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在紐約的工作被炒了魷魚后，科爾·扎克買了一張去上海的單程機(jī)票。一句中文也不會(huì)說的他選擇了到這個(gè)陌生的國度去冒險(xiǎn)。三年后，他已經(jīng)能說一口流利的中文，并且找到了一個(gè)商業(yè)伙伴。他回到美國創(chuàng)辦了一家名叫Green Creative的商用LED照明公司。有一段時(shí)間，扎克在舊金山基本上是睡在自己的車?yán)?，整天提著一個(gè)樣本手提箱挨家挨戶推銷他的產(chǎn)品。去年，Green Creative公司被海港集團(tuán)收購，但這位創(chuàng)始人并沒有拿錢走路，而是仍在向沃爾瑪、棒約翰、J. Crew等零售商銷售他的產(chǎn)品。

After getting fired from his job in New York, Cole Zucker booked a one-way ticket to Shanghai, in search of adventure in a country where he knew no one and spoke no Chinese. After three years, he became fluent in the language, found a business partner, and returned to the U.S. to start Green Creative, a commercial LED lighting company. Living out of his car in San Francisco, Zucker then went door-to-door selling the new technology out of a display suitcase. Last year, Green Creative was acquired by Harbour Group, and its cofounder is still selling its products to end users like Walmart, Papa John’s, J. Crew, and other retailers.

我成長于一個(gè)普通的猶太裔中產(chǎn)家庭，小時(shí)候我想當(dāng)一名醫(yī)生，但很快我發(fā)現(xiàn)我的理想并不是行醫(yī)。我祖父是做毛巾生意的，那時(shí)他很喜歡討論中國與世貿(mào)組織的問題。2003年，我決定到北京交換一個(gè)學(xué)期，這段經(jīng)歷讓我發(fā)現(xiàn)了世界之大，還有許多地方需要我去探索。

從富蘭克林與馬歇爾學(xué)院畢業(yè)后，我在紐約的保誠證券找到了一份固定收入投資管理實(shí)習(xí)生的工作。我大概是這個(gè)項(xiàng)目有史以來表現(xiàn)最差勁的實(shí)習(xí)生了，才干了一年就被辭退了。當(dāng)時(shí)我銀行賬戶里還有3000美元，于是我買了一張去上海的單程機(jī)票，全部家當(dāng)只有兩行李箱的衣服，然后我在一家旅館定了8周的房，房費(fèi)大概花了500美元。

在上海的頭一個(gè)月，我四處應(yīng)聘會(huì)計(jì)事務(wù)所和金融公司的工作。后來我通過我父母的朋友接到了一個(gè)叫蓋瑞·高的人的電話，他開了一家名叫Everbright Engineering的公司，這家公司自己有工廠，主要向跨國企業(yè)銷售環(huán)保建材。

他大概覺得讓一個(gè)說英語的老外給他打工挺有面子的，于是他聘請(qǐng)我替他打開中國的國內(nèi)市場。那年我22歲，起薪是一個(gè)月5000人民幣，也就是大概8000美元一年。

那時(shí)我一句中文也不會(huì)說，上下班的時(shí)候，我就在地鐵里背中文字典。周末我就盡可能地跟每個(gè)人聊天，教他們學(xué)英語，然后讓他們教我說中文。

三年后，我學(xué)會(huì)了怎么在中國做生意，也做好了回國創(chuàng)業(yè)的準(zhǔn)備。

那年是2009年，我在一篇文章中讀到，未來10年，美國LED照明的市場份額將從2%上升至80%。我靈光一閃，心想，我一定要把LED照明帶到美國。

在中國的時(shí)候，我認(rèn)識(shí)了一個(gè)叫做吉列姆·威代爾的法國人，他也從事照明行業(yè)。有一陣我們經(jīng)常見面，后來有一段時(shí)間，我們大概有半年沒見。有天晚上我回到家中，屁股不小心坐到了電視遙控器上，結(jié)果竟然在電視里看到吉列姆在一個(gè)美食頻道上當(dāng)嘉賓。于是我又聯(lián)系了他，打算一起合伙做生意。

當(dāng)時(shí)我想回美國，他想留在中國。我想做銷售，他想做研發(fā)。我們倆的中文都說得很流利，于是我們找到了一家供應(yīng)商，簽了一家工廠給我們供貨。我開始向游說我的親友們，但是他們都不想投錢。

幸好我當(dāng)時(shí)已經(jīng)存了10萬美元，我把這些錢都投到了我的公司里，然后搬到了舊金山，力圖打開美國市場。

我們大概訂了6萬美元的貨，我還發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)特別劃算的公共倉庫，第一個(gè)月使用只需要交1美元。于是頭6個(gè)月，我找了好幾個(gè)朋友，每個(gè)月?lián)Q人注冊(cè)一回，一個(gè)箱子到期了就換另一個(gè)箱子，每個(gè)月都只交1美元。

我在打銷售電話時(shí)經(jīng)常遭到拒絕，于是我打算自己創(chuàng)造需求。吉列姆弄了一手提箱的LED燈泡樣品，我提著這些樣品挨家公司拜訪，告訴人們這些燈泡能讓他們的商店看起來更漂亮，而且還能替他們省很多錢。

寫字樓里是有很多燈的，大樓的工程師一般凌晨四點(diǎn)上班，所以我一般凌晨四點(diǎn)半就出現(xiàn)在寫字樓的停車場，在他們喝咖啡的時(shí)候跟他們招呼，讓他們看看我的燈泡。我會(huì)把燈泡插在燈座上，然后把手提箱跟電源插座連起來，好給他們做展示。

第一年快結(jié)束的時(shí)候，我通過登門推銷已經(jīng)賺了30萬美元。有些之前拒絕了我的燈具經(jīng)銷商也聽說了我，并且表示，如果我不再直接向他們的客戶賣燈，他們?cè)敢鈴奈疫@里拿貨。我就知道，我的生意已經(jīng)實(shí)現(xiàn)了重要突破。

第二年，吉列姆搞出了一種經(jīng)銷商喜歡的創(chuàng)新的LED照明陣列。我們?cè)谂f金山灣區(qū)的銷售額一下子攀升到了200萬美元。我祖父給了我一輛老款的馬自達(dá)3轎車，為了省錢，我經(jīng)常把衣服掛在后座上，晚上就睡在車?yán)铮丛?、刮胡子都是趁健身房營業(yè)前在他們的洗漱間里解決的。

我們的銷量繼續(xù)增長，后來我們拿到了125萬美元的貸款，并獲得了天使投資人25萬美元的投資。

2013年，我們開始在全美各地招聘銷售人員。我們作為一家體量雖小但創(chuàng)新性強(qiáng)的LED燈泡品牌，開始逐漸闖出了名堂。

我們公司現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)占據(jù)了商用LED燈泡市場5%左右的份額。我們的客戶主要是批發(fā)商，他們的下游客戶則是棒約翰、富樂客、沃爾瑪、J.Crew等大零售商。我們的燈泡不僅體積小，發(fā)光率還很高，適合高端零售商店使用。

大約一年半以前，我們開始將業(yè)務(wù)重點(diǎn)向照明器材轉(zhuǎn)移，去年它已經(jīng)占了公司業(yè)務(wù)額的26%。幾個(gè)月前，我們把公司賣給了海港集團(tuán)（Harbour Group），并將業(yè)務(wù)與ILP部門（即工業(yè)照明產(chǎn)品）進(jìn)行了合并。今年公司的銷售額預(yù)計(jì)將達(dá)到1.5億美元。

一開始，我們連怎么做資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表都不知道。我們挺笨的，但我們?cè)敢獬袚?dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。事實(shí)證明這是值得的。

加快研發(fā)

Green Creative公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人科爾·扎克

傳統(tǒng)燈泡的產(chǎn)品生命周期大約是10年，但LED技術(shù)更新?lián)Q代得很快，產(chǎn)品的上架周期大約只有一年。大型照明公司要建一條產(chǎn)品線，就要有國際客戶，有研發(fā)部門，有搞產(chǎn)品認(rèn)證的人。新產(chǎn)品一般要18到24個(gè)月才能上市。

我們大大加快了產(chǎn)品研發(fā)流程，將它縮短到了6到8個(gè)月。我們雇人來做研發(fā)、認(rèn)證和市場，這三個(gè)部門是在一起工作的，所以我們?cè)谘邪l(fā)的過程中，他們就會(huì)將材料送到“能源之星”（美國能源部和美國環(huán)保署的一個(gè)認(rèn)證項(xiàng)目）去做認(rèn)證。等產(chǎn)品研發(fā)結(jié)束了，它就會(huì)直接投放到市場上。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：樸成奎

I had a middle-class Jewish upbringing and thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I quickly realized that wasn’t me. My grandfather was in the towel business and loved talking about China and the World Trade Organization. In 2003 I decided to do a semester abroad in Beijing, which made me realize there were a lot of places to explore in the world.

After graduating from Franklin & Marshall College, I took a job with Prudential Securities in New York as a fixed-income investment management trainee. I was the worst management trainee in the history of the program and got fired after the first year. I had about $3,000 in my bank account, so I bought a one-way ticket to Shanghai, packed two duffel bags of clothes, and booked an eight-week stay in a hostel that cost $500.

I applied to accounting firms and finance offices for a month, then, through my parents’ friends, got a call from Gary Gao, the owner of Everbright Engineering, which had factories that sold sustainable building materials to multinational companies.

He thought it would be prestigious to have a non-Chinese employee who spoke English, so he hired me to expand sales inside China. I was 22 years old and started on 5,000 renminbi a month, which was about $8,000 a year.

I didn’t speak any Chinese, so I’d memorize the Chinese dictionary on my subway commute to work. On the weekends I’d talk to everyone I could and teach them English while they conversed with me in Chinese.

After a successful three years learning how business was conducted in China, I was ready to go home and start my own company.

It was 2009, and I’d read an article that said in the next 10 years, LED lighting would grow from 2% of the U.S. market to 80%. That was my light bulb moment. I said, I’m going to take LED and bring it to the U.S.

While in China I met Guillaume Vidal, a Frenchman who also worked in lighting. We hung out for a while, then didn’t see each other for about six months. One night I came home and accidentally sat down on the TV remote. Guillaume was on the TV, talking on a food channel, so I got back in touch with him, and we started planning a business.

I wanted to move back to the U.S. He wanted to stay in China. I wanted to do sales, and he wanted to do R&D. Both of us spoke Chinese fluently, so we found a supplier and got a factory to give us a chance. I started to pitch friends and family, but no one was willing to invest.

I’d saved enough to put $100,000 into the company, and I moved to San Francisco to open up the U.S. market.

We ordered about $60,000 of inventory, and I found a public storage space where you paid only $1 for the first month. For the first six months I’d register under one friend’s name, change it to another name, and move from one expiring storage locker to the next, paying only $1 a month for the space.

I was getting rejected on sales calls so often, I decided to create the demand myself. Guillaume had a suitcase of display LED light bulbs made, and I walked into businesses, telling people these bulbs could make their store look better and save them a ton of money.

Office towers have a lot of lights, and the engineers get in at 4 a.m., so I would show up outside a parking garage at 4:30 a.m. to approach the engineers while they were having coffee and ask to show my light bulbs. I’d screw the bulbs into the display sockets and plug the suitcase into an outlet for the demonstration.

By the end of the first year I had made $300,000 selling door-to-door. Lighting distributors who had rejected us earlier started hearing about me and said if I stopped selling directly to their customers, they’d take our products. That’s when I knew we had broken through.

The second year, Guillaume figured out how to build an innovative range of LED lights that distributors loved. Sales went to $2 million in the Bay Area. My grandfather got me an old Mazda 3, and to save money, I’d hang clothes in the back seat, sleep in the car overnight, and go to a gym to shave and shower before starting to sell each day.

Sales continued to grow; we secured a $1.25 million loan and $250,000 from an angel investor.

In 2013 we started hiring salespeople around the country and became known as a tiny but innovative brand of LED light bulbs.

We now have about 5% of the LED commercial light bulb market. Our customers are wholesalers who sell to end users like Papa John’s, Foot Locker, Walmart, J. Crew, and other big retailers. We’re known for making smaller light bulbs that create the most amount of light for high-end retail stores.

About a year and a half ago we shifted the focus to lighting fixtures, which was about 26% of our business last year. We sold our business to Harbour Group a few months ago and merged operations with ILP (Industrial Lighting Products), which manufactures lighting fixtures. We’re projecting sales of $150 million this year.

In the beginning, we didn’t even know how to do a balance sheet. We were stupid, but we were willing to take a risk. It’s paid off.

Streamlining Development

Cole Zucker, cofounder, Green Creative

The product life cycle of older light bulbs can last 10 years. But LED technology is changing so quickly, the shelf life is about a year.When large lighting companies build out a product line, they have an international customer line, an R&D department, and certification people. It takes 18 to 24 months for new products to come out.

We built a speedboat and develop products in six to eight months. We hire people to do R&D, certification, and marketing, and all three teams work together so they all send material to Energy Star while we’re in development. When the product is ready, it goes directly to market.