这段文字记录了与 Rajul 的一次对话，他是一位连续创业者，曾就职于 Airbnb，目前是 Y Combinator 的访问合伙人，主要讲述了他的创业历程。讨论围绕他从第一个创业项目 FlightCar (一个在机场提供的点对点租车服务) 中学到的经验教训，以及这些教训如何塑造了他对第二个创业项目 Zip (一家采购软件公司) 的态度。 Rajul 回忆了 FlightCar 的起源，它源于一次关于 Airbnb 和机场汽车共享潜力的随意对话。尽管缺乏经验和资源，他和他的联合创始人以一种“不计成本也要达成目标”的策略启动了这家公司。他们一开始把汽车停在 BART (湾区捷运) 的停车场，后来被警察取缔；他们从一家廉价租车公司租车来满足早期需求；并且克服了管理实体市场的运营挑战。 FlightCar 发展到 17 个机场地点，但由于其较低的毛利率和高强度的运营，面临着巨大的挑战。Rajul 将其形容为从柠檬中榨取最后一滴汁液。维持盈利能力和筹集资金的持续挣扎让他明白了高利润业务的重要性，以及避免负面反馈循环的必要性。公司有时只有两周的现金流，这迫使他向 80 家不同的公司进行路演，才找到一个 A 轮投资者。 在出售 FlightCar 后，Rajul 加入 Airbnb 担任产品经理，以获得在大型、成熟公司工作的经验。他意识到自己缺乏关于成功公司如何运营以及他们吸引的人才水平的基本知识。在 Airbnb 的这段时间让他接触到一流的产品开发实践，以及在不断增长的组织中协调激励机制的重要性。他了解到需要优先考虑外部挑战，而不是自己制造麻烦。 Rajul 还曾在 Y Combinator 担任访问合伙人，为早期创业公司提供建议和指导。这段经历增强了他对创业者韧性和决心的敬佩。它也让他看到了能够带来成功公司的想法和个人的多样性。 凭借从 FlightCar 中吸取的教训，在 Airbnb 的经验，以及在 Y Combinator 的经历，Rajul 联合创办了 Zip。他和他的联合创始人在两年时间里进行了构思和规划，并承诺在 2020 年 3 月开始启动，而此时疫情封锁也开始了。具有讽刺意味的是，他们不得不在 YC 期间进行调整，这是由一些有用的、直率的建议触发的，即以一种新的方式解决一个老问题。 Zip 的方法与 FlightCar 非常不同。这一次，Rajul 决心在积极追求增长之前，先证明产品的价值和市场匹配度。他和他的联合创始人专注于冷启动，以获得他们的前 10 个客户，并利用这些互动来收集反馈并改进他们的产品。他强调了向早期采用者收费的重要性，即使金额相对较小，也要验证产品的价值主张。 Rajul 的主要收获是他第一次和第二次创业经历之间的思维方式转变。作为一名初次创业者，他过于关注外部看法——他的团队、投资者和媒体的想法。第二次创业时，他优先考虑构建真正有效的东西，并寻求诚实的反馈，即使这意味着面对令人不快的真相。他宁愿识别和解决业务的弱点，也不愿沉迷于它的成功。 Rajul 学会了不要太在意创造一个“积极的形象”，因为找出什么地方出了问题最终才是你进步的方式。总的来说，Rajul 认为创业是一场寻找真相的旅程。

This transcript captures a conversation with Rajul, a two-time founder, former Airbnb employee, and visiting partner at Y Combinator, about his entrepreneurial journey. The discussion revolves around the lessons he learned from his first startup, FlightCar, a peer-to-peer car rental service at airports, and how those lessons shaped his approach to his second venture, Zip, a procurement software company. Rajul recounts the origin of FlightCar, born from a casual conversation about Airbnb and the potential for car sharing at airports. Despite lacking experience and resources, he and his co-founders launched the company with a scrappy, "do things that don't scale" mentality. They parked cars in a BART parking lot before being shut down by the police, rented cars from a low-cost agency to fulfill early demand, and navigated the operational challenges of managing a physical marketplace. FlightCar grew to 17 airport locations but faced significant challenges due to its low gross margins and operationally intensive nature. Rajul describes it as squeezing the last drop of juice from a lemon. The constant struggle to maintain profitability and raise capital taught him valuable lessons about the importance of high-margin businesses and avoiding negative feedback loops. The company, at times, only had two weeks of cash, requiring him to pitch 80 different firms before finding a series A investor. Following the sale of FlightCar, Rajul joined Airbnb as a product manager to gain experience working at a larger, established company. He realized that he lacked fundamental knowledge about how successful companies operate and the caliber of talent they attract. This stint at Airbnb exposed him to best-in-class product development practices and the importance of aligning incentives within a growing organization. He learned the need to prioritize external challenges over self-inflicted pain. Rajul also spent time as a visiting partner at Y Combinator, providing advice and guidance to early-stage startups. This experience reinforced his appreciation for the resilience and determination of founders. It also showed him the diversity of ideas and individuals that can lead to successful companies. Armed with the lessons from FlightCar, his experience at Airbnb, and his time at Y Combinator, Rajul co-founded Zip. He and his co-founder spent two years ideating and planning, committing to a start date in March 2020, just as the pandemic lockdowns began. Ironically, they had to pivot during the YC batch, which was triggered by helpful, blunt advice to solve an old problem in a new way. Zip's approach was very different from FlightCar. This time, Rajul was determined to prove the product's value and market fit before aggressively pursuing growth. He and his co-founder focused on cold outreach to secure their first 10 customers, using those interactions to gather feedback and refine their product. He underscores the importance of charging early adopters, even a relatively small amount, to validate the product's value proposition. Rajul's key takeaway is the shift in mindset between his first and second startup experiences. As a first-time founder, he was overly concerned with external perceptions – what his team, investors, and the press thought. The second time around, he prioritized building something that truly works and sought honest feedback, even if it meant confronting uncomfortable truths. He would rather identify and address the business's weaknesses than dwell on its successes. Rajul learned not to care so much about creating a “positive picture," because finding out what's broken is ultimately how you get better. Overall, Rajul believes that starting a business is a quest for truth.