我通常不谈政治，但鉴于我们现在似乎迎来了一个乐于听取建议的政府，我决定冒个险提个建议。政府要想增加这个国家的创业公司数量，最重要的一件事其实不费一分一毫：那就是为创业公司创始人设立一种新型签证。
I usually avoid politics, but since we now seem to have an administration that's open to suggestions, I'm going to risk making one. The single biggest thing the government could do to increase the number of startups in this country is a policy that would cost nothing: establish a new class of visa for startup founders.
在美国，限制新创业公司诞生数量的最大瓶颈，既不是税收政策，也不是劳动法，甚至不是《萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》，而是我们不让那些想创业的人入境。
The biggest constraint on the number of new startups that get created in the US is not tax policy or employment law or even Sarbanes-Oxley. It's that we won't let the people who want to start them into the country.
每年哪怕只放 10,000 名创业公司创始人入境，都能对经济产生立竿见影的效果。如果按每家创业公司 4 个人来算（这可能还估高了），那就是 2500 家新公司。而且是每年。 它们不可能都成长为谷歌那样的巨头，但在这 2500 家公司中，总有一些会非常接近。
Letting just 10,000 startup founders into the country each year could have a visible effect on the economy. If we assume 4 people per startup, which is probably an overestimate, that's 2500 new companies. Each year. They wouldn't all grow as big as Google, but out of 2500 some would come close.
从定义上来看，这 10,000 名创始人并不会抢走美国人的工作：签证条款中完全可以规定，他们不能在现有公司工作，只能在自己创办的新公司工作。事实上，他们反而会为美国人创造更多就业机会，因为他们创办的公司在成长过程中会雇佣更多员工。
By definition these 10,000 founders wouldn't be taking jobs from Americans: it could be part of the terms of the visa that they couldn't work for existing companies, only new ones they'd founded. In fact they'd cause there to be more jobs for Americans, because the companies they started would hire more employees as they grew.
最棘手的部分似乎在于如何定义“创业公司”。但这很容易解决：让市场来决定。创业投资人为了寻找最优秀的创业公司付出了巨大努力。政府大可直接借鉴他们的专业眼光，将“是否获得公认创业投资人的投资”作为检验一家公司是否为真正创业公司的标准。
The tricky part might seem to be how one defined a startup. But that could be solved quite easily: let the market decide. Startup investors work hard to find the best startups. The government could not do better than to piggyback on their expertise, and use investment by recognized startup investors as the test of whether a company was a real startup.
政府该如何判定谁是创业投资人呢？方法就和判定哪些学校算作学生签证认可的大学一样。我们可以建立自己的资质认证程序。毕竟，在这个圈子里，大家都彼此知根知底。
How would the government decide who's a startup investor? The same way they decide what counts as a university for student visas. We'll establish our own accreditation procedure. We know who one another are.
在移民大潮中，10,000 人不过是沧海一粟，但这将极大地扩充创业公司创始人的后备力量。我相信这会对经济产生如此显著的推动作用，以至于提出该法案的立法者将名声大噪。要想确切知道效果，唯一的办法就是去尝试，而且这几乎不需要任何成本。
10,000 people is a drop in the bucket by immigration standards, but would represent a huge increase in the pool of startup founders. I think this would have such a visible effect on the economy that it would make the legislator who introduced the bill famous. The only way to know for sure would be to try it, and that would cost practically nothing.
感谢 Trevor Blackwell、Paul Buchheit、Jeff Clavier、David Hornik、Jessica Livingston、Greg Mcadoo、Aydin Senkut 和 Fred Wilson 阅读本文草稿。
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Jeff Clavier, David Hornik, Jessica Livingston, Greg Mcadoo, Aydin Senkut, and Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this.
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