just made his first investment in a  Southeast Asian e-commerce start-up.

他剛剛對一家東南亞電子商務創業公司進行了首次投資。

It was incredibly fortunate and  a huge fan boy moment for me.

這是令人難以置信的幸運，對我來說是一個巨大的粉絲男孩時刻。

But it's not one of the region's  billion-dollar unicorns.  

但它並不是該地區價值10億美元的獨角獸之一。

It's a mom-and-pop shop start-up that's  been around for less than two years.

這是一家剛起步的母嬰店，成立不到兩年。

If I look at last month's numbers,  we've grown more than 200 times.

如果我看一下上個月的數字，我們已經增長了200多倍。

And it just so happens that some of the  founders are Bezos' former employees.

而恰好有些創始人是貝佐斯的前僱員。

I wrote a memo, which is a very Amazon  style thing to do. You don't send a deck;  

我寫了一份備忘錄，這是很有亞馬遜風格的事情。你不送一副牌。

you send a written note. Wow, so taking a leaf out of  

你發一個書面說明。哇，這麼說是借鏡了

the leadership book from Jeff Bezos seems to have  

傑夫-貝佐斯的領導力書籍似乎有

paid dividends there. It's inspirational.

在那裡獲得了紅利。這是鼓舞人心的。

Indonesian e-commerce start-up Ula  is a wholesale marketplace aiming  

印度尼西亞電子商務創業公司Ula是一個批發市場，旨在

to modernize the country's millions  of mom-and-pop kiosks, or warungs,  

使該國數百萬個家庭和福利社（warungs）現代化。

by providing inventory and logistics  services, as well as financing.

通過提供庫存和物流服務，以及融資。

Founded in January 2020 by CEO Nipun  Mehra, the company has thrived under  

該公司由首席執行官Nipun Mehra於2020年1月成立，並在以下方面取得了蓬勃發展

a pandemic-induced shift to digital, so  far raising over $117 million in funding  

由大流行引起的向數字化的轉變，迄今已籌集到超過1.17億美元的資金

from big names like Tencent and  Lightspeed Venture Partners.

來自騰訊和光速創投等大公司的投資。

One among them is Bezos Expeditions,  

其中之一是貝索斯探險隊。

whose billionaire owner was told about Ula  by one of the start-up's early backers.

該公司的億萬富翁老闆是由這家新創公司的一個早期支持者告知Ula的。

In a region where Amazon has limited  presence, Jeff Bezos's investment  

在一個亞馬遜業務有限的地區，傑夫-貝佐斯的投資

of an undisclosed sum through his family  office can be seen as a vote of confidence.

通過他的家族辦公室提供的一筆未披露的資金可以被看作是一張信任票。

Nipun previously worked at Boston Consulting  Group and Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart,  

尼普恩此前曾在波士頓諮詢集團和印度電子商務巨頭Flipkart工作。

but he started his career as a  software engineer at Amazon in 2004.

但他於2004年在亞馬遜以軟件工程師的身份開始了他的職業生涯。

If you'd have asked me at that time that there  would be a day, you know, 15 years later,  

如果你在那個時候問我，會有這麼一天，你知道，15年後。

where this moment would come, I would  have probably been like it's a dream.

在這一時刻到來時，我可能會覺得這是個夢。

Despite never meeting Bezos, Nipun yearned  to be an entrepreneur, just like him.  

儘管從未見過貝佐斯，但尼普恩渴望成為一名企業家，就像他一樣。

It was during his time as an investor at Sequoia  India when he saw an opportunity to adapt the  

正是在他作為紅杉印度公司的投資者期間，他看到了一個機會，可以調整。

traditional business-to-consumer e-commerce model  for a new market: small food kiosks in Indonesia.

在一個新的市場，即印度尼西亞的小食品亭，採用傳統的企業對消費者的電子商務模式。

The B2C angle, the typical Amazon,  Flipkart, or here, in Southeast Asia,  

B2C的角度，典型的亞馬遜、Flipkart，或者在這裡，在東南亞。

we have Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia and so  on, it has been more on the non-food side,  

我們有Shopee、Lazada、Tokopedia等等，它更多地是在非食品方面。

primarily. Foods is a very different way of  running things. Usually in emerging economies,  

主要是。食品是一種非常不同的運行方式。通常是在新興經濟體。

their income profile is such that they have  to buy frequently and in small baskets.  

他們的收入狀況決定了他們必須經常購買，而且是小籃子。

And the moment you get into that dynamic, the traditional way of doing e-commerce doesn't work,  

而當你進入這種動態時，傳統的電子商務方式就不起作用了。

because you can't deliver a three-, four-,  five-dollar basket to somebody's home and do  

因為你不可能把一個三、四、五美元的籃子送到某人的家裡，並做

it profitably and sustainably, so you  have to find other ways of doing it.

它是有利可圖和可持續的，所以你必須找到其他的方法。

Indonesia, with its vast population  and fast-growing economy,  

印度尼西亞，擁有龐大的人口和快速增長的經濟。

is seen as a huge opportunity  for entrepreneurs and investors.

被視為企業家和投資者的一個巨大機會。

Central to that are the country's  millions of neighborhood kiosks,  

這方面的核心是該國數以百萬計的社區福利社。

which sell fast moving consumer goods, like drinks  and packaged food, as well as household items.

其中銷售快速消費品，如飲料和包裝食品，以及家庭用品。

They're an integral part of society,  

他們是社會的一個組成部分。

especially in the smaller cities and  provinces outside the capital Jakarta,  

特別是在首都雅加達以外的小城市和省份。

accounting for almost three-quarters of the  country's $47 billion consumer goods sales.

佔全國470億美元消費品銷售額的近四分之三。

Many rely on traditional means  of replenishing their supplies  

許多人依靠傳統的方式來補充他們的物資

by shuttering their stores when they  visit wholesalers to stock up wares.

當他們到批發商處囤積貨物時，他們的商店就會關閉。

Abheek Anand, a managing director at Sequoia  India, one of Ula's investors, explained more.

Ula的投資者之一、紅杉印度公司的總經理阿比克-阿南德(Abheek Anand)作了更多解釋。

They are essentially run by one or two people,  who act like consumers. They own the business;  

它們基本上是由一兩個人經營，他們的行為就像消費者。他們擁有業務。

they need to procure things for themselves  to sell. And for them to actually  

他們需要為自己採購東西來出售。而對於他們來說，實際上

tap into offline supply chains is actually very  inefficient. They have to go to the local market,  

挖掘線下供應鏈實際上是非常低效的。他們必須到當地市場去。

spend hours figuring out what  to buy, where to buy it from.

花幾個小時來計算買什麼，從哪裡買。

Nipun wanted to simplify that process by  creating a business-to-business platform  

Nipun希望通過創建一個企業對企業的平臺來簡化這一過程

that would enable stallholders to  order stock at competitive rates  

這將使攤主能夠以有競爭力的價格訂購存貨

and have it delivered to  their store for a small fee.

並在收取少量費用的情況下將其送到他們的商店。

So, he called on his contacts in the e-commerce  space to help him realize the vision.  

是以，他呼籲他在電子商務領域的聯繫人幫助他實現這個願景。

His former colleague from Amazon,  Alan Wong, Riky Tenggara from Lazada,  

他在亞馬遜的前同事阿蘭-黃，來自Lazada的Riky Tenggara。

and Procter & Gamble executive Derry  Sakti rounded out the founding team.

和寶潔公司高管Derry Sakti組成了創始團隊。

The traditional store owner, they're  on YouTube, they're on TikTok,  

傳統的店主，他們在YouTube上，他們在TikTok上。

they're spending time on WhatsApp. They're  digital. They're more digital than many of us.  

他們在WhatsApp上花費時間。他們是數字化的。他們比我們中的許多人更數字化。

So how do we bring that advantage and say  okay, we've learned all this stuff in Amazon,  

是以，我們如何發揮這種優勢，說好吧，我們在亞馬遜學到了所有這些東西。

we've learned all this stuff in business  school. How do we bring some of that  

我們已經在商學院學到了所有這些東西。我們如何將這些東西中的一些

into this little smartphone and help them both  make more money as well as save more money?

融入這個小小的智能手機，幫助他們既能賺更多的錢，也能省更多的錢？

The business got off to a steady start. But  within months of launching in January 2020,  

該業務有了一個穩定的開始。但在2020年1月啟動後的幾個月內。

the pandemic hit, making demand  for services like Ula more urgent.

大流行病的襲擊，使得對Ula等服務的需求更加迫切。

Lockdowns made it harder for stallholders to  source goods from wholesalers, even as customer  

封鎖使攤主更難從批發商那裡採購貨物，甚至在客戶

demand for daily essentials grew. That caused  many mom-and-pop shops to pile onto the platform.

對日常必需品的需求增長。這導致許多母嬰店扎堆在這個平臺上。

The need in the market just  completely switched. In lockdown,  

市場的需求就這樣完全轉換了。在鎖定。

your first priority is to get your  food, is to get things that you consume.

你的首要任務是獲得你的食物，是獲得你所消費的東西。

The founders responded quickly,  onboarding tens of thousands of  

創始人們迅速做出反應，加入了數以萬計的員工。

stallholders and expanding their team of 15  to 400 across Indonesia, Singapore and India.

檔主，並將他們在印度尼西亞、新加坡和印度的15人團隊擴大到400人。

That rapid growth caught the eye of investors,  

這種快速增長引起了投資者的注意。

helping them to attract their first  round of investment within six months.

幫助他們在6個月內吸引第一輪投資。

To Nipun's credit, he's been able to get  a lot of momentum very early and clearly a  

值得讚揚的是，他能夠很早就獲得很多動力，而且顯然是一個

lot of other investors are seeing that. The most  exciting addition to the company is Jeff Bezos,  

很多其他投資者正在看到這一點。該公司最令人激動的成員是傑夫-貝佐斯。

who's invested, which is obviously nice validation  for the business. But there are a number of other  

誰投資了，這顯然是對企業的良好驗證。但也有一些其他的

really smart people who have  joined us along the way.

一路走來，有很多真正的聰明人加入我們。

To date, Southeast Asia is  home to 35 billion-dollar  

迄今為止，東南亞擁有35個價值10億美元的

startups, of which three-quarters (76%)  are from Indonesia and Singapore. Of them,  

創業公司，其中四分之三（76%）來自印度尼西亞和新加坡。其中

26% are in the financial technology sector,  20% are in e-commerce and 11% are in logistics.

26%在金融科技領域，20%在電子商務領域，11%在物流領域。

In October 2021, Ula closed its  Series B round, raising $87 million.  

2021年10月，Ula完成了其B輪融資，籌集了8700萬美元。

Nipun said the cash will go towards expanding  its existing marketplace offering, as well as  

Nipun說，這些現金將用於擴大其現有的市場產品，以及

launching a so-called buy now, pay later service  to provide stallholders with small loans.

推出所謂的先買後付服務，為攤主提供小額貸款。

What is to come is what we call the working  capital problem. That's something which we  

即將到來的是我們所說的營運資金問題。這也是我們

are building. Working capital helps  you expand how much you can keep in  

正在建設。營運資金幫助你擴大你能保持多少

your store and therefore you will not run  out when the customer needs something.

你的商店，是以，當客戶需要的東西時，你將不會跑出來。

The foundations are there, the  customers want the service.  

基礎就在那裡，客戶想要的服務。

What we need to do now is continue to build on it.

我們現在需要做的是在此基礎上繼續發展。

Within the next 18 months,  Nipun hopes to quadruple  

在接下來的18個月內，尼普頓希望能將自己的業務量翻兩番。

the number of merchants Ula works  with from 70,000 today to 300,000.

與Ula合作的商戶數量從現在的7萬個增加到30萬個。

He also hopes to help merchants  expand into new categories  

他還希望能幫助商家擴展到新的類別

such as apparel and technology, with the  ultimate goal of doubling their income.

如服裝和技術，最終目標是使他們的收入翻倍。

Why restrict yourself to the items  that are in your store? Why can't  

為什麼把自己限制在商店裡的商品上？為什麼不可以

you order everything that your customer  needs? Why can't you be that channel?  

你訂購了客戶所需的一切？為什麼你不能成為那個管道？

And those are tougher problems to solve  and will take longer. But, in my mind,  

而這些都是更難解決的問題，需要更長的時間。但是，在我看來。

that is what will lead to a new form of retail.  Not something which we have seen in the U.S.,  

這將導致一種新的零售形式。 這不是我們在美國看到的東西。

not something which we have seen in China. It  will be an Indonesia-specific, unique solution.

這不是我們在中國看到的東西。這將是印度尼西亞特有的、獨特的解決方案。

It's a bold goal for any entrepreneur, let  alone one building in the midst of a pandemic.

這對任何企業家來說都是一個大膽的目標，更何況是在大流行病中的建築。

There will always be uncertainty in life, there  will always be risk in life. You just have to  

生活中總會有不確定性，生活中總會有風險。你只是要

say I'm going to try this and I  will deal with whatever comes. 

說我要試一試，不管出現什麼情況我都會處理。

And I'm sure that if you'd known that a  pandemic was a few months around the corner,  

而且我相信，如果你知道大流行病在幾個月後就會發生。

you might not have started this  time either but you still managed. 

你這次可能也沒有開始，但你還是成功了。

That is true too. That is true too. So  in that sense the timing was perfect. 

這也是真的。那也是真的。所以從這個意義上說，時機是完美的。

Perfectly bad, but it seems to have worked out. Perfectly bad, correct.

非常糟糕，但似乎已經成功了。完美的壞，正確。