創業傳奇：Zipcar創始人轉戰新市場

????了解自己的弱點，通過招聘進行彌補。雖然我成立了一家汽車公司，但我對汽車卻是一竅不通。于是我聘用了一位曾在赫茲租車公司（Hertz，《財富》500強）管理北美車隊的人，擔任公司運營副總裁。

????要有前瞻性，即便這可能會帶來傷害。Zipcar成立初期，我將汽車租賃費定得過低，于是不得不兩次提價。人們說提高費用會給公司品牌帶來風險。但如果繼續執行不合適的價格，我們可能已經倒閉了。

????要有自己的特色。我希望強調Zipcar不同于汽車租賃公司，所以我們沒有使用汽車租賃公司使用的任何車型。我選擇了最新上市的綠色大眾甲殼蟲作為β測試用車，因為這款汽車不僅外形可愛，而且有良好的口碑。為了吸引注意力，我在車身上加了的公司標識，結果證明，這是非常有效的營銷手段。

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Know your weaknesses and hire to fill them. I started a car company, yet knew nothing about cars. So I hired for my vice president of operations a man who had managed Hertz's (HTZ, Fortune 500) North American fleet.

????Be proactive, even if it hurts. Very early with Zipcar, I put too low a price point on the car rental, and had to raise it twice. People said raising the rate would put our brand at risk. But if the price didn't work, we'd have gone under.

????Stand out from the crowd. I wanted to emphasize that Zipcar was different from car rental companies, so we didn't use any vehicle that could be found in a car rental fleet. For the beta car, I chose a newly introduced green Volkswagen Beetle, which was cute and had cachet. I put our logo on the car because I wanted to draw attention to it, and it worked as great marketing.