微软与 YC 合作，向创业者提供免费 Azure 服务
Y Combinator 和微软在本周 公布 了一项合作计划，微软将会为参加 Y Combinator 本期孵化项目的创业公司免费提供 Azure 云端计算平台服务。
根据这份合作协议，微软会为这些创业公司提供价值 50 万美元的 Azure 云端服务和 Office 365 生产力套装的 3 年免费使用权限。50 万美元的 Azure 使用权对微软来说只是九牛一毛，但是对于参加 Y Combinator 的新生公司来说，这已经很大的一笔资金，而且能够帮助它们在孵化项目中更好地成长。所以这是一项意义重大的援助。
微软也有通过自己的 Microsoft Ventures 团队在世界各地开展 多个创业孵化项目 ，例如以色列。这个团队是在以前的 Bing Fund 整合了微软的创业孵化项目之后成立的。而 Bing Fund 现在的项目现在已经逐渐关闭了。Microsoft Ventures 的 前任 导师拉胡尔·苏德（Rahul Sood）在 Twitter 上向我表示，微软实际上已经“ 停止了这个基金的运作 ”。我向微软打过多次电话，请求对方就 Microsoft Ventures 目前的创业投资情况作出官方的说明。
（更新：在与微软的发言人交流过之后，了解到自从 Bing Fund 被归入 Microsoft Ventures 之后，它只进行过为数不多的种子投资。这家公司目前没有直接向创业公司进行现金投资。）
Y Combinator 向本期的创业公司发送了一条备忘录，其中对 Azure 进行了如下的描述：
Azure让每家创业公司都可以为自己的业务使用正确的技术——包括 Linux 和 OSS 、Node.js、PHP、Python、.NET等。此外，Azure 还拥有强大的平台即服务（PaaS）功能，例如机器学习和流分析等。
在 Y Combinator 获得的所有云端服务商赞助当中，微软是最为慷慨的一家：亚马逊提供了价值 10 万美元的 AWS 服务（亚马逊在一封邮件中告诉 TechCrunch 这些赞助会向“合资格的孵化器”提供）；Digital Ocean 提供了 10 万美元；Heroku 提供了 5 万美元。微软所提供的服务价值实际上是其他服务商捐赠总价值的两倍。
作为合作协议的一部分，微软还为参加 Y Combinator 的创业者主办了一场为期一天的研讨会，其中包括由两位高管斯蒂夫·古根海默（Steve Guggenheimer）和斯科特·格思里（Scott Guthrie）主持的演示。古根海默在微软内部被称为“Guggs”，他是微软的首席传教士。格思里是 Azure 业务的负责人。
在这项合作公布之初，我跟一位参加本期 Y Combinator 孵化项目的创业者进行了交流。这位创业者对这项援助的评价是“难以置信的慷慨”，他提到他们团队在知道这项合作之前“没有考虑过使用 Azure”，不过在合作细则公布之后，他们就“开始尝试使用它，也许会把它作为唯一的服务。”这位创业者继续表示这项合作协议让他们感到“（微软）非常渴望，也非常努力地为创业公司提供帮助，希望提升自己在创业社区当中的地位。”
这位创业者还开玩笑说他们希望亚马逊也应该加大对创业公司的投入，提供同等水平的免费服务。
微软这样做是想在创业公司当中树立口碑，为它们未来的业务提供帮助。为创业团队提供价值 50 万美元的云端计算服务，这就相当于可以让小型企业可以在短期内减少融资 50 万美元。这样创业公司就可以更有效地使用手上的资金，同时可以延后它们进行估值的时间，从而提升它们得到更高估值的可能性。
在我了解过的硅谷创业公司当中，亚马逊的 AWS 云端平台仍然是他们的首选。这项 Azure 合作协议也许可以稍微提升它在本期 Y Combinator 创业公司中的份额，而且也会影响到以后参加的公司，因为这个项目会持续进行。不知道在本期 Y Combinator 的孵化公司中有多少会选择 Azure 而不是 AWS，又有多少会将这个选择一直保留到孵化完成之后。
Microsoft Wants To Buy Love In Silicon Valley
Y Combinator and Microsoft announced a program this week that will pour free access to the Azure cloud computing platform onto the incubator’s current class of startups.
The deal includes $500,000 in credits to Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure, and three years of access to its Office 365 suite of productivity tools. Half a million worth of Azure usage is nothing to Microsoft, but for young companies that are part of Y Combinator, the sum is a multiple of the cash that they receive to help build their firms as part of the program. That makes it a materially interesting offer.
Microsoft also runs a number of accelerators of its own around the world in places like Israel under its Microsoft Ventures team. That group was formed when disparate accelerator work was unified with what was formerly the Bing Fund. The latter effort appears to be either on the wane, or over. Former Microsoft Ventures don Rahul Sood told me on Twitter that Microsoft had indeed “stopped the fund.” I have a few calls into Microsoft requesting a formal explanation how, if at all, Microsoft Ventures is currently involved in actively investing cash into startups.
(Update: Chatted about this with a spokesperson, and after the Bing Fund was subsumed into Microsoft Ventures, a few more seed investments were made, but not many. The company is not currently making direct cash investments into startups.)
Here’s how Y Combinator described Azure in a memo sent out to companies in the current class:
Azure enables each startup to use the right technologies for their business – including Linux & OSS, Node.js, PHP, Python, .NET, etc. In addition, Azure provides powerful PaaS capabilities, like machine learning, stream analytics and more.
The Azure deal stands apart from the other offers that Y Combinator companies receive from different cloud providers: $100,000 in AWS credits from Amazon (Amazon told TechCrunch in an email that that offer is open to “qualified accelerators”), $10,000 from Digital Ocean, and $50,000 from Heroku. Microsoft is essentially offering double what those providers offer in aggregate.
As part of the deal, Microsoft hosted a day-long session for Y Combinator founders that included presentations from two of its executives: Steve Guggenheimer and Scott Guthrie. Guggenheimer, known as Guggs at Microsoft, is the company’s chief evangelist. Guthrie runs Azure.
I spoke to a current Y Combinator founder about the deal in the wake of its release. The founder called the offer “shockingly good,” noting that before the deal was announced, their team “wasn’t considering using Azure,” but following the terms’ release, are “exploring using it, possibly exclusively.” The founder continued, noting that the agreement gives them the “that [Microsoft] is hungry and that they are trying hard to be relevant and helpful to the startup community.”
The same founder went on to muse that they hope that Amazon ups its own commitment to startups by providing similar quantities free service.
Microsoft is making a play for the hearts, minds, and future business of startups. Give a team half a million in cloud computing, and that is a half million that the smaller company doesn’t have to raise in the near-term. That allows companies to spend more efficiently, and delay pricing their firms, likely allowing for a higher valuation mark to be set.
Amazon’s AWS cloud platform remains the de facto choice among startup founders that I speak to here in the Valley. The Azure deal may tip the scales slightly among the current Y Combinator class, and those that follow, as the program will recur. It will be interesting to see what percentage of the current Y Combinator class chooses Azure over AWS, and keeps that choice through the end of the period and into their life as a launched company.
来源： techcrunch.cn
GoSquared 推新分析工具 People Analytics，帮助企业更好地了解用户需求
就在 GoSquared 庆祝成立 9 周年之际，这家位于伦敦的“创业公司”推出了其迄今最具雄心的一款产品。GoSquared 由詹姆斯·吉尔（James Gill）、詹姆斯·泰勒（James Taylor）、基奥夫·瓦格斯塔夫（Geoff Wagstaff）在他们 14 岁时创建。
GoSquared 以 实时网页分析产品 著称，竞争对手包括 Chartbeat、Google Analytics 以及实时分析领域的其他公司。GoSquared 新产品“People Analytics”旨在解决一个更大的问题，即对传统软件即服务（SaaS）公司存储于多个独立软件上的所有用户数据进行整合，帮助他们更好地了解用户需要。
这些独立软件一般包括内部开发工具、第三方计费系统、桌面支持软件、网页分析工具以及“庞大的”客户关系管理（CRM）系统等，也就是说，若想解决某个客户问题，必须对它们每一个进行单独询问。这种做法不仅费时耗力，还要求员工必须经过一定的培训，才能使用每一个独立软件。
相比之下，PeopleAnalytics 旨在让企业客户可以从单一、直观的界面访问和搜索所有这种“用户级别”数据，最终目标则是让他们可以从“个人”层面与用户建立联系。
GoSquared 联合创始人兼首席执行官詹姆斯·吉尔说：“People Analytics 就是为了将企业所拥有的一切用户数据和信息——当前存在于众多不同工具中的信息——整合到一个地方，供团队里的每一个人轻松搜索、排序和访问。”
“其他工具一直在慢慢瓦解这种创意，也许会向你显示用户的账单历史，或是他们的在线活动，或是支持客户的历史等等。People Analytics 将这块拼图的所有部分都整合在一起，这样，你就有了一个寻找用户信息的明确地方。”
至于这一工具如何在实践中使用，吉尔举了在软件即服务领域支持客户的例子，具体而言，就是向遇到升级问题的客户伸出援手，如果没有 People Analytics，客户必定需要在不同工具上查询信息，如计费系统、内部管理员系统或第三方分析工具。
吉尔解释说：“只要搜索一下客户姓名、电子邮箱地址或用户 ID，你就能获得有关该客户的完整信息，包括他们使用过的设备，之前出现过的错误，以及他们浏览过的页面等等。”
吉尔说，PeopleAnalytics 的另一个潜在用途是产品管理。“通过过滤所有用户的信息，你可以利用 PeopleAnalytics 来解答各类问题，比如‘在所有参与测试的用户当中，有多少激活了 X 功能？’”
这样，产品经理就能知道哪些功能经常被使用，哪些功能很少被使用，因为 People Analytics 会整合单个用户的数据，所以你除了报告数据外，还能对这一数据采取行动，比如将定制产品的电子邮件发送给特定用户。
与此同时，与 GoSquared 庆祝成立 5 周年时的情况不同，23 岁的吉尔称该公司不打算举行派对，会将这种庆祝活动留到公司成立 10 周年庆典上。
GoSquared Launches People Analytics To Help Businesses Get A Better Understanding Of Customers
As GoSquared celebrates its 9th birthday — James Gill, James Taylor and Geoff Wagstaff started the company when they were just 14 — the London-based ‘startup’ is launching its most ambitious product to date.
Best known for its real-time web analytics offering, which competes with Chartbeat, Google Analytics and other companies in the real-time analytics space, GoSquared’s newly released ‘People Analytics’ aims to tackle a potentially bigger problem: namely, consolidating all of the user data a typical SaaS company has stored in multiple and siloed software to help them get a much better understanding of customers.
Those silos typically span internally built tools, third-party billing systems, support desk software, web analytics, and “bulky” CRM systems, meaning that to solve a particular customer’s problem they each need to be interrogated separately. Not only is this time consuming but requires staff to have been trained to use each disparate piece of software.
Instead, People Analytics aims make all of this ‘user
level’ data accessible and searchable from a single and intuitive dashboard, with the ultimate goal to enable businesses to connect with users on a “personal” level.
“People Analytics is about bringing together all the data and information you have on your users – information that currently sits in a handful of different tools – into one place, where it can be searched, queried, and easily accessed by everyone on the team,” explains GoSquared co-founder and CEO James Gill.
“Other tools have been chipping away at this idea, and perhaps show you information about a user’s billing history, or their on-site activity, or their customer support history. People Analytics pieces all of these parts of the jigsaw together so you have one definitive place to look up information on your users.”
As for how this might be utilised in practice, Gill gives the example of customer support in the Software-as-a-Service space, specifically dealing with a customer who is having trouble upgrading, which, without People Analytics, might invariably require looking up information in multiple different tools, such as a billing system, an internal admin system, or third-party analytics tool.
“Just one search for the name, email address or User ID will give you back a full profile with all the info you need on a specific user, including the device they were on, any errors they triggered, and any pages they viewed before they sent their support ticket,” he explains.
Or another potential use-case, says Gill, is product management. “By filtering your entire user base, you can use People Analytics to answer questions such as ‘out of all our trial users, how many people activated feature X?'”.
This enables product managers to know what features are heavily used (or barely used at all) and, because People Analytics includes data on individual users, you can go beyond reporting and actually take action on that data, such as sending a bespoke email to a specific list of users.
Meanwhile, unlike when GoSquared celebrated its 5th birthday, Gill says the startup isn’t planning a party and instead will wait till it reaches 10. “Boy does time fly,” adds the 23-year-old.
来源：techcrunch.com
硅谷
2015年02月04日
硅谷
企业福利平台 AnyPerk 完成 850 万美元 A 轮融资
许多公司正面临 越来越大的压力 ，需要向员工提供更优厚的福利。至少，科技行业就是如此。不过在很多情况下，创业公司没有能力提供与大公司同等水平的福利。在这种情况下，一家创业公司 AnyPerk 愿意提供帮助。
AnyPerk 开发了一款平台，希望帮助各种规模的公司向员工提供福利和折扣信息。该公司今天宣布，已经完成了 850 万美元的新一轮融资。
AnyPerk 的此次 A 轮融资由 DCM Ventures 领投，Digital Garage 参投。作为交易的一部分，DCM 合伙人本多央辅将加入 AnyPerk 董事会。这使得该公司的融资总额超过了 1300 万美元。
AnyPerk 正在快速发展。该公司首席执行官福山太郎表示，自去年夏季 完成种子轮融资 以来，公司的增长率已经超过了 200%。目前，AnyPerk 在美国拥有“数百家”客户。AnyPerk 于 2012 年 诞生自 创业孵化器 YCombinator，位于旧金山，目前有 45 名员工。
AnyPerk 表示，将使用此轮融资去开发一款移动应用，向公司员工推送具有相关性的福利信息。一般情况下，许多员工可能并不清楚这些信息。例如，作为 AnyPerk 的客户，Lyft 的员工将可以获悉，在前往 AMC Theater 看电影时能获得 40%的折扣。此外，该公司也在测试另一项功能，使企业经理可以直接通过 AnyPerk 平台发放现金或礼品卡福利。
值得指出的一点是，AnyPerk 并不是“福利即平台”领域的唯一一家公司。几年前，一家名为 BetterWorks 的公司凭借类似的理念获得了 1050 万美元的投资，但最终 于 2012 年 5 月关闭 。这样的理念在亚洲更容易获得持续的成功。例如，来自新加坡的 Rewards、来自日本的 Benefit One，以及来自马来西亚的 PerkPool 均为这一行业的知名公司。目前，凭借新一轮融资和更明显的发展势头，AnyPerk 希望成为在美国成功引入这一商业模式的第一家公司。
AnyPerk, A Platform For Delivering Perks To Employees, Raises $8.5M In Series A Funding
In the tech industry at least, it seems like the pressure for companies to provide “perks” to their employees has never been higher. But oftentimes, startups don’t have the ability to provide the same level of perks as larger established corporations do. That’s where AnyPerk, a startup itself, wants to help.
AnyPerk, which makes a platform aimed at letting companies of all sizes deliver perks and discounts to their employees, is announcing today it has raised $8.5 million in new funding.
The funding round, which is AnyPerk’s Series A, was led by led by DCM Ventures with participation from Digital Garage. As part of the funding, DCM partner Osuke Honda will join AnyPerk’s board of directors. This brings the total amount of money invested in AnyPerk to more than $13 million.
The new money comes as AnyPerk is purportedly seeing swift growth: The company’s CEO Taro Fukuyama says they’ve grown by more than 200 percent since their seed round closed this past summer, and the company now has “hundreds” of clients in the U.S. AnyPerk, which first launched out of Y Combinator in 2012, is based in San Francisco and currently has 45 employees.
The company tells me they’ll be using the funding to build out a mobile app to push out notifications about relevant perks to employees who may not know they have them (for example, employees of Lyft, an AnyPerk client, would be notified of their 40 percent off AMC Theater ticket discount when they’re at the movies.) Also, the company is working on a beta feature that will let managers or colleagues give spot bonuses in the form of money or gift cards by using the AnyPerk platform.
It bears mention that AnyPerk is not the only company in the perks-as-a-platform world. A few years back, a company called BetterWorks raised $10.5 million for a similar concept, but ultimately shut down in May 2012. The idea has had more lasting success in Asia, where Singapore-based Rewardz, Japan-based Benefit One, and Malaysia-based PerkPool are all notable players. Now, with its new funding and apparent momentum, AnyPerk hopes to be the company that can successfully bring the business model here to the U.S. to stay.
来源：techcrunch.com
阿里巴巴携手 Lending Club 为美国企业推出金融服务赊销保
阿里巴巴 与 P2P 金融网站 Lending Club 签订了战略合作伙伴关系，旨在吸引更多的美国企业通过该电子商务巨头的批发市场进行采购。两家公司将推出一项名为 阿里巴巴赊销保（theAlibaba.com e-Credit Line）的服务，美国公司可以通过该网站申请 5000 至 30 万美元的信用额度，从而在阿里巴巴网站上完成采购。
该项目最终将推广到美国以外的地区。
尽管阿里巴巴统治着中国的电子商务市场——市场份额约为 45%，去年该公司的增长速度却有所放缓， 部分原因来自京东等对手更加激烈的竞争 。另外，阿里巴巴自从去年 9 月完成创记录的 IPO（首次公开募股）以来，财报表现一直让投资者忐忑不安。上周该公司披露的财报中， 截止 2014 年 12 月一个季度的收入低于预期 ，部分原因为移动业务方面的持续投资。
为了开发电子商务业务新市场，阿里巴巴采取了双管齐下的策略。在中国，该公司 发展物流系统瞄准小城市和农村市场 。同时，赊销保之类的举措可能会帮助阿里巴巴（以及 Lending Club）吸引新的国际客户。
这两家公司表示双方协议 期限长达数年，并且属于独家协议 。
除了提供资金贷款以外，赊销保还包括了交易保障的伴随服务，买家延期收到货物或者货物不符合清单描述的话可以进入纠纷处理流程，并有可能获得退款。这一点显得尤其重要，阿里巴巴一直受到批评，指责它没有尽到打击网站上假冒商品的责任。
中国国家工商行政管理总局 最近撤下了一篇白皮书，该白皮书指出阿里巴巴员工收受贿赂及以其它方式纵容无耻商家在该网站上销售假货 ，然而阿里巴巴处理假货投诉已经有好几年的时间。事实上， 淘宝被美国贸易办公室从“恶名市场”（notoriousmarkets）黑名单中移除只是两年前的事情。
阿里巴巴在 IPO 之前已经采取了一系列的打假措施，包括 从网站上撤下 9000 万件可疑商品 ，但其批发市场的开放性导致它仍无法避免假货混入的风险。
交易保障计划同样会根据产品质量和发货速度给卖家分级。投诉平台和质量保障项目的存在一定程度上会说服那些对阿里巴巴极大丰富的商品感兴趣、但忌惮其恶名的买家。
阿里巴巴还采取了其它一些措施鼓励更多的国外公司使用其旗下网站，包括在澳大利亚 推出淘宝和支付宝 ，以及 阿里系公司蚂蚁金服进军美国和俄罗斯市场 。
在赊销保之前，阿里巴巴集团为希望使用其平台的中小企业推出了多项金融服务项目。上周该公司公布了为中国女性卖家设立的贷款项目 ，昨天该公司 揭晓了一项扶持香港青年企业家的基金 。
翻译：顾秋实 来源：techcrunch
Alibaba And Lending Club Launch Financing Program For U.S. Businesses
Alibaba.com and peer-to-peer financing site Lending Club have inked a strategic partnership designed to get more U.S. businesses to buy inventory from the e-commerce giant’s wholesale marketplace. The two will offer a new financial service called the Alibaba.com e-Credit Line that will let American companies apply for credit lines of $5,000 to $300,000 through the site, which they can then use to make purchases there.
The program will eventually expand beyond the U.S.
Though Alibaba dominates China’s e-commerce market, holding about 45 percent of the market, its growth stalled last year thanks in part to increasing competition from rivals like JD.com. Furthermore, Alibaba’s earnings have worried investors since its record-setting IPO in September. Last week, the company disclosed revenue for the quarter ending in December that was below expectations, due in part to ongoing investments in its mobile business.
In order to develop new markets for its e-commerce businesses, Alibaba has taken a two-pronged approach. In China, it is targeting smaller cities and villages by developing its logistics system. Meanwhile, initiatives like Alibaba.com e-Credit Line may help Alibaba (and Lending Club) secure new international customers.
The two companies said their agreement is multi-year and exclusive.
In addition to capital, the Alibaba.com e-Credit Line also comes with a trade assurance, which allows buyers to open disputes and potentially get a refund if they receive goods that are late or don’t match listing descriptions. This is especially important because Alibaba is constantly faced with criticism that it does not do enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.
China’s State Administration For Industry And Commerce recently backed down from a report that said Alibaba employees took bribes and otherwise made it easy for shady merchants to sell fake goods on it sites, but the company has dealt with complaints for years. In fact, Taobao Marketplace, was removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s “notorious markets” list only two years ago.
Alibaba has responded with a series of anti-counterfeiting measures, including purging 90 million suspicious listings from its sites before its IPO, but the open nature of its wholesale marketplaces still make running into knock-offs a risk.
The trade assurance program also ranks suppliers based on the quality of their products and shipment speed. Having a platform for disputes and a quality guarantee may help persuade merchants who are interested in Alibaba.com’s vast selection of goods, but wary of its reputation.
Other initiatives Alibaba has undertaken to encourage more foreign companies to use its sites include launching Taobao and Alipay in Australia, one of China’s key trade partners, and expanding its affiliate, Ant Financial, in the U.S. and Russia.
Alibaba.com e-Credit Line also follows several other programs that Alibaba Group has launched to provide financing for SMBs who want to use its platforms. Last week it announced a loan program for female business owners in China, and yesterday it unveiled a foundation to help young Hong Kong entrepreneurs.
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