When a venture-backed tech company goes public, their life becomes much tougher. Even for strong companies like Marin Software (MRIN), the key is successfully managing the shift of their shareholder base from VCs to public funds. Failure to do so can be punishing.
当一家由风投注资的科技公司成功上市之后，它的日子会变得难过得多。即便是马林软件（Marin Software）这样表现抢眼的公司，也必须要成功地管理好股东群由风投公司向公共资金的转变。如果在这个过程中出了岔子，公司必将付出重大代价。
If you're a growth-stage entrepreneur looking to go long, you'll have a similar challenge when you go public. New analysts and fund managers will want your time. The types of questions you'll field from these folks will be very different than those from your VCs -- they'll get very specific about competitors, customers and suppliers -- and also ask open-ended, big-picture questions. It can be unclear what they're getting at. Knowledge of who is buying, selling, holding and/or shorting can be sporadic. Meanwhile, your stock price can vacillate up and down on unrelated and seemingly unimportant news.
如果你是一个成长期公司的企业家，而且准备长期发展，那么在上市的过程中，你也会遇到类似的挑战。首先，会有很多分析师和基金经理想和你谈话。这些人提出的问题和风投公司提出的问题是很不一样的——他们会非常详细地询问关于竞争对手、客户和供应商的情况，同时也会问一些开放性的、宽泛的问题。你可能弄不清楚他们真正想知道的是什么。你也不会经常知道谁在买卖、持有和做空你的股票。同时，你的股价可能会因为一些看似不相关和不重要的新闻而上下波动。
The suggestions below aim to help you navigate the bumpy terrain you'll confront as a newly-public company:
如果你是一家新上市公司的管理者，下面的建议也许能帮你应对前方道路上的各种困难。
DOs
正确行为
Focus on fundamentals; don't forget what got you public in the first place. If you've gotten public, you're doing a lot right. Your recipe for success as a public company shouldn't change. If you've built your culture to focus on the customer, this should remain consistent even after you're public. Similarly, if you've rallied your company around an audacious goal, don't be afraid to share it with public investors (but expect them to hold you to this goal over time). IPOs and increased media attention can be very distracting to your employees and a drag on performance. It's critical that you keep your team focused on business as usual to maintain success.
关注基本面；不要忘了归根结底是什么让你上市的。如果你的公司已经上市了，说明你已经做了很多正确的事。作为一家上市公司，你的基本战略不应该改变。如果你的企业文化是以客户为导向的，那么即便你上市了，这一点也应该坚持下去。如果你为公司制定了非常大胆的目标，也不要害怕让公共投资人知道（但要做好准备，随着时间的推移，他们会督促你实现这个目标）。首次公开募股和越来越多的媒体关注可能会让你的员工分心，甚至可能给公司的业绩拖后腿。因此，必须让团队像往常一样继续把注意力放在业务上，以便继续保持成功。
Be long term greedy, not short term greedy. It can feel euphoric to let future expectations run wild, but it can cause big headaches down the road when you're held to these lofty projections. Instead, keep expectations tamped down wherever possible. This runs counter to typical private company behavior, where VCs push you to think big, make bold projections and reward the achievement of 80-90% of your plan. When you're public, missing numbers by 10% can have disastrous effects. Keeping expectations low may depress your stock price, but if you make money for institutional investors and establish credibility with them by achieving or beating numbers consistently, you'll earn their support.
长期贪婪，短期谨慎。天马行空地展望未来可能很过瘾，然而如果沉迷于不切实际的幻想，将来可能会让你头痛不已。因此，要切实制定对未来的预期。这和典型的私人公司的行为恰恰是背道而驰的。对于私人公司来说，你的风投可能会逼着你制订庞大的计划和大胆的预期，然后实现计划的80%到90%就可以了。当你一旦上市了，如果你的业绩与当初的预期相差了10%，则可能会导致灾难性的后果。保持较低的预期可能会压低你的股价，但是如果你连续达到、甚至超过了预期，那么你就为机构投资人赚了钱，同时建立起了信誉，有望得到机构投资人的支持。
Be respectful of the investment community. Once you've gone public, you'll inevitably have many new demands on your time. You need to balance being available with the risk of losing focus on your business. Be consistent -- don't go silent if you're in the midst of a rough patch in your operations and don't turn off to investors or analysts who are negative on your stock. Recognize that sell-side analysts are a point of leverage -- they help you keep your story out in front of investors.
尊重投资界。一旦你的公司上市了，不可避免地会有许多新的事务占用你的时间。你一方面要花时间应付这些事，一方面还不能把重点从业务上转移开来。因此，你必须在两者之间取得平衡。要持之以恒，如果你在运营上遇到了困难，不要沉默以对，也不要因为有些投资者或分析师对你的股票持负面态度就拒人千里。要知道卖方分析师是一个支点，他们可以帮你不把你的坏消息传到投资者耳朵里。
DON'Ts
错误行为
You risk losing credibility if you're overly optimistic about your business and its performance. There are no secrets in today's world -- err on the side of over-transparency. Savvy public investors know that no business is perfect; everyone has unhappy customers, product challenges, and competitive weaknesses. Public investors are adept at digging up very granular information via surveys, channel checks and, increasingly, social media. The more you try to bury challenges you're facing, the less control you'll have over the storyline on these issues when they surface. This doesn't mean you need to issue a press release every time you receive an angry tweet, but by consistently providing a balanced assessment of your performance and prospects, you'll preserve credibility, allowing you to better navigate the tougher issues as they arise.
如果你对业务和业绩过于乐观，有可能会失去信誉。当今世界没有秘密，甚至可以说是过份透明了。精明的公共投资人都知道，任何业务都不完美，每个企业都有一些不满意的客户，都面临着产品挑战，都存在竞争弱点。现在公共投资人们已经擅于利用调查报告和渠道控制，甚至越来越多地利用社交媒体来发掘细微的信息。你越想掩饰面临的挑战，等到这些问题浮出水面的时候，你对这些问题拥有的解释权就越少。这并不是说，每次你收到一条愤怒的微博声讨的时候，都要写一篇新闻发言稿。只要你持之以恒地对业绩和预期做一份均衡的评估，就能保持良好的信誉。这样一来，以后哪怕是碰到更棘手的问题，你也能更好地掌握局面。
Performance will suffer longer term if you solely focus on optimizing quarterly results. The Wall Street treadmill will pressure you into running your business quarter-to-quarter. You can't ignore this framework completely, but you won't achieve your long-term goals if you get overly consumed with hitting your targets in 90 day increments. You need to find balance internally, ensuring your best people are focused on achieving important long term objectives while you've also got a well oiled machine that can churn out predictable near term results.
如果你只关注改善每个季度的业绩，它将对长期业绩造成负面影响。华尔街这个大磨坊会迫使你把业务细化到每一个季度。你不能完全忽视这个框框，但是如果过于关注如何在这90天里达到目标，那就无法实现长期的目标。你必须在内部找到一个平衡，确保公司最优秀的人才把精力放在重要的长期目标上，同时保证公司处于良好的状态，能够实现可预见的短期业绩。
Public investors deplore you using their money unwisely. Investors want to feel they're partnering with management teams who run the business as if they owned the whole company. For example, paying an unreasonably high acquisition price for a start-up because it's sexy and in vogue is a yellow flag. As an example, VMWare's (VMW) recent purchase of Nicira will be scrutinized for several years. Would management have acquired this nascent company for over $1 billion if they had to pay for it with their own cash and/or equity? This isn't to say that all M&A is bad. For example, Priceline's (PCLN) acquisition of Booking.com has driven enormous value for shareholders and made sense from the start. In M&A and all other aspects of your business, treat the capital as if it were your own and show your investors this is how you gauge every decision.
如果你没把钱花在刀刃上，会引来公共投资人的愤怒声讨。投资人希望他们投资的公司的管理团队在花钱的问题上能谨慎再谨慎，就好像整个公司是他们开的一样。如果你用高得离谱的价格收购了一家创业公司，仅仅是因为它的创意非常火爆和时髦，投资人就会举起黄牌了。比如云基础架构公司VMWare最近收购云计算网络虚拟化公司Nicira的案例就会被投资人批评好几年。如果管理层花的是自家的钱，他们是否还愿意花10亿多美元收购这家新生的公司？并不是说所有的收购都不好。例如在线旅游服务公司Priceline收购订房网站Booking.com就给股东带来了巨大的价值，而且它从一开始就是一笔明智的收购。无论在收购上，还是在业务的所有其它方面，一定要把投资人的钱看成自己的钱，而且要让投资人知道，你衡量每一个决策用的都是这个标准。
Without doubt, life as a public company will differ greatly from private company days. There is no universal blueprint for success when public, but following these recommendations will help rudder your ship as you navigate the waters.
毫无疑问，一个公司上市后，将与私人公司过的日子产生天壤之别。对于上市公司来说，没有放之四海皆准的成功秘诀。但是如果你听取了上面这些建议，将有助于你在商海中稳稳掌舵，乘风破浪。
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