，只有马特拿到了。

Matt was the only person to to have this happen.

后来他毕业了。

So he graduates.

毕业之后他回到苹果，还是在iPod团队工作，那时候托尼正好被提拔为整个部门的负责人。

He comes back, to work, for Apple and for the iPod team right as Tony is getting promoted to being the head of the whole thing.

这事发生在2006年。

And this was in 2006.

与此同时，苹果内部也刚好启动了iPhone的研发项目。

And at the same time, this is when the iPhone is starting to get worked on within Apple.

这太棒了，又回溯到我们之前的几期节目了。

And this is so cool, reaching back to other of our episodes here.

读到这些内容真有意思。

And it was fun to read about this.

现在大家都知道了，当年有两个项目在竞争成为iPhone的原型。

There as as is now kinda widely known, there were two competing projects to become the iPhone.

一个叫紫一，一个叫紫二。

Purple one and Purple two.

是的。

Yeah.

我觉得，托尼负责的那个应该是紫一项目。

And so I think I think the iPod I think Tony's was Purple one.

当时的计划是，把iPod的软硬件基础，往手机方向改造。

And it was the the plan was they were gonna take the iPod software and hardware and push that towards a phone.

所以托尼、马特，还有其他人，都在全力做这个项目。

And so Tony, Matt, everybody's working on that.

然后在公司内部，史蒂夫还让斯科特·福斯特尔把macOS 10进行精简，试图把它塞进手机大小的设备里。

And then competing within the company, Steve also had Scott Forstall take OS 10 and try and shrink that down to fit it onto something the size of a phone.

而托尼的方向，大家都知道，是沿用iPod标志性的旋钮，把它作为手机的主要操作界面。

And and famously, you know, the the direction that Tony goes is the like, using the iconic click wheel for the iPod, and that's the primary interface to the phone.

而斯科特则选择了触控界面。

And Scott goes with the touch interface.

这些事在去年iPhone十周年的时候，都被反复提起。

And and and this is all now talked about when the tenth anniversary of the iPhone happened last year.

托尼和斯科特都接受了大量采访，谈到了当年的这段经历。

Both Tony and Scott, you know, did a bunch of interviews and talked about this.

据说，当时公司里这两支团队之间的竞争相当激烈。

And apparently, it was, like, pretty bitter rivalry within the company between these two teams.

那当然了。

You bet.

有意思的是，现在我们回过头来看苹果革命性的界面，真正改变一切的其实是多点触控。

It's interesting too thinking about, like, you know, now now when we reflect on, like, Apple's revolutionary interface, it's it's multi touch.

他们发明了这种超棒的电容触控技术，现在成了人们使用科技产品的主要方式。

Like, that they they invented this incredible capacitive touch thing that is like the dominant way that people interact with technology now.

但其实他们以前就干过一回了。

But they had already done that once before.

当年iPod的旋钮设计也是革命性的，真的彻底改变了游戏规则。

Like, and team with the iPod the the the click wheel was completely revolutionary and like Completely revolutionary.

跟之前的Rio播放器和随身听比起来，体验完全不一样。

You know, compared to like the Rio players and the Walkman that came before it, like, it was a completely different experience.

没错。

And and Yeah.

公司很少能连续两次做出这么颠覆性的创新，甚至之后还能多次做到，你也可以这么说。

You know, companies companies rarely have like that that dominant of an innovation twice, or or and you could argue multiple more times after that too.

确实如此。

Yeah.

这真的太了不起了。

It's, it's pretty amazing.

这一切都来自苹果内部不同的人。

And and it all comes from different people within Apple.

各位听众。

Okay, listeners.

现在是个绝佳时机，向大家介绍我们节目新伙伴——WorkOS，我们非常兴奋。

Now is a great time to tell you about a new friend of the show we are very excited about, WorkOS.

没错。

Yes.

WorkOS 是一个为企业级应用打造的平台，已被 OpenAI、Cursor、Perplexity、Vercel、Plaid 以及数百家其他顶尖公司采用。

WorkOS is the enterprise ready platform used by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Vercel, Plaid, and literally hundreds of other winning companies.

那么，这些公司到底用 WorkOS 做什么？

So what are all these companies using WorkOS for?

想象一下，你是一家快速成长的初创公司。

Imagine you're a fast growing startup.

你已经找到了产品与市场的契合点，越来越多的大企业客户主动找上门来。

You've got product market fit, and you're getting inbound interest from big enterprise customers.

真的很让人兴奋。

Very exciting.

但他们发来一份安全问卷，

But then they send you their security questionnaire.

没错。

Yep.

长达47页，要求多得像一堆缩写词。

And it's, like, 47 pages long with requirements that kinda sound like alphabet soup.

你们支持SAML 2.0吗？

Do you support SAML two dot o?

能和你们的Okta对接吗？

Can you integrate with our Okta?

有没有SCIM配置？SCIM？

Do you have SCIM provisioning, SCIM?

RBAC呢？R-B-A-C？

What about RBAC, r b a c?

你心里肯定在想，这些缩写到底是什么意思啊？更别说怎么去实现了。

And you're thinking, I have no idea what these acronyms even mean, let alone how to implement them.

关键是这么回事。

So here's the thing.

这些不是可有可无的东西。

These are not nice to haves.

这些是谈合作的硬性门槛。

These are deal blockers.

如果没有单点登录，没有SCIM，没有RBAC，没有审计日志，企业级交易根本就谈不下来，别无选择。

Without SSO, without SCIM, without RBAC, without audit logs, you simply cannot close enterprise deals, period.

但这些功能其实并不会让你的核心产品变得更优秀。

But none of these features make your core product better.

它们不会让你的啤酒更好喝——用我们在《Acquired》里最爱打的比方来说。

They don't make your beer taste better, to use our favorite analogy here on Acquired.

所以如果你在做一款设计工具，花六个月去开发SAML认证，并不会让你的设计工具变得更强大。

So if you're building, like, a design tool, spending six months building SAML authentication doesn't make your design tool more powerful.

这时候，WorkOS 就派上用场了。

So this is where WorkOS comes in.

他们为企业的功能打造了一个像 Stripe 一样的解决方案。

They've built Stripe for enterprise features.

WorkOS 把企业认证的各种要求转化成即插即用的 API，尽可能把那些繁琐的复杂性都屏蔽掉。

WorkOS turns enterprise authentication requirements into drop in APIs, abstracting away as much unnecessary complexity as possible.

所以你的团队不用花几个月去研究 SAML 规范，几分钟就能搞定企业级单点登录。

So instead of your team spending months reading SAML specs, you can implement enterprise SSO in minutes.

WorkOS 会帮你处理用户开通、权限管理、审计日志——所有企业 IT 部门要求的那些必备功能。

WorkOS handles user provisioning, permissions, audit logs, all the checkbox items that enterprise IT requires.

不管你刚起步，想拿下第一个大客户，还是已经规模不小、正在全球扩张，WorkOS 都是你最快达到企业级标准的捷径。

So whether you are a seed stage company trying to land your first enterprise customer or already big and expanding globally, WorkOS is the fastest path to becoming enterprise ready.

直接上 workos.com，或者去他们的 Slack 找客服就行。

Just visit workos.com or just message their Slack support.

那里有真正的工程师，回复问题特别快。

They have real engineers in there who answer questions fast.

你联系他们的时候，记得说是本和大卫介绍的。

And when you get in touch, just tell them Ben and David sent you.

显然，斯科特·福斯特尔团队的多点触控技术赢了，赢得了代号为‘紫色iPhone’的那场较量，也就是iPhone的未来。

So, obviously, Scott Forestell's team with the multi touch wins the battle, the battle of the code name purple iPhone, the future of the iPhone.

我看到这个的时候，真的特别震惊。

And and this is this was just shocking when I saw it.

我们会在节目笔记里放上这个视频链接。

We're gonna link to this in the show notes.

如果你看过2007年1月20日史蒂夫·乔布斯发布iPhone的演示，那应该是历史上最著名的乔布斯时刻了。

So if you watch the demo in January 20 January 2007 when Steve Jobs announces the iPhone, like, probably the most famous Steve Jobs moment in history.

他演示电话功能的时候，一边展示收藏夹，一边教你怎么添加联系人，整个界面都是视觉化的，完全是全新的体验。

When he's walking through how the phone app works and he's going through the favorites, he, he's he's showing how you can add favorites, the favorites tab, and it's all visual and this is all new.

然后他还顺口说，哦，对了，删掉一个人也很简单。

And then he talks about like, oh, and you know, it's easy to remove somebody.

他当场就把一个联系人从收藏夹里删掉了。

And he removes a contact from his favorites.

他删掉的那个人是托尼·法德尔。

The contact he removes is Tony Fadell.

真的假的？

No way.

这手段太狠了。

Cold blooded.

简直太绝情了。

It's it's brutal.

当时没人知道，但后来出了好多采访，现在事情都曝光了。

And, of course, nobody nobody knew, but apparently, you know, there a bunch of interviews now afterwards.

现在大家才明白，至少iPod团队的工程师们，都清楚这意味着什么。

Now this has all come out that, like, all the engineers, at least on the iPod team, like, knew that that like, they knew exactly what that meant.

正如史蒂夫在演示中暗示的那样，接下来几个月，托尼就离开了苹果。

And so as as, you know, foreshadowed by Steve in the demo, within the next couple months, Tony is gone from Apple.

到了2007年底，也就是2008年，事情就定下来了。

And, and so he's it's it's now late two thousand seven, 2008.

他离开了苹果。

He's left Apple.

他妻子也是在苹果认识的，两人一起走了，心想：算了。

His wife, who he had met at Apple, they they both leave, and they're like, alright.

我们再也不干了。

We're we're done with this.

这实在太过分了。

Like, this is this is too much.

我们得花点时间陪孩子。

We're gonna spend some time with our kids.

他们孩子还小。

They have young kids.

他们做了两件事。

They do two things.

第一，正如你提到的，托尼一直很喜欢滑雪。

One, as you mentioned, Tony had always loved skiing.

他特别喜欢太浩湖。

He loves Tahoe.

他们决定在太浩湖建一座梦想中的度假屋，然后环游世界，弥补过去十年在苹果拼命工作的时光。

They decided they're gonna build their dream vacation home in Tahoe, and they're gonna travel all around the world, make up for all this time they'd spent, you know, at Apple working super hard for the last ten years.

于是他们开始建太浩湖的房子，同时到处旅行。

So they start they start building the Tahoe house, and and then they're traveling around the world.

他们渐渐在巴黎待得越来越久。

They start spending a lot of time in Paris.

最后干脆在巴黎买了一套公寓。

They end up buying an apartment in Paris.

但在装修太浩湖房子的时候，托尼就像回到了祖父身边，一提到这些事，他就忍不住想亲自动手，参与每一个细节。

But when they're working through the Tahoe house, Tony's like he he's kinda like going back to his grandfather and like as he talks about it and like, you know, tinkering, wanting to be involved with everything.

他根本停不下来。

He can't help himself.

他说，房子里用的那些东西，全是扯淡。

And he's like, all these products, everything that's going into the house, it's all like total BS.

这些东西简直太差了。

Like, these things suck.

我完全可以做得更好。

Like, I can do so much better.

所以他一直在想这事。

So he's he's thinking about that.

他还希望房子特别环保，节能高效。

He also wants the house to be super green, and energy efficient.

但他发现这真的很难做到。

He's finding it really hard to do that.

有一天，他从巴黎回到硅谷，正在处理太浩湖那边的事，就和以前的实习生马特一起吃了顿午饭。

And and he ends up one day, he when he's back in the Valley and he's from from Paris and he's working on the on the Tahoe stuff, he he gets lunch with his old intern with Matt.

结果发现马特最近也在硅谷买了一套房，那房子是七十年代的，里面全是老掉牙的七十年代设备。

And it turns out that Matt had also bought a house recently in the Valley And, and the house was, like, from the seventies and had all this old, you know, seventies style equipment in there.

马特也在试着改造，但同样碰了一鼻子灰。

And Matt's also trying to kinda retrofit it, having a super hard time.

马特呢，当时正跟他的前老板的老板的老板一起吃午饭，那人就是他当年当实习生时的上司。

And Matt's, like, you know, he's having lunch with his, like, boss's boss's boss who he was the intern.

他就说，咱们干脆一起创业吧。

He's like, we should start a company together.

哪个哪个

Which Which

这事非做不可。

is gotta do this.

离开公司之后，你突然发现，以前那个高高在上、只在千人大会上讲过话的神话人物，现在就在你面前。

That is the strangest feeling after you leave a company and someone was like a mythical person from on high that you only saw speak to a thousand people.

你可能以前只跟他有过一两次接触，但等你们都离开了公司，那些层级和架子全没了——我就遇到过几次这种事，真的会觉得，天啊，原来把所有管理层级一下子抹掉，就剩两个人面对面聊天，是这么奇怪的感觉。

And you know, you may have had one or two interactions with, but like, then then to just like, all the pretense is gone because you've both left the company and you have this has happened to me just a couple times, and you're like, oh my gosh, like, that it it's weird to collapse all those levels of management and then just have like a human to human relationship with someone.

对。

Yeah.

我是说，你聊的这个人，当年可是史蒂夫·乔布斯手机通讯录里真真正正的常客。

I mean, you're talking about a guy who is literally once in Steve Jobs favorites on his iPhone.

所以托尼说，嗯，我也不确定。

So Tony is like, Yeah, I don't know.

我挺享受这次巴黎之行的。

I'm kinda enjoying this Paris thing.

不过你可以先试着做做看，看看实际情况怎么样。

But maybe you work on it and you see kinda what's there.

于是马特就全身心投入进去了。

So Matt throws himself into this.

他当时还在苹果公司。

He's still at Apple.

他开始做了大量的市场调研。

He starts doing a ton of market research.

他让托尼也兴奋起来了。

He gets Tony excited.

他们俩也开始一起干了。

They're doing it too.

他们在和安装人员交谈。

They're talking to installers.

他们亲自去走访家庭，实地考察。

They're going and they're looking at homes.

后来他们接触到一位环保署的人，这个人对恒温器如何影响能源消耗想得很深入。

They end up talking to somebody in the EPA who's done a lot of thinking about how thermostats can influence you energy consumption.

那会儿马特还在苹果公司吗？

Matt was still at Apple during this?

马特那时候确实还在苹果，而且他干劲十足。

And Matt was still still at Apple during And and so he's pumped.

他一直在努力让托尼也兴奋起来。

He's trying to get Tony excited.

据说，按照托尼的说法，有一天他回到巴黎。

And then supposedly, as the story goes, told by Tony, one day he's back in Paris.

他刚送完孩子上学，正在思考。

He's he's just dropped his kids off at school, think.

他们在一家法国幼儿园，他正沿着卢浮宫旁的一座桥散步。

They're at a French preschool and he's walking along a bridge by the Louvre.

他望着卢浮宫，想到里面收藏的那些伟大的艺术品和杰作。

And he looks at the Louvre and he and he thinks about all the, like, great stuff and great creations in there.

他突然想，诶，说真的……

And he's like, you know what?

我还没完呢。

I'm not done.

我想回去。

I wanna I wanna get back.

于是他在一座横跨沙地的桥上给马特打了电话。

And so he calls Matt up from a bridge over the sand.

这场景真是绝了。

What a setting right there.

这场景真是绝了。

What a setting.

然后他就表态说，我加入。

And he's like, I'm in.

咱们这就干起来。

We're doing it.

所以这个节点上马特从苹果离职了，不出所料，他在帕洛 Alto租了一间车库，开始捣鼓各类项目。

So so Matt leaves Apple at this point, rents, of course, a garage in Palo Alto and starts starts tinkering on on stuff.

而且据说创业初期，甚至没人知道托尼也参与其中了。

And and apparently in those early days, like, nobody even knew that Tony was involved.

他们当时想做得特别特别隐蔽，

They wanted to be super, super stealth.

所以当时只有马特一个人在牵头。

So it was just Matt.

托尼在六月份搬回了硅谷。

Tony moves back to the Valley in June.

他和妻子一起搬回去的。

He and his wife moved back.

他当了CEO，然后他们决定给公司起名叫Nest。其实那时候他们还没完全确定要做恒温器，但目标是想彻底改造家居。他们讨论公司名字的时候就在想，该叫什么好呢？

He becomes CEO, and they decide that they're gonna name the company Nest because, know, the goal is I don't think they've even landed fully on on doing thermostats yet, But they wanna reinvent the home and they're talking about the they're like, what can we call the company?

他们当时聊到了MTV那个老节目《Cribs》。

They're talking about the the old MTV show Cribs.

他们就开始围绕这个点子展开讨论，后来就诞生了Nest这个产品。

And they start riffing on that and that's how they come up with Nest apparently.

他们本应该

They should have

就把项目叫成Crib了

just called it Crib.

对

Yeah.

我知道

I know.

他们本该叫它cribs的

They should have called it cribs.

也许吧，你知道的，他们在谷歌可能会做得更好，不过

Maybe maybe it would be, you know, they they would be doing better in Google, but

哇，戴维。

Woah, David.

咱们别跑题了，现在还没说到那儿呢。

Let's let's, you know, we're not at that part yet.

现在还没说到那儿呢。

We're not at that part yet.

他们从苹果挖来了一支顶尖团队，都是以前合作过的人。

So they recruit a killer team from from Apple, folks they've worked with.

他们还招了一些来自通用魔力公司的人，接着又做了一个关键的任命。

They recruit some folks from General Magic, and then they make one really key hire.

他们成功请到了马特在卡内基梅隆大学的导师。

They're they're able to land Matt's thesis adviser at from CMU.

这位女士叫杨子·松冈，是个非常了不起的人。

It's a woman named Yoki Matsuoka, who is a pretty incredible person.

在马特还在卡内基梅隆大学的那几年里，她已经离开学术界，和塞巴斯蒂安·特伦一起创办了Google X。

So in the in the couple years since Matt was at CMU, she'd left academia to cofound Google X with Sebastian Thrun.

她原本是卡内基梅隆大学的机器人专家，后来又去了西雅图的华盛顿大学。

She was a robotics expert in at CMU and then and then actually at the University of Washington in Seattle.

于是她和塞巴斯蒂安·特伦共同创办了Google X。

And so she cofound Google X with Sebastian Thurin.

她还因为自己的工作获得了麦克阿瑟天才奖。

She also gets awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant for her work.

当时她已经在Google X待了一年左右，托尼和马特成功把她挖了过来。

And and she'd been at Google X about a year, and Tony and Matt are able to recruit her away.

她在公司最早期的时候就加入了，担任技术副总裁。

And she joins as VP of technology in the super early days at best.

塞巴斯蒂安当然对这件事很感兴趣。

And and then Sebastian, he's, like, of course, interested by this.

所以他后来也参与了进来。

So he ends up getting involved.

他同时也成了公司的顾问。

He becomes an adviser to the company as well.

所以当时情况特别多。

So there's a lot of lot

他还在管着Google X吗？

While of still running Google X?

对，他当时还在管着Google X。

While he's still running Google X.

是的。

Yeah.

2010年9月，他们从凯鹏华盈和沙斯塔公司拿到了950万美元的A轮融资。

So September year, '10, they raise a 9 and a half million dollar series a from Kleiner Perkins and Shasta.

然后就开始干起来了。

And then they get to work.

这时候，他们已经决定把恒温器作为切入家庭市场的突破口。

At this point, they've decided that the thermostat is their entry point into the home.

他们想打造一系列完整的产品，包括智能硬件，让家居变得更聪明，同时还要开发软件层和操作系统，把所有这些整合在一起。

They wanna build a whole generation of both products, hardware products to make the home more intelligent, but also the software layer and the operating system that's gonna bring it all together.

他们完成了A轮融资，然后到了2011年初，整整花了一年时间才推出产品，直到2011年10月才正式上市。

So they raised their series A and then apparently in early twenty eleven, so they don't ship the product until they take a whole year, October 2011 they ship the product.

不过在2011年初，谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林看到了恒温器的早期演示版本，据说他震惊了。

In early twenty eleven though, Sergey Brin, the Google co founder sees an early demo and an early version of the thermostat and apparently he's blown away.

他立刻意识到，这将是继智能手机之后，下一个重要的操作系统入口——智能家居。

He thinks that like immediately this is gonna be the next, you know, after after smartphones, the home is gonna be the next operating system.

他想马上收购这家公司。

He wants to acquire the company right away.

但公司拒绝了。

And, and the company said no.

这是谷歌第一次试图收购这家公司。

So that was the first time Google tried buy the company.

如果当时他们接受了收购，我给这一集的评分可能会更高。

Well, perhaps my grade at the end of this episode would have been higher if it was bought at that stage.

好吧，我们或许只能留着这个话题，想想如果当时没这么做会怎样。

Well, we maybe we'll have to save it for what would have happened otherwise.

没错。

That's right.

不过现在值得提一下，智能家居看起来已经不那么颠覆了，毕竟现在到处都是相关新闻，有不少优秀公司，资金也源源不断，Google Home、Alexa这些生态体系都已成型。

And and so it's worth like touching on, you know, now this doesn't seem as revolutionary, of course the smart home, you know, it's in many news stories, there's many great companies, it's a lot of funding around this now, clear ecosystem plays with Google Home and Alexa and all that.

可那时候这事儿简直荒唐得离谱。

This is ridiculous at the time.

我记得看过他们的官网，设计得跟苹果一样精致， thermostat摆在正中央，还说将来会推出产品，让大家去那里获取更新信息。

Like I remember seeing their landing page and it's like, it's Apple esque and it's beautiful and it's got the thermostat on it and it's, you know, announcing like at some point we'll ship this thing and you can get information updates here.

当时媒体对它的评价简直是一边倒地嘲讽。

And just the media cycle around this was just ripping it apart.

这简直就是硅谷自我陶醉的巅峰时刻。

Like, this is the peak of Silicon Valley, you know, buying their own BS.

你是在逗我吗？

Are you kidding me?

这根本算不上什么创新。

Like, this this is not innovation.

真的，恒温器？

Like, really thermostats?

恒温器成了下一个前沿？

Thermostats is the next frontier.

当时还真有点先见之明。

And it it was just kinda prescient.

是的。

Yeah.

而且我觉得这里有个教训，因为同样的事也发生在Rover身上，它几乎也是在同一时期成立的。

Well, and I feel like there's a lesson here because the same thing happened with Rover, which which started right around the same time, almost exactly at the same time.

没错。

Yeah.

那时候TechCrunch上全是类似‘狗狗界的Airbnb’这样的文章。

And there were all these TechCrunch articles like Airbnb for dogs.

这简直就是末日征兆。

Like, this is a sign of the apocalypse.

硅谷已经完蛋了。

Silicon Valley is over.

哦，当时人们都觉得罗弗的创始人亚伦疯了，居然去干这行。

Oh, and people thought Aaron, the CEO of Rover, Aaron initially, people thought he was nuts for going and doing this.

彻底疯了。

Total nuts.

是的。

Yeah.

亚伦的职业生涯其实非常成功，跟托尼有点像。

I mean, Aaron had a super successful career at actually somewhat similar to Tony.

不过我觉得亚伦和托尼的性格大概完全相反。

Although I think Aaron's personality and Tony's personality are polar opposites probably.

亚伦是微软历史上最年轻的总经理。

But Aaron was the youngest GM at Microsoft ever.

他当初是微软收购那家公司时的量化分析师。

He came from from a quant of when Microsoft acquired that.

结果他跑去做了个给狗用的Airbnb。

And that he would go work on, you know, Airbnb for dogs.

这简直太疯狂了。

It's crazy.

但这两家公司后来都变得相当重要。

And yet both of these companies, you know, turned out to be quite important.

费德尔从重新定义消费电子，变成了做恒温器的公司。

Fadell from reinventing consumer electronics to make becoming a thermostat maker.

没错。

Yeah.

要是有人嘲笑你的创业项目，你大概该把它当成夸奖。

Well, when if somebody makes fun of your startup, you should probably take that as a compliment.

别人愿意拿你开玩笑，说明他们足够在意。

If people care enough to make fun It's of your

它还是很可能会失败，但要是没人拿它开玩笑，那你就知道它肯定成不了大事。

it's still likely to fail, but if people aren't making fun of it, you know for sure it's not going to be huge.

对。

Yeah.

所以第二年，2011年10月，正如我提到的，他们推出了Nest智能恒温器。

So the next year, October 2011, as I mentioned, they launched the product Nest Learning Thermostat.

当时引起了巨大反响，热度非常高。

There's a ton of buzz, ton of hype.

他们拿到了5500万美元的B轮融资，别忘了，那是2011年10月。

They raise a $55,000,000 series b, which remember, this is back October 2011.

那时候还没到后来那种Startup融资动不动就上亿的狂热阶段。

Like, we're we're not yet in the steroid era of, you know, like super rounds for startups.

在当时，一家刚推出产品的公司能融到5500万美元，已经算是非常多了。

This is one of the early like, a $55,000,000 series b is a lot for a company that just launched a product.

但这一切都建立在当时的舆论热度和团队的实力之上。

But it's all on the back of this hype and and the quality of the team.

而且他们还在做昂贵的硬件产品。

And the fact that they're making, you know, expensive hardware.

没错。

That's a Yep.

是的。

Yeah.

初创公司现在都在做这种产品。

Startups are making yeah.

我的意思是，做这种研发和生产，明显是个资本密集型的活儿。

I mean, it just feels like it it's a super capital intensive business to do that r and d in production.

对。

Yep.

确实如此。

It definitely is.

他们的B轮领投方，你猜是谁？谷歌风投。

And so the lead of their series b is, you guessed it, Google Ventures.

是的。

Mhmm.

谷歌风投的首批重大投资之一，当时它还只是谷歌内部一个相对新的部门。

One of the first big investments, out of Google Ventures, which at that point was a relatively new, operation within Google.

在收购之前，他们就已经持有这家公司12%的股份，这其实已经预示了后来的收购。

And they would actually they they would end up owning at at the time of acquisition foreshadowing a little bit 12% of the company before even buying it.

没错，没错。

Yep, yep.

那是2011年的事。

So that was at the 2011.

2012年，他们推出了第二代恒温器，支持更多类型的家居和布线系统。

2012, they launched the second generation of the thermostat, which is compatible with a bunch more homes and wiring systems.

到了这一代，据说能兼容高达85%到90%的家用布线系统。

Gets up to, I believe with that version up to, like, 85, 90% of home home wiring systems are are compatible with with the Nest, the second version of the Nest.

然后到了2013年1月，他们完成了C轮融资。

Then January 2013, they raised their Series C.

他们以8亿美元的前估值融资了8000万美元。

They raised $80,000,000 at a $800,000,000 pre money valuation.

同时宣布每月出货量达到约五万台恒温器，按每台250美元计算，年收入已远超1亿美元。

And they it gets announced that they're shipping on the order of 50,000 thermostats per month, which at a at a price of $250 per thermostat puts them well over a $100,000,000 annual revenue run rate.

是的。

Mhmm.

正如你提到的，本，这是硬件业务，背后有大量成本和开支。

Now, as you pointed out, Ben, this is hardware revenue with a bunch of costs and expenses associated

伴随着这些成本。

with it.

这可不是Facebook。

This isn't Facebook here.

这真不是Facebook。

This is this is not Facebook.

但即便如此，产品上线才十五个月左右，能做到这样已经相当惊人了。

But still, like, that's pretty pretty impressive, you know, about fifteen months after launching the product.

那到底是什么？

And what is that?

也就是公司成立不到三年，简直了。

Like, you know, less than three years after starting the company Absolutely.

或者说，从公司创立算起，差不多三年时间。

Or just about three years from starting the company.

不是的。

No.

不到三年，就做到了一亿美元的年营收规模，你知道的。

Less than three years, you know, at a $100,000,000 revenue run rate.

而且我认为还没盈利。

And I believe not profitable.

我觉得他们从创立到被收购，甚至之后好几年，都一直没盈利。

I think they went all the way through the acquisition and and years after.

也许到现在，情况还不完全明朗，但至少收入是没怎么盈利的。

Maybe even today, it's not totally clear, but but not not profitable revenue.

是的

Yeah.

不太清楚，但看起来不太可能，尤其是考虑到他们融了那么多钱。

Not not totally clear, but it seems unlikely, especially given how much money they were raising.

他们这么做，肯定是有什么目的。

Presumably, they were doing that for a reason.

到了2013年，他们推出了第二款产品，当时大家期待值很高。

And so then later in 2013, they launched the second product, which was hotly anticipated.

他们一直都在谈，要打造一个完全互联的智能家居。

They'd always talked about, you know, the vision of being a fully connected home.

挺有意思的是，同样的事情又发生了。

And it's funny, like, the same thing happens.

就是一个烟雾报警器，还兼有二氧化碳探测功能。

It's a smoke detector, smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.

结果人人都说：就一个烟雾报警器？

And everybody's like, smoke detector?

探测器？

Detector?

别开玩笑了。

Come on.

这可是Nest的下一款产品，烟雾探测器的事我们待会儿再说。

This is what this is next Nest's next product, and we'll come back to the smoke detector later.

那是2013年10月的事。

But that was October 2013.

到了2014年1月，也就是几个月后，有消息说Nest即将从DST——尤里·米尔纳的基金——那里获得一笔巨额融资，这家基金之前投过Facebook和其他不少公司。

In January 2014, so a couple months later, it gets reported that Nest is now gonna be raising a monster round from DST, from Yuri Milner's investment firm that invested in Facebook and many others.

他们打算以30亿美元的估值，融资超过2亿美元。

They're gonna be raising over $200,000,000 at a $3,000,000,000 valuation.

但就在1月13日，突然宣布谷歌以32亿美元现金收购了这家公司。

But instead, on January 13, it gets announced that Google is finally acquiring the company for $3,200,000,000 in cash.

不过本，正如你提到的，他们之前就已经持有这家公司12%的股份。

But Ben, as you pointed out, they already owned 12% of the company.

是的。

Yeah.

那时候员工还只有二百八十人。

And at this point still only two eighty employees.

我的意思是，以那样的价格被收购，还带着硬件、供应链、完整的运营和物流，官网直销，还有零售渠道合作伙伴，整个研发团队，居然只有二百八十个人。

I mean to be purchased for that price, making hardware with supply chain and you know, full operations logistics, you know, retail on their website, channel to retail partners, full R and D team, only two eighty employees.

这太厉害了。

It's impressive.

算下来，每个员工值一百一十亿美元。

I mean, it's $11,011,000,000 per employee.

确实。

It is.

没错。

It is.

你还记得吧，你说的渠道，指的是百思买、劳氏、家得宝这些大零售商。

And, you know, remember too, like, you mentioned channel, means Best Buy, that means Lowe's, that means Home Depot.

这意味着不仅要和这些零售商建立关系，还得把产品摆上货架，保持不断货，这一套操作可不简单。

That means not just building the relationships with those retailers, but getting product in shelves, keeping them stocked, all this stuff, it's not it's not easy doing this stuff.

没错。

Totally.

所以公告出来了，这笔交易的条款还挺有意思的。

So it's announced and the terms of the deal are are pretty interesting.

Nest 会继续保持完全独立运营。

So Nest is to remain wholly independent.

这时候 Google 还是原来的 Google。

So Google is still Google at this point.

Alphabet 这个名字还没出现呢。

There's no alphabet yet.

但他们明确表态了。

But they announced they're very clear.

这事儿会跟 YouTube 一样处理。

This is gonna be like YouTube.

托尼会继续担任CEO，管理团队的马特、约古恩，还有其他人也都保留原位，各自拥有独立的办公室。

Tony's gonna remain CEO, the management team, Matt and Yogun and everybody else are gonna stay independent, gonna have their own offices.

这明显是托尼的要求。

Which which is very much a Tony demand.

我们可不是被谷歌收购来搞整合，然后让我头上多一个上司。

Like, we're we're not getting bought by Google to be integrated and me to have a boss.

我要有自己的损益表。

Like, I get my own p and l.

我要有自己的预算。

I get my own budget.

你知道，我们有自己的办公区。

You know, we're we have our own office.

别忘了，托尼之前经历过通用魔力、飞利浦，还有苹果，这些大公司的内斗他都见识过。他确实很成功，但每次到最后，都输了这场游戏。

And remember, of course, you know, Tony is a is the veteran of first General Magic and then Phillips and then Apple where he's seen all these corporate politics play out and, you know, he's kinda he's had a lot of success, but he's also ultimately lost the game in every case.

对。

Mhmm.

据说，这笔交易里有个条款。

And so supposedly, there was a a term in the in the deal.

但具体内容没公开。

It's not public.

根本无从知晓。

No way to know.

但有报道称，正式文件中写明，Nest 有五年的缓冲期，期间完全不用考虑任何财务目标。

But it's been reported that there was a term in the actual documents that Nest was given a five years runway, end up completely independent of any financial goals.

也就是说，他们可以按需获得充足的资金，专心打造智能家居的操作系统、硬件和软件，据称协议里根本没要求他们盈利或增长收入。

So essentially as much financial resources as they wanted to with the goal of building like the OS layer hardware and software for the connected home and no accountability for any sort of profitability or revenue growth supposedly in the deal.

后来是不是又要求他们每年实现三亿美元的收入？

And then is it later that they wanted them to hit $300,000,000 a year of revenue?

后来确实设了个目标。

There was some target set there at some point.

对。

Yes.

是的。

Yes.

好吧。

Okay.

那是2014年1月。

So that was January 2014.

那可以说是Nest和谷歌合作关系的巅峰时刻。

That was basically the high water point for Nest or at least for Nest and Google's relationship.

这里还有一个相关的有趣数据。

And here's an interesting data point on that too.

在这件事发生几个月后，谷歌向证交会提交的10-Q文件里提到，他们是怎么评估这笔交易价值的。

So from, Google's 10 Q that they, filed with the SEC a few months after this happened, they talk about how they came to value the deal.

他们说，之前持有的股权部分公允价值是1.52亿美元，也就是那12%。

And so they say the fair market value of our previously held equity interest was $152,000,000 so that's that 12%.

另外还有5100万美元是现金，是他们从Nest收购来的，可能是来自上一轮融资，或者Nest当时的其他现金来源。

$51,000,000 was cash that they acquired, so from the last fundraising round or however they were generating cash at Nest.

4.3亿美元被归为无形资产，1.57亿美元归为承担的净负债，23.5亿美元则记为商誉，主要源于收购后预期产生的协同效应。

$430,000,000 was attributed to intangible assets, 157,000,000 to net liabilities assumed, and $2,350,000,000 attributed to goodwill that is primarily for the synergies expected to arise after the acquisition.

这可不是基于当前现金流的倍数，或者类似的东西。

So, you know, this is not a multiple of current cash flows or anything like that.

我们相信，谷歌和Nest之间存在巨大的协同效应，这才是我们做这笔交易的原因。

This is a we believe there are serious serious synergies with Google and that's why we're doing this.

是的，这点挺有意思。

Yeah and interesting.

你刚才说，他们收购时，Nest手上有5100万美元现金？

Did you say $51,000,000 in cash at the company that they acquired?

对，没错。

Yeah, okay.

到那时为止，他们总共融资了大约1.45亿到1.5亿美元，也就是说，他们烧掉了差不多1亿美元在产品上。

So and they had raised at that point about 145,000,000 $150,000,000 So that means they burned roughly $100,000,000 the product.

我们不知道被收购那一刻他们的现金流具体是什么情况，但可以合理推测，他们当时并不盈利，而且现金消耗得相当快。

Now we don't know what their cash flow was like at the moment in time they were acquired, but I think it's safe to assume they were not profitable and burning a lot of cash.

没错。

Right.

对。

Right.

即使像你提到的那样，员工人数相对较少。

Even with the relatively small amount of of employees as as you mentioned.

是的。

Mhmm.

明白了。

Okay.

那是2014年1月。

So that was January 2014.

接下来要说的就不那么乐观了。

Now the bad news starts.

2014年4月，他们不得不暂停销售Nest Protect的第二款产品，也就是烟雾报警器和一氧化碳探测器，因为 apparently 存在一种方式会导致警报意外被关闭。

April 2014, they have to halt sales of the second product of Nest Protect of the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide system because apparently there was a way for the alarm to accidentally be disabled through through

你就干这么一件事

You had one job

就行。

to do.

是的。

Yeah.

要是烟雾报警器不响，那可就太严重了。

And and so it's a it's a pretty bad thing if your smoke alarm doesn't doesn't go off.

所以他们不得不召回所有零售渠道货架上的产品。

So they have to recall all the units that are on the shelves at all their retail partners.

幸运的是，已经安装的设备可以通过无线软件更新来修复。

Fortunately, for units that are already installed, they're able to do an over the air software update.

但这可真不是在被谷歌收购后该有的开局。

But but not a good way to to start under under new ownership of Google.

接下来发生的事，更是从没能保护好客户的家庭开始的。

Then the next thing that happens, to start there with with not protecting your customers' homes.

真恶心。

Ew.

是的。

Yeah.

2014年6月，Nest收购了Dropcam，那是一家非常出色的公司。

In June 2014, Nest acquires Dropcam, which was a very cool company.

他们生产的是无线摄像头，可以随意放在家里的各个角落，所以叫Dropcam。

They made inner WiFi connected cameras that you could drop around your home, hence Dropcam.

据说，谷歌母公司旗下的企业开发部门早就想谈这笔收购，后来干脆把项目转给Nest，说：‘你们来接手吧，我们想买下这家公司。’

And apparently, Google Corp Dev, Google, the parent company, had been pursuing this this deal for a while and then kinda sent it over to Nest and said, hey, we wanna acquire this.

为什么不把这业务并入Nest呢？

Like, why don't we make this part of Nest?

Nest答应了。

And Nest says, okay.

于是他们就把公司收购了。

They acquire it.

从文化角度来看，这简直是一场灾难。

And it's basically a complete disaster from a cultural standpoint.

那创始人不是立刻就走了吗？

So Didn't the founder leave, like, immediately?

倒也不是立刻，但事情还远不止这么简单。

Well, not immediately, but there's even more drama than that.

Dropcam的创始人格雷格·达菲，以前在Zobny工作过，那是‘inbox’倒过来拼的。

So so Dropcam, the founder Greg Duffy, he had worked for Zobny, which is inbox backwards.

那是Y Combinator最早期的公司之一，属于第一批孵化项目。

That was one of Y Combinator's first companies, in one of the first batches of YC.

这个事当时还挺有名的。

And that was, like, reported.

对吧？

Right?

就是个类似Gmail插件的客户关系管理工具？

Like, it was, like, a Gmail plug in CRM type thing?

是的。

Yeah.

它就像是一个

It was like a

我觉得是

I think it

一个Outlook插件，没错。

was like an Outlook Yeah.

CRM插件。

Plugin CRM.

我还真把它和Plaxo搞混了，那家公司也做类似的东西，是肖恩·帕克在创办Facebook之前创立的。

And I actually got it confused with Plaxo, which was trying to do the same thing, which was Sean Parker's startup after Facebook.

或者说是Facebook之前。

Or no, before Facebook.

总之，

Anyway,

所以这可以说是

so that's kind

Dropcam创始人格雷格·达菲的背景——刚毕业就加入了YC首批孵化的公司。

of the DNA that that Greg Duffy, the founder of Dropcam came from was like right out of school, joins this YC company in the first batch.

他在那儿待了两年。

He's there for two years.

然后他创办了Dropcam。

He starts Dropcam.

Dropcam的很多员工后来都去了硅谷的其他初创公司。

A lot of the folks at Dropcam would then go on to like plenty other, like, you know, new startups in the Valley afterwards.

所以那是个挺年轻的、拼劲十足的小团队。

So it's it's kind of a young, like, you know, scrappy team.

跟托尼和马特带进Nest的苹果式风格完全不同。

Super different from, like, the Apple DNA that, Tony and Matt are bringing to, are bringing to Nest.

所以基本上什么都没发生。

So basically nothing happens.

他们有一份路线图，接下来Nest正在开发的主要产品是一款安防产品，比如家用报警系统。

They had this road map, and the next major product that Nest was working on was a security product, like a home alarm system.

Dropcam当时也在做一款安防产品，我记得叫Tabs。

And Dropcam had also been working on a security product, I think called Tabs.

但Nest把Dropcam的项目给停了，那时候他们的产品都快上线了。

But Nest put drop and and that was, like, pretty close to launching.

Nest把Dropcam团队全部调去搞Nest自己的产品，结果项目一拖再拖，迟迟没法发布。一年过去了，Greg Duffy，Dropcam的CEO，特别沮丧。

Nest puts the Dropcam security product on indefinite hold, moves everybody over to working on the Nest product, and it just keeps getting delayed and delayed and delayed and doesn't ship And so, like, a year goes by and and and Greg Duffy, the the DraftKam CEO, he's really frustrated.

他给拉里·佩奇发了一封邮件，说Tony……

He sends a memo to Larry Page saying that Tony

这事儿挺正常的。

always good.

当有人觉得不对劲的时候，直接给CEO发邮件很正常。

When someone feels an e always good.

直接给CEO发邮件。

Email the CEO directly.

直接给首席执行官发邮件。

Email the CEO.

他发了邮件——这事所有细节都有公开记录，后来还被正式报道出来了。

He emails he emails this is all reported on and and then later published.

他给拉里·佩奇发了邮件，核心意思就是，托尼把Nest管理得一塌糊涂。

He emails Larry Page and basically says, Tony is completely mismanaging Nest.

应该把托尼撤掉，由我来接任Nest的首席执行官。

He should be fired, and I should be the CEO of Nest.

我的天呐。

Oh, god.

这种事我们之前也见过啊。

We've seen this story before.

对啊。

Yeah.

而且结果不出所料，对所有人来说都搞砸了，真的。

And it's, predictably does not play well for anybody, really.

首先，关于格雷格。

First of all, Greg.

格雷格一离开公司，拉里就站到了托尼那边。

So Greg, pretty immediately after that leaves the company, Larry Larry sides with Tony.

随着事情越闹越大，格雷格也彻底离开了。

And and as the story gets even worse, so Greg's leaving.

后来托尼接受《信息》杂志采访时，不仅贬低了格雷格，还把整个Dropcam团队都骂了一顿，说他们根本没达到预期水平。

And Tony then is is interviewed in an article by the information, and he bad mouths not just Greg, but the whole Dropcam team and says that they were, quote, not as good as we hoped.

那是个小团队，经验也不足。

It was a small and not very experienced team.

他这下可把他们全给坑了。

So it just completely throws them under the bus.

这事儿真不地道。

Not not not good.

太难看了。

Not pretty.

作为回应，格雷格写了一篇Medium文章，至今还能看到，把之前发给拉里、关于托尼和Nest的所有抱怨都公之于众，还暗示托尼学了史蒂夫·乔布斯的全部脾气——大喊大叫什么的都有，就是没学会人家的产品直觉。

In response, Greg writes a Medium article, which is still out there, basically taking all of his complaints that he emailed Larry about, with Tony and Nest, and publishing them publishing them for the public, and, and implying that, Tony took, you know, essentially all of Steve Jobs' personality traits, the yelling and the screaming without his, you know, product sense.

没错。

That's right.

我记得这事。

I remember that.

是啊。

Yeah.

真是够热闹的。

Fun stuff.

我们这次不是来评判ACQ2的是非对错，但确实闹得够轰动的。

So once again, we're not here to opine one way or another on ACQ2, but certainly made for a lot of drama.

这正是我来这儿的原因。

That's what I'm here for.

我的意思是，没错。

I mean, I Yeah.

你那是你的想法，大卫。

Speak for yourself, David.

所以，本，你之前提到的那些事，就在这个时候，谷歌又发生了一件大事。

So now what you were referring to earlier, Ben, all while this is going on, another big thing happens at Google.

准确说，是两件大事。

Two big things, actually.

首先，他们聘请了露丝·波拉特担任首席财务官。

First, they hire Ruth Porat to join as CFO.

在加入谷歌之前，露丝一直在摩根士丹利担任CFO。

And Ruth had been CFO of Morgan Stanley before coming to Google.

露丝加入的一个关键原因，正如大家讨论的那样，也确实体现在实际中，就是为谷歌带来更多的制度化和财务纪律。

And and a big part of Ruth's coming, you know, as was talked about and and I think it's played out in practice is bringing a lot more structure to Google and and particularly financial discipline.

她参与了谷歌重组为字母表公司的整个过程，这件事发生在2015年前后。

So she's part of the whole sort of restructuring of Google into Alphabet, and that happens at towards the 2015.

据说，就在重组发生时，Nest和谷歌之间所有的协议都被重新修订了。

Now apparently when that happens, all of those agreements between Nest and Google got redone.

所以，那五年的缓冲期，还有缺乏财务问责——如果之前真有的话，一旦Nest被拆分出来成为Alphabet旗下独立公司，就彻底不存在了。

So the the five year runway, the lack of financial accountability, If it existed in the first place, it certainly doesn't anymore once Nest gets pushed out as its own independent company under Alphabet.

而且我记得，收购的时候，Nest的管理团队和核心工程师们被给了极其丰厚的留人激励，对吧？

And part of this too, if I recall, that that during the acquisition, there was super super heavy incentives for the management team and key engineers to stay at Nest, right?

他们根本没法套现，完全是现金交易。

Like they I think they couldn't they couldn't sell their no way, was a cash deal.

所以也许他们很长一段时间都没拿到谷歌的股票奖励之类的。

So maybe they just didn't get Google stock awards or something for an extended period of time.

也可能是被设了托管安排。

Or it could have been escrowed.

但话说回来，我记得那个留人期限确实长得不正常。

But yeah, do remember, you know, there was it was an abnormal sort of abnormally long retention period.

我猜情况确实如此，因为之后开始出现一些奇怪的举动。

And I suspect that is definitely the case because now some now some just weird behavior starts starts occurring.

到了年底，突然有传言说Alphabet打算把Nest卖了。

So at the very end of the year, there start to be rumors that Alphabet's looking to sell Nest.

Nest 一直没能推出产品。

That Nest hasn't been able to ship products.

他们根本没实现当初的愿景，也就是谷歌和字母公司真正关心的——智能家居的操作系统。

They're not realizing their vision of, you know, what Google and Alphabet really care about, which is like the operating system for the connected home.

当然，托尼对此非常不满。

And and and Tony, of course, is really unhappy about this.

但不知什么原因，也许是出于留任的考虑，他还是留在了谷歌。

But for whatever reason, maybe retention reasons, he stays at he stays at Google.

他还开始参与谷歌眼镜团队的工作，试图把眼镜改得不那么土气。

He starts also working on the Google Glass team on on redoing Google Glass to be, know, less dorky.

他就是冲着那笔奖金来的，得把两年任期撑完才行。

Literally looking to maintain the same w two so he gets whatever bonus needs to happen.

这话是你自己说的，可不是我说的。

You said it, not me.

他们为了卖掉 Nest 还真下了功夫，内部项目代号都起了个叫‘阿马尔菲’的名字。

And they also they got so serious into trying to sell Nest, it had like a project code name called Amalfi.

项目代号Amalfi。

Project Amalfi.

有意思。

Interesting.

我之前没听说过这事。

I didn't see that.

但也没找到买家。

And failed to find a buyer though.

是啊。

Yeah.

天哪。

Wow.

到了2016年5月，事情彻底爆发了——一名Nest员工向国家劳动关系委员会投诉，称自己因为在Facebook上公开吐槽Nest的管理问题，被Alphabet和Nest解雇了。

And and then then the the icing on the cake, the kinda last straw on the on the camel's back here is in May 2016, a Nest employee files a complaint against Google with the National Labor Relations Board saying that that Alphabet and Nest fired him, because he was posting on Facebook about all the leadership issues at Nest.

这下可彻底炸锅了。

So it's just a firestorm.

到了次月，2016年6月，托尼终于离开了Nest。

And then the next month in June 2016, Tony finally leaves Nest.

从那以后，你说这些问题是出在托尼身上，还是谷歌身上，或者格雷格和Dropcam那儿？责任其实大家都有份。

And and and since then, you know, whether all of these problems were on Tony, on Google, on Greg and Dropcam, who is probably some responsible responsibility is shared amongst all of them.

不过，Nest的情况后来总算开始好转了。

But things do start to turn around at Nest.

于是他们请来了一位新CEO，马万·法尔瓦兹，接替托尼的位置。

So so they bring on a new CEO, Marwan Farwaz, to to replace Tony.

马万最初来自有线电视行业，后来在摩托罗拉工作过，那时候谷歌还拥有摩托罗拉——还记得我们之前讲过的HTC和安卓那段吧。

And Marwan came actually first from the cable industry, but then he was part of Motorola and part of Motorola when Google owned Motorola, flashing back to our HTC episode and Android and everything here.

他在摩托罗拉负责机顶盒和电缆调制解调器的业务。

And he was part of the division that made set top boxes and cable modems within Motorola.

他当时和里克·奥斯特洛共事过，里克那时是摩托罗拉的负责人，现在又回到谷歌，担任硬件业务的高级副总裁。

And so he worked with Rick Osterlow, who was head of motor head of Motorola under Google, now has come back and is Google's SVP of hardware.

所以他们俩早就有合作基础。

So they have a working relationship.

而他一加入之后，局面就开始有了更多进展。

And and once once he joins, things start to move a little farther.

首先发生了一件大事，我们之后在科技专题里肯定会提到：谷歌在2016年底推出了Google Home，用来对标亚马逊的Echo和Alexa。

So so first big thing that happens, which we're definitely gonna talk about in tech themes, Google itself launches Google Home in late twenty sixteen, which is their Echo Amazon Echo and Alexa competitor.

有意思的是，这个项目和Nest完全是独立的。

Now interestingly, totally separate from Nest.

当初是谷歌自己的硬件部门负责研发的，和Nest没关系。

So it was Google, Google's hardware division that worked on that, not Nest.

后来有些博客文章想给这段历史改点说法，翻来覆去只会提什么双方的基因共通、合作无间，说什么离了彼此就做不成这些事。

Which when you you start reading blog posts that are trying to, like, rewrite history a little bit, they talk a lot about the sort of the shared DNA and collaboration and how we couldn't have done it without working together.

而且我觉得，时间久了之后，两边才真的整合得越来越深入。

And, I think over time, they became much more integrated.

但当初谷歌发布Google Home的时候，这款产品跟Nest完全没关系，那时候的情况确实挺奇怪的。

But, yeah, certainly certainly, was a little odd when Google Home got announced it had nothing to do with Nest.

对。

Yeah.

对。

Yeah.

但与此同时，Nest终于推出了新款摄像头产品——Nest Cam Outdoor，算是新版Dropcam。

But in the meantime, Nest so Nest finally ships a new camera, new drop cam product, Nest Cam Outdoor.

然后他们紧接着推出了Nest Cam IQ，这款产品其实开始运用了谷歌的一些技术专长。

And then they followed that up with Nest Cam IQ, which is actually uses starting to use some of Google's expertise here.

他们用机器学习技术来识别摄像头画面中的人脸。

They use machine learning to recognize faces in the drop cam.

至于安全功能，它能识别出出入家里的人是不是有权限进入的。

So for security features, you can tell if it's someone who's supposed to be in your house or not supposed to be in your house.

去年年底，他们推出了一款更便宜的恒温器，好像叫Nest E，也就是恒温器E之类的名字。

Late last year, they launched a lower a lower priced version of the thermostat, I think called the the Nest E, Thermostat E or something like that.

经历了多次延期之后，他们终于推出了Nest Secure安防系统，同时还推出了Nest Hello，这是一款智能门铃摄像头，和Ring的门铃有点像。

And then they also finally launched the security product Nest Secure after a bunch of bunch of delays, along with Nest Hello, which is a smart, doorbell camera, sort of like the Ring doorbell.

所有这些产品差不多都是同期推出的。

And then all of that happens Sort of like.

有点儿像是。

Sort of sort of like.

受……启发。

Inspired by.

是的。

Yeah.

所有这些事情都发生了。

All of that happens.

我们一开始提到过，Matt在卡内基梅隆大学的导师杨子·松本，当时正是这场风波刚开始时的科技副总裁，她在2015年离开了Nest，去了苹果，真是没想到。

We we mentioned at the beginning of the this whole history, Matt's thesis advisor at CMU, Yoki Matsuoka, who was the VP of technology, when all of this drama, really started going down, she actually left Nest in 2015, and she went to Apple, of all places.

然后到了2017年，她又离开苹果，重返Nest，担任首席技术官，就在他们推出新版智能摄像头之前。

And then and then in 2017, she left Apple, came back to Nest, rejoined Nest as CTO in 2017, right before they launched the ML, version of the camera.

现在她再次担任Nest的首席技术官。

And now she's Nest CTO again.

天啊。

Wow.

天呐，这里面的人员流转和资源博弈也太精彩了。

Man, the the horse trading here is pretty amazing.

感觉不管是谁，多多少少都在苹果和谷歌待过一遍。

Everybody cycles through Apple and Google in some way.

确实是这样，还有General Magic那边的人也是如此。

In some way, and General Magic.

对。

Yeah.

那我先花点时间聊聊这段时间里Nest的各项财务数据，说说它现在的运营状况，还有2014年之后它的发展情况

Let me take a minute here to talk about some of the financial numbers that evolved throughout this time and sort of how is Nest doing today and how did it, you know, how was it doing sort of from 2014 on.

要拿到精确数据其实挺难的，不过之前有过一些消息泄露，所以我们能了解到部分情况

You know, it's difficult to know exactly, there's some leaks that have happened, so we know those things.

另外我们也能通过谷歌其他投资板块里占比不小的Nest营收，来推断出不少信息

There's things we can infer by, looking at the large percentage of Google's other bets category, which come from Nest revenue.

那接下来我们就具体聊聊这些内容

And so let's let's dive into those a little bit.

我之前提到过，Nest原本要达成一个年度营收目标，是3亿美元。

So I mentioned there was a mark that Nest was supposed to hit that was $300,000,000 a year in revenue.

2015年他们真的做到了——根据部门内部泄露的消息，当年他们总营收达3.4亿美元，这个数字已经包含了Dropcam的收入在内。

In 2015, they did hit that, they had $340,000,000 in revenue as reported by a leak out of the division, and that includes the Dropcam revenue.

之前很多人都猜，单靠Nest自己肯定完不成这个目标，正是收购了Dropcam才帮他们补上了缺口，顺利达标。

So a lot of people were speculating they probably weren't going to hit that alone, but having Dropcam helped them sort of bolster and hit that goal.

不过这个部门的运营成本很高，而且一直都是独立运作的，内部还一直矛盾不断。所以到2016年的时候，他们就考虑过要卖掉公司，但最后没能成行。

You know, things, it was an expensive division to run, it stayed very separately, they've got all this turmoil, so you know in 2016 they were looking to explore a sale, it didn't happen.

那好，我们来看看2016到2017年间，谷歌的其他投资板块到底发生了什么。

So okay, let's look at what in twenty sixteen-twenty seventeen, what actually happened in the other bets category.

2017年的前九个月，这个板块的表现相当不错。

So for the first nine months of 2017, it did quite well.

收入增长了45%，其他投资业务的营收达到7.94亿美元，按照这个节奏，2017年全年很有希望突破10亿美元大关。

The revenues grew by 45% and other bets up to $794,000,000 and are exceed and and were on pace to exceed a billion in 2017.

基本上可以肯定，当时确实实现了这个目标。

It's pretty fair to assume that happened.