柏林对创业者的吸引力上升
当杰尔姆•费斯(Jerome Feys)从巴黎来到柏林攻读管理硕士学位的时候，他没有想过自己会留下来创业。
Feys relocated in part to hone his German language skills while studying at ESCP Europe Business School’s Berlin campus and thought he would return to Paris, or perhaps move again to London. He decided to remain in the German capital because he realised it was a better place to pursue his dream of launching a tech start-up. “I had ideas in Paris, but I could see how I could do it in Berlin,” he says.
费斯来到德国的部分原因是磨练其德语技能，同时在ESCP欧洲商学院(ESCP Europe)的柏林校区学习，当时他以为自己会返回巴黎，或者去伦敦。后来他决定留在柏林，是因为意识到留在这里更适合他追逐创办一家科技企业的梦想。他说：“我在巴黎有想法，但我在柏林能够看到实现想法的路。”
Famously described by a former Berlin mayor as “poor but sexy”, the city has long been a draw for internet entrepreneurs with its cheap rents, relatively generous visa system and vibrant culture.
被一位前市长描述为“贫穷而性感”的柏林市一直以低廉的租金、相对慷慨的签证制度和富有活力的文化吸引着互联网创业者。
The arrival of private equity has also helped. Venture capitalists invested €2.16bn in a total of 264 equity deals in German-based start-ups in the first half of 2017, according to EY, the consultancy. That compares with €972m in 248 deals in the first half of last year.
私人股本的到来也有所帮助。咨询公司安永(EY)的数据显示，2017年上半年，德国初创企业共吸引了风险投资家的264笔投资，融资金额总计21.6亿欧元。而2016年上半年，德国初创企业获得的248笔投资，总和仅为9.72亿欧元。
Berlin is at the heart of this growth. A cosmopolitan city where English is widely spoken, Berlin has attracted large numbers of entrepreneurs from abroad.
柏林处于这种增长的核心。这个广泛使用英语的世界大都市吸引了大量外国创业者的到来。
According to the 2016 edition of Deutscher Startup Monitor, an annual industry report by consultancy KPMG, 30 per cent of all German start-up employees are not German citizens. But in Berlin the figure rises to 42 per cent.
咨询公司毕马威(KPMG)编制的年度行业报告《2016年德国初创企业观察》(Deutscher Startup Monitor)显示，在德国所有初创企业的员工中，有30%不是德国公民。但在柏林，这一比例升至42%。
The takeover in 2015 of Here, the mapping arm of Finnish tech group Nokia, by German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Audi for €2.8bn was a wake-up signal to the world that Berlin could produce significant exits.
2015年，芬兰科技集团诺基亚(Nokia)的地图业务Here被宝马(BMW)、戴姆勒(Daimler)和奥迪(Audi)以28亿欧元收购，这向世界传递了清晰的信号，即柏林有实力收购优秀企业。
The upswing in German venture capital activity this year has been largely the result of two big funding rounds by Berlin-based start-ups. In May, food-delivery service Delivery Hero took a €387m investment from South African internet group Naspers (and floated the following month in Frankfurt, raising €1bn). Also in May, used-car platform Auto 1 Group raised €360m from investors including Baillie Gifford and Target Global in a round that valued the company at €2.5bn.
今年德国风险资本活动增多，基本上是两轮柏林初创企业大规模融资的结果。今年5月，外卖服务商Delivery Hero从南非互联网集团Naspers获得了3.87亿欧元的投资(一个月后该公司在法兰克福上市，融资10亿欧元)(注：本文题图即为Delivery Hero的送货员)。同样在今年5月，二手车交易平台Auto 1 Group从包括Baillie Gifford和Target Global在内的投资者那里获得了3.6亿欧元投资，估值达25亿欧元。
Masters in management students at ESCP increasingly are interested in launching businesses, according to Andreas Kaplan, a professor of marketing and rector of ESCP’s Berlin campus. A decade ago only 1 per cent of the students on this course launched companies after graduation, but last year 14 per cent did so, he notes.
ESCP柏林分校市场营销教授兼校长安德烈亚斯•卡普兰(Andreas Kaplan)表示，管理学硕士学生越来越对创业感兴趣。他指出，十年前只有1%的管理硕士学生在毕业后创立了公司，但在去年创业的比例达到14%。
A problem for Berlin is the lack of local industry to support new tech ventures. Unlike London, which is a global capital for banking, education, media and fashion, Berlin’s main source of employment are jobs related to government. Which is why the entrepreneurial scene is so important to the city, according to Prof Kaplan. “Start-ups are the ones providing a lot of the new jobs,” he says.
柏林的问题是缺乏当地产业来支持新的科技企业。与伦敦这个全球银行业、教育、媒体和时尚之都不同，柏林的主要就业来源是政府相关岗位，卡普兰表示，这就是创业活动对该市非常重要的原因所在。他说：“初创企业能够提供大量新的就业岗位。”
The company Jerome Feys started with Jean-Baptiste Molle, a childhood friend from France, is called Vescape, a fitness app that turns an exercise bike into a controller for video games. While Feys was studying in Berlin, Molle had moved to the UK for a masters degree at the London School of Economics.
杰尔姆•费斯与他的发小、来自法国的让-巴蒂斯特•莫勒(Jean-Baptiste Molle)共同创办了Vescape，该公司开发了一款健身应用，将健身车变为视频游戏控制器。费斯在柏林学习期间，莫勒搬到了英国伦敦政治经济学院(London School of Economics)攻读硕士学位。
The pair compared their host cities to decide which was best for their fledgling venture. They chose Berlin, primarily because rents were three to four times cheaper than in London, but also because they felt the German government and the local community offered more support, according to Feys.
这两人相互比较了各自所在的城市，以决定哪里最适合他们初生的企业。他们选择了柏林，主要是因为伦敦的租金比柏林贵三到四倍，但据费斯表示，还有一个原因是，他们感觉德国政府和当地社区提供了更多的支持。
Within weeks of launching, the pair won a €100,000 prize in a German government-backed competition to support early-stage ventures.
在企业成立几周后，两人在一场德国政府指导的创业比赛中赢得了10万欧元奖金。
Berlin’s growth as a start-up centre received a fillip last year from events affecting its largest European rival start-up centre, London. A day after the UK referendum vote in June to leave the European Union, a truck drove through central London carrying a billboard with the slogan “Dear start-ups, Keep calm and move to Berlin”. Its route included tech start-up neighbourhoods in the east of the city.
去年英国退欧影响了伦敦——与柏林争夺欧洲初创企业中心地位的最大对手，从而推动了柏林崛起为创业中心。在去年6月英国退欧公投一天后，一辆卡车穿过伦敦市中心，上面的广告牌上写着：“亲爱的创业者，保持冷静，搬到柏林来吧”。卡车经过了伦敦东部的科技初创企业社区。
Berlin’s business schools have tried to capitalise on the city’s entrepreneurial buzz. At ESMT Berlin, a privately owned school in the heart of the city, masters in management students are asked to come up with business ideas, which they present during a start-up challenge competition as part of the curriculum.
柏林的商学院努力利用该市的创业潮。在欧洲管理与工程学院(ESMT Berlin)——这是一所位于柏林市中心的私人学院——管理硕士学员被要求提出商业点子，在一项创业挑战竞赛中演示，这项竞赛是课程的一部分。
Lisa Makarova and Ruben Portz met on this course, where they developed the business plan for JetEight, an automated booking system for private jet hire, which they launched in April.
莉萨•马卡洛娃(Lisa Makarova)和鲁本•波茨(Ruben Portz)在这个课程中相识，他们制定了开发JetEight的商业计划。JetEight是一个私人喷气飞机租用自动化预订系统，已于今年4月上线。
Makarova arrived in Berlin from Moscow five years ago, originally intending to stay for a semester as part of her Russian degree course. But she liked student life in the city so much that she remained, transferring to a German university to complete her undergraduate studies.
马卡洛娃5年前从莫斯科来到柏林，最初打算待一个学期——这是她在俄罗斯读的学位课程的一部分。但她非常喜欢柏林的学生生活，因此她留了下来，转到一所德国大学来完成本科学习。
Makarova also cites the low cost of living as an important attraction, noting that her €200-a-month flat on the edge of the city was better than anything she would get in Moscow. However, she also admits that other European cities offer different advantages for start-ups.
马卡洛娃还认为生活成本低是一个重要的吸引力，她指出，她在柏林郊区租的公寓月租金200欧元，同样的价格在莫斯科根本租不到这么好的房子。然而，她也承认其他欧洲城市对初创企业有其他不同的吸引力。
Although Makarova and Portz want to keep their base in Berlin, they are considering opening a second office in London because it is a global centre for the agents that rent out private jets.
尽管马卡洛娃和波茨想把他们的总部设在柏林，但他们正在考虑在伦敦开设第二个办公室，因为那里是私人飞机出租代理的的全球中心。
“In Berlin it is easy to get support from other entrepreneurs and investors for your start-up,” Portz says. “But all our aviation industry contacts and partner relationships are in London.”
波茨表示：“在柏林，很容易获得其他创业者和投资者对你的初创企业的支持。但我们所有的航空业联系人和合作伙伴都在伦敦。”
