经济学人:非洲企业家 求知若饥虚心若愚(上)

 　　Bussiness 商业

　　Entrepreneurs in Africa: Hurdles¹ for hubs 非洲企业家：中心障碍

　　The going is tough for African Tech-Hubs and startup incubators. 对于非洲的科技中心和新兴孵化器来说，前景艰难。

　　“You are either part of the solution or part of the problem,” it says in painted letters on a wall. 一堵墙上用油漆字写着：“你是解决方案的一部分或者是问题的一部分。”

　　“Stay hungry, stay foolish,” says the wall opposite. 对面墙上写着：“求知若饥，虚心若愚。”

　　An old rickshaw sits among beanbags and a vase of flowers rests on an ancient oil barrel in the corner. 一辆旧的人力车安放在豆袋坐垫间，角落有一瓶花放在古老的油桶上。

　　“We wanted the space to feel like Google,” says Eleni Gabre-Madhin, the founder² of blueMoon, a new agribusiness incubator that opened in Addis Ababa in February, without a trace of irony³. 在Addis Ababa二月新成立的一家农业综合企业孵化器——蓝月亮的创始人Eleni Gabre-Madhin说：“我们想要像谷歌那样的空间，”没有一丝讽刺之意。

　　Incubators and their cousins, accelerators, provide hands-on training and mentoring⁴, and often a physical space, to help early-stage business ideas develop. “孵化器”和他们的表兄弟加速器提供实际的培训和指导，往往是一个物理空间，以帮助发展早期的商业理念。

　　In Silicon⁵ Valley they find capital for startups and take a slice of equity⁶ in return for their services. 在硅谷，他们为创业公司寻求资本，并获得一部分股权作为他们服务的回报。

　　Ms Gabre-Madhin says that blueMoon draws inspiration from Y Combinator, an American accelerator founded in 2005 whose investees include Dropbox and Airbnb. Gabre-Madhin女士说，蓝月亮从Y Combinator获得了灵感，Y Combinator是美国一家成立于2005年的加速器，该公司的投资包括了Dropbox（云服务系统）和Airbnb（爱彼迎短租网）。

　　The new firm's first cohort of startups will train at the office for four months, and it will give each a small cash injection in exchange for a 10% stake. 这家新公司的首批创业公司将在办公室培训四个月，并且它会向每个公司投入一小笔现金以换取10%的股份。

　　That is a rarity in Africa's startup scene. 这种创业场景在非洲十分罕见。

　　A simpler and more common model is for “tech hubs” to provide office space, some networking events and fast broadband internet. “技术中心”是一个更简单和更常见的模式，它能够提供办公空间、一些网络活动和快速宽带互联网。

　　A recent survey counted over 300 such facilities on the continent. 最近的一项统计调查显示，非洲大陆上有着300多个这样的设施。

　　One of the first hubs was iHub in Nairobi, launched in 2010, which has an incubation arm focused on mobile technology, called m: lab. iHub是内罗比的第一批中心之一，成立于2010年，iHub有一个主要集中在移动技术的孵化装备，称之为m:lab。

　　But m: lab, like many of its kind, is not a real incubator: it was founded with grant support from the World Bank and takes fees from, but not equity in, the companies that it nurtures⁷. 但是和ihub许多类型一样，m:lab不是一个真正的孵化器，因为它是由世界银行资助成立，从其扶持的公司收费，而并不持有股份。

1 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

4 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

5 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

6 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

7 nurtures   

教养，培育( nurture的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Art nurtures the soul and culture cultivates the mind. 艺术滋润心灵，文化陶冶情操。
• Who first loves and nurtures us and takes care of every need. 是谁先爱上我们，哺育我们，对我们无微不至。