第19集 - 深入探讨新闻与媒体行业的公司风险投资

我们的第二笔投资投给了两位女性创始人，一家名为Priory的公司，他们拥有出色的法律科技，能够实现法律领域RFP流程的自动化——具体来说，他们的大客户包括谷歌等企业，这些客户通过他们的技术寻找最优质的法律援助。这两位创始人非常优秀，更难得的是她们会主动帮助其他女性创业者。我认为这种导师制度、见证女性创业者成功案例的机会，以及让她们相互结识并传递互助精神的做法，确实非常重要。

Our second investment was in female founders to two women, a company called Priory that has amazing legal tech that allows, you know, kind of an automation of the RFP process, if you will, in legal, but very specific. I mean, they have big customers like Google and others that, you know, use the tech to find the best legal help they can. And they're amazing founders. And what's great about them is they will help any other female founder, right? So I do think that mentorship and the ability to see success in in female founders, and then allowing them to meet, meet others and spread the spread the love, if you will, is, is really important.

我认为她们做得非常出色。我们投资越多，成功案例就越多，相关媒体报道也会随之增加，这样整个生态就会越来越好。

And I think they do a great job of it. And the more we invest in the more success we have, and the more press that comes out on that success, you know, the better off we'll be.

深度访谈科技领域最具影响力的创新领袖，独家解读全球主要及新兴生态系统的数据与洞察，追踪全球最前沿的科技与开放创新动态——以上精彩内容尽在每期《开放创新对话》。欢迎收听。

In-depth interviews with the most influential innovation executives of the tech arena. Exclusive data and insights on major and emerging ecosystems all around the world. The hottest news on technology and open innovation at a global level. This and much more in every new episode. Welcome to Open Innovation Talks.

关注桥梁，对话行业领袖。

Mind the bridge, chat with industry leaders.

大家早上好，这里是旧金山。我是Mind the Bridge的Marco Maranucci。今天我们迎来新一期《Mind the Chat》对话节目，将再次探讨企业风险投资话题。非常荣幸邀请到汤森路透风投董事总经理Tamara Stephens做客。Tamara你好！

Good morning again from San Francisco today. This is Marco Maranucci from Mind the Bridge. We have a new conversation here, new Mind the Chat. Today we're going to talk again about corporate venture capital, and we have a pleasure to have with us Tamara Stephens, the managing director of Thomson Reuters Ventures. Hi, Tamara.

嗨Marco，最近怎么样？

Hey, Marco. How are you?

很好很好，很高兴见到你。你现在应该不在本地吧？我们可以先聊聊工作地点和现状，不过今天重点还是讨论企业风投的整体格局——作为汤森路透风投这家相对新兴CVC的掌舵人，不如就从这个话题开始？

Good, good and good to meet you. Good to see you. I think you are not local, at least not now, so we can start talking about kind of locations and current jobs. But the focus of today is the macro focus on where the corporate venture capitals today are working on and you are the managing director of a relatively new CVC, Thomson Reuters Ventures. So why don't we talk about it?

我们先从现状开始谈吧？请简单介绍一下基金成立时的投资重点和预期目标，然后我们可以回溯一下，聊聊是什么促成了这个决策。

Let's start about the presence, right? So give us a little bit of a quick introduction of the focus of the fund when it was created and what are the expectations, and then we can track back a little bit and talk about what took you there.

好的。我们大约在一年半前成立了这只基金，准确来说现在已超过这个时间——2024年2月1日就满两年了。

Sure. Yeah. So we started the fund about a year and a half ago. So I'm a little more than that now, I guess February 1 will be two years. 02/01/2024 will be two years.

我们在2021年12月宣布成立基金，2022年3月完成首笔投资。这是只标准风险投资基金，我们为其配置了1亿美元资金。某种程度上我们认为它具有永续性，因为我们通过资产负债表进行投资。当然，我们会保留足够资金用于跟投和其他投资。汤森路透是家历史悠久的公司，但高度专注于税务法律领域，以及我更倾向于称之为风险与欺诈的大范畴。此外我们当然还拥有路透社这个媒体分支。

We announced the fund in December 2021, and then did our first investment in March 2022. So standard venture fund where we've allocated $100,000,000 to the fund, We do consider it slightly evergreen in the sense that we invest off the balance sheet. So we'll certainly, you know, have enough for pro rata and other investments, as you will. Choms and Reuters is a very old company, but super focused in tax legal, and what I like to call a bigger bucket of risk and fraud. And then of course, we have Reuters, right, which is our media arm.

虽然这部分业务占比确实较小，但对我们的品牌建设和长期战略至关重要。它是汤森路透非常重要的组成部分。但我们主要聚焦于科技和软件投资、B2B SaaS，以及市场上与我们业务相关的领域。我们会评估大量我们认为可以合作或能与我们现有优势形成协同的科技项目。

It's actually a smaller piece of our business, but really important for our brand, and our strategy long term. So it's a very important part of Thomson Reuters. But we do focus on tech, and software investments, b2b SaaS, and anything adjacent to what we do, in the market. So we look at a lot of tech that we believe be we could partner with or be adjacent to what we already excel at.

现在或许该聊聊汤森路透的主体业务了。你提到的历史企业实际上——如果我没记错的话——是家加拿大跨国企业对吧？它的发展历程也很有趣。我们可以谈谈公司的主要业务单元构成，顺便探讨下收购行为扮演的角色，因为在众多企业中，汤森路透历史上可是最热衷收购的公司之一。

And that's probably a good time to talk about the business of Thomson Reuters. You mentioned historical corporations is actually, if I remember correctly, that's a Canadian multinational company, right? And it's a very interesting also path of development. So we can talk a little bit about that, so this kind of the subset and the major business units that the corporation has. And then, you know, along those lines would be interesting to know the role of acquisitions because among the different corporates, Thomson Reuters was one of the most acquisitive, historically speaking.

我们可以先讨论这个话题，然后或许可以分析下为什么CBC选择在2020年——准确说是去年，也就是一年半前——启动。让我们先为汤森路透集团的整体架构做个铺垫。

So we can talk a little bit about that and then maybe, you know, discussing why the CBC has been started now, right, in '20 well, last year, say, a year and a half ago, and so the timing of that. So let's give some framework of Thomson Reuters as a corporation first.

没错，我们总部确实设在多伦多，高管团队都在那里办公。但我们的业务分布很广，实际上基金是设在纽约的。

Yeah, so you're absolutely right. We are headquartered in Toronto. And that's where where our exec team sits. But we have a large presence. Our fund is actually based in New York City.

我们在欧洲和东南亚也有大量业务，那里是我们的重点区域。另一个重点则是拉丁美洲，尤其是巴西。作为一家公司，我们非常全球化；作为基金也同样如此。事实上，上周我就在圣保罗考察初创企业，与当地创始人会面——那里是我们增长最快的市场之一，准确来说应该就是当前增长最快的市场。但战略层面您说得很对。

And then we have a large presence in Europe as well, as well as in Southeast Asia, a big focus there. And another big focus in LatAm, particularly in Brazil. So we're very global as a company and also very global as a fund. In fact, last week, I spent the week in Sao Paulo looking at startups, and meeting founders in that market, which is one of our fastest growing markets, just just so happens to be, I think it technically is our fastest growing market. But strategy for us is you're right.

我们确实认为企业创投与并购战略高度契合，我们具有极强的并购意愿。很高兴您注意到这点，这正是我们'以合作伙伴构建战略'的理念体现。我们经常强调这点，昨天发布的财报中，CEO史蒂夫再次重点提及。因此我们将企业创投视为并购的输送管道。

We do believe that corporate venture does align with m and a and we are hugely acquisitive. So good of you to notice that we think that's part of our strategy build by partner. We say it all the time, we released our results yesterday. And our CEO Steve, pushed on those points again. And so we do look at at our CDC as a funnel for m and a.

但需要补充说明的是，我认为我们收购比例不会超过投资组合的10%。我们始终从合作伙伴视角出发，在投资时会考虑：这种合作关系体现在哪里？能否联合开拓市场？我们自身能否应用这项技术？

But I would, I would caveat that with I don't think we would ever acquire, you know, more than say 10% of our portfolio. Now, we are we do it from a partner perspective. So we when we invest, we like to think about where is that partnership? Can we go to market with that startup? Can we use the tech ourselves?

我们近期宣布了对多伦多AI基础设施技术公司Sentinel的投资。简而言之——虽然这个描述不够全面——可以将其视为AI模型的智能编译器。我们TR内部有大量AI模型。

One of our recent investments, which we announced recently was with a Toronto based company called Sentinel that has infrastructure tech for AI. So think of it simplified. I'm not going to do it justice. But think of it as a sophisticated compiler for AI models. We have a ton of AI models internally at TR.

因此在尽职调查阶段，我们实际测试了该软件后才决定投资。我们倾向于通过技术验证和尽职调查，来判断是联合商业化还是自主使用。这两点基本是我们的投资标准，项目不必完全契合现有业务板块，我们更关注具有协同效应或能建立优质合作关系的领域。

So we actually tested the software as part of our diligence, right and then made that investment. So we like to understand the tech and diligence it for either going to market or using it ourselves. So those are kind of our two criteria. It doesn't have to fit exactly into any of our buckets, if you will, of things we already do. We tend to look at things that are adjacent or good partnerships for us.

回到新闻资讯领域，众所周知这个行业正在快速变革。互联网的推动力极为迅猛——我曾在谷歌经历长达七年的转型期，亲眼见证数字化力量如何从内到外重塑整个出版业，新闻行业是首批变革的领域之一。我记得路透社有篇报道引用过你们CEO史蒂夫·瓦斯科的话，他说要将公司从新闻资讯提供商转型为所谓的'内容驱动型科技企业'。

And then again, I mean, the world of news and information, we all know, I mean, it's been changing very fast. I mean, it's started changing for, you know, quite some time. The Internet had an extremely fast push there. In fact, I spent a good seven years at Google in that very transformative process, right, where the really the kind of the power of digitalization was really transformed from inside out the whole world of publishing industry and news, you know, as one of the first ones. And I think I'm quoting here your your from an article from Reuters, your your CEO, Steve Vasker, saying that he wants to transform from the provider of news and information to professional into what he calls a content driven technology business.

显然过去几年出现了明确的重心调整。我认为企业创投现在正是实现这种转型的多种工具之一，这个假设是否成立？

So there's definitely, in the last few years, a clear refocus on prioritization. And I believe that, you know, and then we're coming to the CVC. CVC is probably now one of the multiple bullets in the toolkits in versus I mean, to achieve that transformation. That is that a good assumption?

是的，完全同意你的观点，Marco。仔细想想，我们本质上是一家以内容驱动的科技公司，这正体现了我们业务的核心，对吧？路透社的媒体业务显然规模庞大、声誉卓著，是一家以事实为基础的知名机构。但我们在法律、税务以及我常说的风险与欺诈领域也拥有海量内容。如果审视我们的业务范畴，我们在这些领域都拥有产品解决方案和技术方案，包括媒体领域。

Yeah, completely agree with you, Marco. You know, if I think about it, we're really a content driven tech company, you know, at the heart of what we do, right? So Reuters, obviously, the media side is huge, well known, very reputable fact based organization. But we also have an enormous amount of content in legal, in tax, and what I the bucket I like to refer to as risk and fraud. So if you think about what we do, we have products and solutions, technical solutions, in each of those categories, including media.

因此我坚信我们确实是一家以内容驱动的科技公司，我们持续寻找与之契合并能将现有解决方案融入我们已进入市场的技术。

So I believe we really are a content driven technology company, and we're constantly looking for tech that will align with that and align with those solutions into the markets that we are already in.

回到整合和CVC的议题上，或许你能解释一下内部如何整合业务部门提供的信息输入，或者说汤姆森路透总部与你们最终投资决策之间的信息流？正如你所说，你们进行表外投资和Evergreen投资。我认为你们的战略中整合非常紧密，这种整合机制有多正式？你们如何系统性地获取业务部门的反馈循环？

So back to the integration and the reasons for the CVC, maybe it can be helpful if you can explain how you internally integrate some of the inputs that are coming from the business units or really the flow of information that comes from the headquarters of Thomson Reuters versus then what you eventually decide to do as an investment, right? So you you're investing, as you said, off balance sheet and in Evergreen. So, I mean, there is a I believe that, you know, it's pretty tight integration, right, in in your in your strategy there. How formal is that integration? So how formally can you get a feedback loop from your business units?

是的。幸运的是，我们在设立基金时就决定赋予其高度自主权。因此就引入的技术而言，风险投资基金本身通常起主导作用。我们的业务部门、产品负责人和工程负责人实际上都参与尽职调查团队。

Yeah. Well, fortunately, when we decided to set the fund up, we did set it up as being very autonomous. So the fund itself, the venture fund tends to lead as far as the technology that we bring in. And our business units, our head of product, head of engineering, really is part of the team for diligence. Right?

我们会先论证是否应该投资某个领域或资产，然后组建团队协助尽职调查——和其他风投基金的标准流程一样。但在决策过程中我们保持高度自主和独立，并不需要业务部门的正式批准。不过话说回来，如果投资后我们无法为创始人或初创企业提供帮助，那这种投资就毫无意义。

So we'll do the work around saying, we think we should invest in this category or this asset. And then we'll pull a team together to help us with the diligence, very standard diligence like any venture fund would do. But we are pretty autonomous and independent in the decision making process. So we're not really looking for approval from the business unit per se. That said, it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to go invest in something where we can't help that founder, we can't help that startup.

我们需要的支持必须来自一线组织、市场推广团队，以及产品团队——他们得认同这是个好项目，并清楚如何整合或联合推广。因此我们在评估时始终考虑这个维度。但我们的流程最长四到六周，必要时还能更快，正是由于自主性使我们能像标准基金一样运作。

And the help I need to offer, it's got to come from my field organization, my go to market team, it's got to come from the product team that would say, this is a great idea, and we know how we can integrate it, or we know we could go to market together with them. So when we're looking at it, we're always thinking about that angle. But our process is four to six weeks max, and we can go faster than that if we need to. Because we are autonomous. So we're set up like a standard fund.

我们能快速做出决策，同时拥有工程和产品团队的优势，他们能从尽调角度迅速评估项目。这真正实现了两全其美：既有懂市场和产品的技术专家协助，又有专注于财务分析和投资决策的专业团队。

So we make decisions very quickly. But we have the advantage of an engineering and a product team that can really help us quickly look at it from a diligence perspective. So it's really the best of both worlds, right? I've got super technical people that understand the market and the products, they'll help me. And I've got my own team, which is really looking at the financial aspect of it, and why we would make that investment.

我的意思是，我认为这也是你们价值主张的一部分——当你们向现有投资组合公司或潜在投资组合公司推介时，能够让他们在未来将产品接入你们公司的网络资源，无论是直接还是间接方式。对吧？这部分是否包含在价值主张中？

And, I mean, I assume that also as part of your value proposition, now when you are pitching or, I mean, when you try to share the value proposition for portfolio your companies or prospective portfolio companies, also the ability then down the line to plug some of their products in some of the network that your company has, either directly, indirectly. Right? Is that part of the value there?

完全正确。我举个实例会更容易理解——今年初夏我们投资了一家公司叫Neo Tax（已公开披露不算秘密），他们主要用AI技术处理研发税收抵免业务。

Absolutely. I'll give an example because it's easy to understand when I use an actual example. We invested in a company, earlier this summer, that it the name of it, it's called Neo tax. It's been announced, so it's not a big surprise. But they basically do AI tax for research and development credits, right?

这个领域相当复杂，需要对接企业所有系统。目前企业只能依靠四大会计师事务所进行人工审计，逐个访谈工程师和产品人员来核算研发投入时间（这些事务所也是我们客户）。而这家公司通过AI对接工程系统，能精准计算出可申请的抵免额度。要知道，我们本就与这些大企业的税务负责人保持联系。

It's pretty complex, it ties into all of your systems. Today, happens is you have to have, you know, KPMG or Deloitte, any of those great big firms, because they're all our customers as well, go in and do an audit and talk to each of the engineers and the product people and try to understand how much time they're spending on r and d to determine how much you can apply toward this said tax credit. This company uses AI and ties into all of your engineering systems and comes out with a very exact calculation. Well, we're already calling on the head of tax right in all of these big corporates, right? That's something we do.

我们现在就向他们销售税务软件。比如问：'贵司在研发抵免方面有困难吗？想简化流程吗？我们刚投资了一家运用AI解决该问题的优秀初创企业。' 这简直是天作之合。

We sell them their tax software today. So, you know, are you having an issue with research and development tax credit? Would you like to simplify that? We have a partnership, we just made an investment in a in a great startup that uses AI to apply to this problem. And it's perfect, right?

因为我们的销售团队本来就在推广税务软件，追加这项服务轻而易举。这就是我们眼中的优质合作——水到渠成。类似案例还有很多，比如我们投资的YC孵化项目Truwind，它是面向中小企业的AI记账软件。

Because it's easy for our salespeople who are already in the market selling tax software to add something to that. So that's what we consider a great partnership, it just makes perfect sense. And we have many of those as well. There was a company we invested in, out of Y Combinator called Truwind. And it really is, you know, AI based bookkeeping software for SMB for small business, mid market.

而我们在巴西中小企业会计软件市场占据主导地位，拥有300万企业用户。Truwind的AI技术能完美嵌入我们的解决方案，让我们能为现有海量客户提供新技术。这是真正的双赢。

Well, we own the mid market and small business accounting software in Brazil, right? We have 3,000,000 small businesses that use our technology. Well, true wind has some AI technology that fits perfectly into that solution. So we can plug that into our already, large customer base of 3,000,000 small businesses and offer them, new tech, right? So it's really a win win.

因此我们持续寻找自身欠缺的、能联合推向市场的技术，帮助初创企业实现增长——这对通常处于A轮融资阶段的被投企业尤为宝贵。

So we're always looking for things we don't have that we can go to market with them and help them drive growth and revenue because that's what startups need. And since we usually invest in series A, it's usually pretty valuable to them.

实际上，我有个后续问题。你多次提到你们天生具有全球视野并且专注于早期投资。这意味着涉及大量项目对吧？特别是在多个国家和广阔地区，还有很多工作要做。我想知道，在AI工具加速发展的今天，这是否也帮助了你们在早期产品和公司的发掘、筛选乃至整个资源获取流程中发挥作用？AI在这方面是否提供了助力？

Actually, a follow on question there because you mentioned multiple times that you are very global by nature and you invest early stages. So there's a lot of volumes there, right? So there's a lot of work to be done, in particular for multi countries and areas that are pretty wide. I was wondering if today's with the acceleration of AI tools, is that something that is helping you also in your process in scouting and filtering, really the sourcing of those early stage products and company? Is that something where AI is helping?

我注意到AI显然也是你们的投资重点之一，但你们是否也会‘自食其果’（实际应用自家投资的技术）呢？

I I noticed AI is obviously also one of your focus on investment, but is that do you also eat your own dog food?

确实如此。我们内部同时使用GPT-4和GPT-3.5，也将其整合到解决方案中。团队会用于研究，更重要的是协助撰写投资备忘录等文件。

We do. We absolutely do. We use, GPT, four, GPT 3.5 combination internally, as well as in our in our solution. So, we'll our team will use that for research. And more importantly, you know, we use it to help us write memos, etc.

我们还投资了一家意大利公司contents.com，他们专注营销技术。目前已将其广泛应用于基金内外的营销内容创作。只要能通过AI加速流程——无论是研究还是内容产出——我们都会积极采用。

We also invested in an Italian company that does called contents.com that does marketing based tech, right? So we've already invested in them. And we're using that a lot internally as well for a lot of our marketing content, inside the fund and elsewhere. So yeah, we if we can use AI, and we can speed up the process, both from a research perspective, and from a content perspective, we absolutely will use it. And we do.

这很合理。现在每个流程都越来越多融入AI元素，效率理应不断提升。我想多了解下你的职业路径——你是如何成为风险投资人的？

It makes sense, too. So there's more and more of that in everybody's process, right? Today, efficiency hopefully is improving. I want to talk about a little bit more on your professional path. So you became a venture capitalist.

在此之前，你曾任职微软N12的企业风投部门，但更早之前你还有过多次创业和被收购公司的运营经验。能否分享一下是什么促使你转型做风投？这是早有规划还是机缘巧合？

Before that I mean, right before you were working for the CVC of Microsoft N12, but before that you had a bunch of different operational experiences at startups and companies that got acquired. So maybe drive us through, what what made you become a venture capitalist, and it was that plan from the beginning or it just it just happened?

绝对不是计划内的。我想我只是对创业上瘾了——先后参与六家初创企业，其中两家成功上市，两家被收购，我都深度参与了这些过程。

Yeah. It absolutely was not the plan. I think I'm just addicted to startups. I did six, was able to sell for two of them went public. And I was involved in those as well.

这就是我所了解的领域。微软确实是我的第一份大公司工作，除了研究生时期在纽约的那段日子。毕业后，除了那段经历，我一直都在初创公司工作。我认为进入风投领域是自然而然的选择，因为我非常理解和欣赏创业者，深知创办公司的艰难——从筹集资金到发放工资。我曾在几家初创公司经历过资金紧张的时期，但总能化险为夷，这很棒。我通常担任营收负责人，这个职位压力很大但至关重要。

So it's what I know and what, you know, Microsoft was really my first big corporate job, except for when I was in grad school and living in New York, when I got out of got out of college, but beyond that, I've always been with startups. I, I think falling into VC was a natural fit, because I really appreciate and understand founders and understand how difficult it is to get a company started, what it takes to raise funding what it takes to make payroll. I mean, I definitely was at some startups were different times that was in question, we always seem to pull it out, which is great. I was usually, head of revenue. So that was a pretty, pretty stressful, but important position.

我喜欢这个角色，因为我认为如果有优秀的工程师和产品固然重要，但第二重要的是谁会购买产品。我职业生涯中合作过的同事都知道，我喜欢参与工程环节，喜欢置身于产品开发的核心位置。我享受质检过程，实际上我喜欢亲自使用这些产品。

And I like it because I felt like it was, you know, if you have good engineers and a good product, that's probably the most important thing. But the second most important thing is who's going to buy the product, right? And so having that synergy and I always, in my career, most of most of the guys, gals that I've worked with over the years, they all know I like to sit in engineering, I like to sit in the middle, of where they are putting it together. And I like to QA the products, right? I like to actually use them.

通过理解产品，我能更好地销售它们。我们最后卖给微软的公司叫Compli（更广为人知的名字是Outlook移动版）。那段经历很棒，我很喜欢微软的时光。前四年我为他们做了大量业务拓展工作，后三年则在m12基金任职。

So I understand them. So I can help sell them. But the last company we did sell to Microsoft, it was called a Compli, which you probably it's more commonly known as Outlook mobile. And, you know, it was it was a great run. I loved Microsoft, I thought it was great experience, you know, was able to do a lot of business development for them for the first four years, and then at m twelve for the last three.

两种经历都让我获益良多。大公司资源丰富的感觉很好，但我依然热爱初创企业。进入风投领域后，担任董事、协助创始人寻找营收渠道、对接投资人这些工作都充满乐趣，这是我职业中最热爱的部分。

So a little bit of both, but enjoyed it quite a bit. And it was nice to be in a big company with a lot of resources. I still love startups. So getting into venture was, was it, you know, good for me sitting on boards, working with founders, trying to help them find revenue, find business, find other investors is really fun. I love that part of the job.

说到这个，我想探讨下风投界的细分领域。注意到您曾赞助过女性创业者大赛——如果没记错应该是在微软时期。这个话题确实值得深入讨论。作为女性风投人，您可能属于个位数比例的群体。

And speaking of which, I want to talk about one of the subset of VCs and investors and also the activities. I noticed actually that you were a sponsor of the Female Founders Competition. I think back at Microsoft, if not mistaken. But that's definitely a topic that we would like to address a little bit more explicitly. I mean, being a VC and a woman VC is, you're probably in the single digit.

我们与女性创业者关系密切。事实上，这几周Mind the Bridge正在运行一个面向全球女性CEO的加速计划。坦白说，无论地域差异，这个领域的性别鸿沟依然显著——尤其在风投界，女性比例仍停留在个位数。您对此有何看法？

We're really tight with female entrepreneurs. In fact, you're actually in these weeks at Mind the Bridge, we are running a women CEO acceleration program specifically from different parts of the world. So it's definitely we still have a big gap that it's kind of similar no matter the geography, honestly. I think we're still looking at a single digit, in particular in the VC world. What are your thoughts?

因为这不是个能简单解决的问题。您是如何应对这个过程的？

Because this is a conversation to have with not simple solutions. But how do you live that process?

是啊，你知道，我确实努力往积极方面想。我想起我女儿，她现在26岁了，但在2015年刚上大学时主修工程专业，当时还是男女同校。所以宿舍本该是男女间隔安排的，对吧？但在工程学院，就是边生活边学习，所以你和所有工程师住在一起。

Yeah, you know, I really try to think about the positive there. And I think about my daughter who is 26 now, but when in 2015, when she started undergrad, she was an engineering major, and it was like, co ed. So every other room should have been boy, girl, boy, girl, right? And in the engineering, it's like live and learn. So you live with all the engineers.

我记得当时在想，天啊，这里全是男生对吧？不过那时候工程专业的女生比例已经超过10%了，这很了不起，对吧？我是说，这个比例每年都在提高几个百分点。而且我认为之后还在继续增长。所以我持乐观态度，因为确实有更多女性进入工程领域，并懂得如何创办软件公司。

And I remember thinking, gosh, this is all guys, right? That but but at that point, they had, they were, you know, above 10% of women in engineering, which was significant, right? I mean, they had moved up several percentages each year. And I think that's gone up since. So I look at it as a positive, because I do think more women are getting into engineering and understanding, you know, how to start software companies.

所以我希望未来会更好。从融资和风投角度看这仍是个问题，因为女性创始人获得的资金比例仍然很低。但统计数据不断表明女性CEO和女性创始人的成绩更出色。这些都是事实，对吧？我并不是在贬低任何人，但事实就是如此。

So I hope that the future will be bright. It's still an issue from funding and from a venture perspective, because there's still such a little percentage goes to female founders. Yet, the statistics continue to say that female CEOs and female founders have better results. And those are the facts, right? And I'm not, you know, not not bashing anybody, but those are the facts.

我认为越多人了解女性创始人的成功，媒体报道越多，越多优秀院校毕业的工程师创办公司，情况就会持续改善。我们在M12连续两年举办了女性创始人创业大赛，效果非常好。我们提供了启动资金——去年是和Pivotal、Mayfield合作举办的。

So I think the more people that understand the success of female founders, and the more press that gets out there, and the more engineers that come out of, you know, good schools and start companies, it will continue to improve. We did do a female founders competition two years in a row at m twelve. And it was fantastic, right? We seeded it. So it was with pivotal, with Mayfield that the last year we did it.

我们发现了一些很棒的公司。我一直和她们保持联系，现在都发展得很好。这些都是种子轮投资，属于早期阶段。每家基金给每位获奖者大约50万美元。虽然我们有700名申请者，但最终只选出三四家获胜企业。

And we found some amazing companies. And, you know, I've kept in touch with with them, and they they're all doing well. So, and they were seed, right? So these were early stage, you know, we, each of the, each of the funds gave about a half a million to each of the winners, if you will. But we had 700 applicants, and, you know, narrowed it down to, you know, three or four that won, won the competition.

所以有很多好创意和优秀的公司。我当然随时愿意帮助任何女性创始人寻找资金或提供建议。我经常亲自投资，因为我认为这很重要。而且情况确实在好转，我必须相信这一点。

So, lots of good ideas, lots of great companies. Certainly, I'm always available to help any female founder, try to find funding or give advice if I can. I often invest myself because I think that's really important. And, you know, I think it's getting better. I have to believe that.

我本质上是个乐观主义者。所以我真心希望情况会持续改善。

I'm an optimist at heart. So I'm really hopeful that it will continue to improve.

我也是。我想再次分享，我们决定连续几期全力支持女性创业者的原因之一，就是因为在之前的类似项目中，女性申请者的自然比例实在太低了。但当我们明确转变方向并提出差异化的价值主张——特别是激活了不同的社交网络后，这个项目突然就获得了惊人的反响。我认为创新世界需要更多元化，这绝对是件好事。

I am, too. And I have to share that, again, one of the reasons why we decided to go all in in women only founders for a couple of batches is because for the similar program before, the natural percent of female applicants were so low. And then I think just by turning and becoming explicit and also, I think, a different kind of a value proposition, but in particular activating a different kind of a network. All of a sudden, this program became, as you said, you know, with a fantastic response. And so, you know, this is to for I think just the world of innovation is a positive to have more diversity there.

不知道您是否有具体建议？除了专门设立项目之外，这部分工作应该纳入导师制度还是榜样计划？显然成功案例能发挥巨大作用，但作为市场运营者，您认为我们还应该采取哪些更明确的措施？

I wonder if you have any specific suggestions just having programs that are specifically dedicated to or is that part of the mentorship or is it part of role models? Obviously, that plays a big role of success stories. But what else do you think can be done or we should be doing, the operators of the market, to be a little bit more explicit?

我们的第二笔投资就是投给了女性创始人——两位女性创办的Priory公司。他们拥有出色的法律科技，能实现法律领域RFP流程的自动化。比如他们的大客户谷歌就通过这项技术，为特殊需求寻找最合适的法律支持。毕竟普通律师容易找，但像他们举例的——需要精通路易斯安那州港口进出口法规的专业人士，就必须了解当地市场情况。

Well, I mean, our second investment was in female founders, two women, a company called Priory that has amazing legal tech that allows, you know, kind of an automation of the RFP process, if you will, in legal, but very specific. I mean, they have big customers like Google and others that, you know, use the tech to find the best legal help they can, for very special purposes, right? Because you can get, you know, general purpose lawyers fairly easily, but ones that know, you know, I think one of the examples they gave me was like, legal tech in somebody needed to know what to do with things that were coming in from the Louisiana port. Right? Well, you have to know that market and what comes in and, you know, particularly somebody in region that can help.

他们开发了非常精密的系统来实现企业客户与律师的精准匹配。这两位创始人最可贵的是，她们会主动帮助其他女性创业者。我认为导师制度、见证女性创业者的成功案例，并促成她们之间的交流互助——用她们的话说就是'传递这份善意'——这非常重要，而她们做得非常出色。

So they've really developed a very sophisticated system to, allow corporates and lawyers to be matched, if you will, together. And they're amazing founders. And what's great about them is they will help any other female founder, right? So I do think that mentorship and the ability to see success in in female founders, and then allowing them to meet meet others and, you know, spread the spread the love, if you will, is, is really important. And I think they do a great job of it.

我们投资得越多，成功案例就越多，相关报道也会越多，这样就会形成良性循环。

And the more we invest in, the more success we have, and the more press that comes out on that success, you know, the better off we'll be.

是的，类似变革也应该发生在投资界，而不仅限于创业领域。

Yeah, and probably similar things should happen in the investment world rather than just, you know, the next step to the entrepreneurship.

完全同意。

Yep, agreed.

是的，我们在这方面都持积极态度。我想和你讨论的另一个话题是，考虑到你曾在不同地方生活，但在硅谷度过了相当长的时间，现在你说你回到了纽约，在纽约和达拉斯之间。你知道，人员流动很大。媒体可能夸大了实际数字，但确实有很多创业者和投资者在疫情期间流向多个新兴中心，至少是去尝试，对吧？比如迈阿密、德州的奥斯汀，这是肯定的。

Yes, so we're both positive there. So the other topic I wanted to address with you, knowing that you've been living in different places, but you spent a good amount of time here in Silicon Valley, and now you say you're back to New York, between New York and Dallas. You know, there's been a big flow. Probably the media has actually depicted it as bigger than what the actual numbers are, but there's definitely been that happens both for entrepreneurs and investors, flow during COVID of a lot of different hubs that became cool, at least to be tested, right? Miami, Austin, Texas, for sure.

我是说，纽约本来就是个中心，不需要疫情来证明。但特别是在创业方面，我觉得——我也想听听投资者的观点——很多人之后都回来了，对吧？他们有过不错的体验，测试了市场。

I mean, New York was already a hub. Didn't need COVID for that. But I mean, the feeling here that in particular on the entrepreneurship side, I think, and I want to hear from an investor point of view, but a lot of these people had come back ever since, right? So they had a nice experience. You tested the market.

有意思。让我们回到人口密集的地方，这样有时会有意外之喜。分享一下你的经历吧，尤其是现在基金不在硅谷，而是在德州和纽约之间，但具有全球视野的情况下，你觉得地理位置是否还重要。

Cute. Let's go back where there's a lot of density, so things just happen sometimes by Serendipity. Tell me your your experience, and in particular now that the fund is not, is not in Silicon Valley, but is between Texas and and and New York, but with a global view, if that if if if the location matters at all.

我认为确实有点影响。我们团队大部分人在纽约，只有我不是，下周我会在纽约待一整周，我经常去那里。因为我们关注很多金融科技领域，纽约恰好是个好地方，方便我们与许多金融科技创始人交流。当然，硅谷依然充满魔力——看看那里有多少顶尖大学，对吧？

I think it does a little. We most of our team, I'm the only one that's not based in New York, and I'll be in New York all next week, I spend a lot of time there. We're because we look at a lot of FinTech, New York happens to be a good place for us to talk to a lot of founders in FinTech. And I do, you know, I think Silicon Valley is still magical. I mean, look at the universities you have there, right?

有伯克利、斯坦福、加州理工等等，这些学校培养了大量优秀创始人。这很有帮助。但东海岸也不差，波士顿有哈佛、MIT，还有卡内基梅隆等技术强校。所以我觉得地理位置越来越不重要，人们已经证明在其他地方也能成功。

You have Berkeley, you have Stanford, Caltech, you know, you, you know, you have a lot of, of good universities that that tend to have a lot of great founders, right? So I think that helps. But you know, on the East Coast, there's plenty of good as well, right? You know, in Boston, you know, you still still have a lot of folks coming out of Harvard, MIT, and a bunch of others Carnegie Mellon, from a tech perspective. So, you know, I think it matters less, I think people have proved you can do the job in other locations.

当我们聚在一起评估公司，创始人能来办公室面谈时感觉很好。我们不再完全依赖Zoom或Teams，而是尽量线下见面。但混合模式确实有效，我们公司就是这么运作的。

It is nice when we're together and we're looking at companies and founders can come to our office and we can meet them. We don't do everything over zoom or over teams anymore. We tend to try to do things in perk, in person. But I do think hybrid works. I mean, that's what we're doing as a company.

目前看来效果不错。不过不可否认，硅谷和纽约确实有独特魔力，这是两个重要中心。我在奥斯汀也有投资，那里同样有些很棒的公司。

It seems to be working pretty well so far. But, you know, it's hard to say that there's not magic in Silicon Valley and and New York, right? Those are two great hubs. I've made investments in Austin, too. And I think there's some great companies down there as well.

但我认为大家分散在各处。我不确定是否完全同意这一点。

But I think just everybody being spread out all over the place. I don't know if I completely agree with that.

是的，是的。我是说，我们正在实践中学习。Zoom技术曾引发一场重大变革，但现在我认为重点回到了什么真正适合我的业务。所以很难找到对所有人都适用的解决方案。听着，我就把初创企业的选择权留给你了。

Yeah, yeah. And it's I mean, we're learning by doing right. It was a big revolution of the zoom, the zoom revolution that then I think now is back to, okay, what actually works for my business? So it's very hard to have solutions that work for everybody. Listen, I will leave it with just your call for startups.

那么，你想了解哪些初创企业？来自哪些领域？与你联系的最佳方式是什么？

So if and which startups you would like to hear and from where? So what's the best way to get in touch with you?

是的。正如我之前所说，Marco，我们关注法律税务、风险与欺诈以及媒体科技领域。任何这些类别或与之相邻的领域，尤其是应用人工智能的项目。我们非常期待与你见面。你可以通过LinkedIn联系我——Tamara Stephens，我的Twitter账号是@TamaraStephens。

Yeah. As I said earlier, Marco, we love legal tax, risk and fraud and media tech. Anything in those categories are adjacent to those, particularly that apply AI. We'd love we'd love to meet you. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Tamara Stephens, and my Twitter is at Tamara Stephens.

我的邮箱是tamara.stephanstr@com。任何这些联系方式都很棒。我期待听到任何寻求融资的优秀初创企业的消息。

And my email is just Tamara dot stephanstr dot com. So any of those ways would be awesome. I'd love to hear from anybody who has a great startup that's looking for funding.

太好了。听着，Tamara，和你交谈很愉快，祝基金一切顺利。希望我们很快能线下见面。

There you go. Perfect. Listen, Tamara, great talking to you and all the best with the fund. So hopefully we're going to see you in person actually sometime.

是的，希望如此。谢谢你，Marco。

Yes, hopefully. Thank you, Marco.

谢谢。再见。

Thank you. Bye.

感谢您今天与我们共度时光，我们下期《开放创新对话：Mind the Bridge与行业领袖访谈》节目再见。

Thank you for being with us today and see you in the next episode of Open Innovation Talks Mind the Bridge Chat with Industry Leaders.