Venture Capital Is Seeing A Generational Adjustment

矽谷创投业者 今面临世代交替

Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn and a longtime venture capitalist, is no longer the public face of the venture firm Greylock. Michael Moritz, a force at Sequoia Capital for 38 years, officially separated from the investment firm last summer. And Jeff Jordan, a top investor at Andreessen Horowitz for 12 years, left in May.

领英创办人兼长期创投业者霍夫曼不再是创投公司Greylock的代言人。莫里兹在红杉资本效力38年，去年夏天正式跟这家投资公司分手。乔丹在安德立森霍洛维兹当了12年的顶级投资者，于5月离开。

They are among the most recognizable of a generation of Silicon Valley investors who are getting out of venture capital at the end of a lucrative 15-year upswing for the industry.

他们是一个世代矽谷投资者当中最知名的几位，在这个产业利润丰厚的15年上升期结束时离开创业投资。

Many more are leaving. Investors at Tiger Global, Paradigm, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Emergence Capital and Spark Capital have all announced plans to step back. Foundry Group, a venture firm in Boulder, Colorado, that has backed 200 companies since 2006, said in January that it would not raise another fund.

还有更多人离开。老虎全球基金、Paradigm、光速创投、新兴资本与星火资本都有投资者宣布计划退出。科罗拉多州波德的创投公司铸造集团2006年起已经赞助200家公司，一月称不会筹集另一轮资金。

Taken together, the steady thrum of departures has created a sense that venture capital — a $1.1 trillion corner of finance that invests in young, private companies, sometimes spawning enterprises such as Apple, Google and Amazon — is in a moment of transition.

综合来看，持续不断的离职让人感觉到创投业正处于一个转型时刻。这是个价值1.1兆美元的金融领域，投资于初创私人公司，有时催生了苹果、谷歌与亚马逊等企业。

“We’re at a tipping point,” said Alan Wink, a managing director of capital markets at EisnerAmper, which provides advisory services to venture capital firms. While there have been waves of retirements in the past, he said this one was more pronounced.

为创业投资公司提供咨询服务的EisnerAmper资本市场董事总经理温克说，「我们正处于一个转捩点」。虽然过去出现过退休潮，他说这一次更明显。

The turnover creates an opening for new investors to step up, potentially shifting who the power players are in Silicon Valley. That may also change the calculus for young companies as they decide which venture firms to seek money from.

这次变动为新投资者向前迈进创造机会，可能改变矽谷的权力玩家。这也可能改变初创公司决定向哪些创投公司寻求资金时的考量。

Yet the latest generation of investors faces a startup investment landscape that has become more challenging. Few venture capital funds are reaping the kinds of enormous windfalls — which come from startups going public or being bought — that can secure an investor’s reputation.

然而，最新一代投资者面对一个已变得更有挑战性的新创投资格局。很少创投基金正在获得够庞大的横财可确保投资者的名声，这些横财来自新创企业上市或被收购。

Today’s up-and-coming venture capitalists are waiting for their version of those winners. Some of the most highly valued startups — such as OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company valued at $86 billion — are in no hurry to go public or sell. And the frenzy around generative AI could take years to translate into big wins.

如今崭露头角的创投业者，正在等候自己版本的赢家。一些估值最高的新创企业，例如估值为860亿美元的人工智慧公司OpenAI，都不急于上市或出售。而围绕著生成式人工智慧的狂潮，可能需要多年才能转化成巨大胜利。

“We’re in this period of reset, based on where the technology is and where it’s going,” said David York, an investor at Top Tier Capital, which invests in other venture capital firms. “These stars will emerge.”

投资其他创投公司的Top Tier Capital投资者约克说，「我们正处于重置时期，取决于技术现状跟发展方向。这些明星将会出现」。

文／Erin Griffith 译／周辰阳