The hottest place for startups to strike a deal? The F1 paddock
The hottest place for startups to strike a deal? The F1 paddock
初创公司达成交易的最热门地点？F1 维修区（Paddock）
Over cold drinks in the Florida heat, this TechCrunch reporter watched from the paddock as founders and investors — the rich and the richer — mingled in search of deals. Conversations barely paused, except for the occasional glance at the track where drivers, sealed inside multi-million-dollar machines, chased the chequered flag. 在佛罗里达炎热的天气里，伴随着冷饮，这位 TechCrunch 记者在维修区观察到，创始人和投资者们——富人与更富的人——正穿梭其中，寻求交易机会。谈话几乎没有停歇，除了偶尔瞥向赛道——车手们被密封在价值数百万美元的赛车中，追逐着方格旗。
F1 weekend is a three-day affair, with the race as the finale. In between are kickoffs, soirées, cocktail parties, dinners, and nightclub takeovers — spaces where business and pleasure blur. Events like this, where wealth concentrates, have historically been places where business deals are struck. But the popularity of the F1 paddock has grown in recent years, especially among the startup and venture crowd. F1 周末是一场为期三天的盛会，正赛是压轴戏。期间穿插着启动仪式、晚会、鸡尾酒会、晚宴和夜店包场——这些空间让商务与娱乐的界限变得模糊。像这样财富集中的活动，历来都是达成商业交易的场所。但近年来，F1 维修区的受欢迎程度与日俱增，尤其是在初创公司和风投圈中。
“It’s a hot place for everyone with access trying to strike a deal,” one founder said, recalling being brought to the paddock by a venture firm two years ago. This year, Chandler Malone, a founder, said he didn’t even attend the race; he only went to some of the side events. So many venture firms were hosting them and much more than usual, he said. “You name the fund, it was someone there hosting clients,” Marell Evans, an investor, also told TechCrunch. “Lots of folks missed Milken for F1 Miami.” “对于所有有门路并试图达成交易的人来说，这是一个热门地点，”一位创始人说道，他回忆起两年前被一家风投公司带到维修区的情景。今年，创始人钱德勒·马龙（Chandler Malone）表示，他甚至没有去看比赛，只参加了一些周边活动。他说，举办这些活动的风投公司非常多，比往常多得多。投资者马雷尔·埃文斯（Marell Evans）也告诉 TechCrunch：“你能想到的基金，都有人在那里招待客户。很多人为了迈阿密 F1 而错过了米尔肯（Milken）峰会。”
F1 teams, once sponsored by major oil, tobacco, banks, and alcohol companies, have embraced the new railroad giants. The F1 team liveries this season — plastered with AI, cloud computing, and enterprise company logos — is a literal sign pointing to where the money is. The past five years reflects the shift. In that time, Oracle became the title sponsor of Red Bull Racing team, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team struck a multi-year partnership with Microsoft, CoreWeave became Aston Martin Aramco’s official AI cloud partner, Anthropic began working with Williams Racing, Palantir and IBM partnered with Ferrari, AWS began providing data analytics to F1, and the audio app ElevenLabs and fintech Revolut have teamed up with Audi. F1 车队曾经由大型石油、烟草、银行和酒类公司赞助，如今已拥抱了新的行业巨头。本赛季 F1 车队的涂装——贴满了人工智能、云计算和企业公司的标志——是资金流向的直接信号。过去五年反映了这一转变。在此期间，甲骨文（Oracle）成为红牛车队的冠名赞助商，梅赛德斯-AMG 马石油 F1 车队与微软达成了多年合作伙伴关系，CoreWeave 成为阿斯顿·马丁 Aramco 车队的官方 AI 云合作伙伴，Anthropic 开始与威廉姆斯车队合作，Palantir 和 IBM 与法拉利达成合作，AWS 开始为 F1 提供数据分析，音频应用 ElevenLabs 和金融科技公司 Revolut 也与奥迪联手。
Some VC and PE firms also own stakes in F1 teams, including Dorilton Capital’s 2020 acquisition of Williams Racing and the 200 million euro investment into Alpine by backers Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, and Maximum Effort Investments. Hannan Happi, founder of the climate startup Exowatt, credits the 2020 Netflix F1 show “Drive to Survive” as a catalyst for increasing audience interest. But the tech industry showing up in force is more recent, Happi said, “really the last three or four years.” He cited all the big tech companies that have moved into the sport, including crypto and AI brands. “Where the sponsors go, the executives will follow,” he said. 一些风投和私募股权公司也持有 F1 车队的股份，包括 Dorilton Capital 在 2020 年收购威廉姆斯车队，以及 Otro Capital、RedBird Capital Partners 和 Maximum Effort Investments 等支持者对 Alpine 车队的 2 亿欧元投资。气候初创公司 Exowatt 的创始人汉南·哈皮（Hannan Happi）认为，2020 年 Netflix 的 F1 纪录片《极速求生》（Drive to Survive）是提升观众兴趣的催化剂。但哈皮表示，科技行业大规模涌入是最近才发生的事，“实际上是在过去三四年里”。他列举了所有进入这项运动的大型科技公司，包括加密货币和人工智能品牌。“赞助商去哪里，高管们就会跟到哪里，”他说。
A concentration of enterprise buyers
企业买家的聚集地
It’s no wonder, then, that TechCrunch ran into Lightspeed Ventures CMO Josh Machiz, who explained that founders and execs from many startups in its portfolio were also roaming the paddock. The goal for them, he said, was to strike some enterprise deals with other startups and tech giants. Though TechCrunch ran into Machiz in the IBM Paddock, he said the firm actually has a structured program in place with Aston Martin to help introduce Lightspeed founders to Aston Martin and its enterprise clients. 因此，TechCrunch 遇到 Lightspeed Ventures 的首席营销官乔什·马奇兹（Josh Machiz）也就不足为奇了。他解释说，其投资组合中许多初创公司的创始人和高管也在维修区徘徊。他说，他们的目标是与其他初创公司和科技巨头达成一些企业交易。尽管 TechCrunch 是在 IBM 维修区遇到马奇兹的，但他表示，该公司实际上与阿斯顿·马丁有一个结构化的项目，旨在帮助将 Lightspeed 的创始人介绍给阿斯顿·马丁及其企业客户。
In the paddock, CIOs and CISOs stand next to CEOs, and rooms are small enough for people to actually chat with each other, Machiz said. Aston Martin, like all the F1 teams, is actively looking for ways to leverage the latest tech, as well as meet the founders behind it. Technology has always been central to F1, helping drive advancements in consumer tech and car safety. Looking ahead is how teams stay ahead and these days, if a startup like Anthropic gets big enough, the team can nab a future sponsor, too. 马奇兹说，在维修区，首席信息官（CIO）和首席信息安全官（CISO）与首席执行官（CEO）并肩而立，空间小到足以让人们真正地交谈。像所有 F1 车队一样，阿斯顿·马丁正在积极寻找利用最新技术的方法，并结识其背后的创始人。技术一直是 F1 的核心，有助于推动消费技术和汽车安全的发展。展望未来是车队保持领先的方式，如今，如果像 Anthropic 这样的初创公司发展得足够大，车队也能获得未来的赞助商。
Machiz calls Lightspeed the first firm to formalize this kind of partnership and said the Miami race brought in 10 portfolio companies. And it produced results, he said. One of the firm’s blockchain companies struck a handshake deal over the weekend, and one of its AI infrastructure startups closed two more. Two came from Aston introductions, while the third came by chance, he said. “The Aston Martin tech team also opened doors to our founders and talked about what they need from builders,” Machiz continued. 马奇兹称 Lightspeed 是第一家将这种合作关系正式化的公司，并表示迈阿密站的比赛带来了 10 家投资组合公司。他说，这产生了成果。该公司的一家区块链公司在周末达成了一项口头协议，其一家 AI 基础设施初创公司又完成了两项交易。他说，其中两项来自阿斯顿·马丁的介绍，第三项则是偶然达成的。“阿斯顿·马丁的技术团队也为我们的创始人打开了大门，并讨论了他们对建设者的需求，”马奇兹继续说道。
Machiz, who used to work at Redpoint, joined Lightspeed just a few months ago. One of the first things he wanted to do was to challenge the idea of the “traditional founder retreat,” where startups and their investors spend time in a remote location, talking, catching up, and, well, sometimes being bored out of their minds. “The consistent ask from founders was always the same, ‘help me meet more buyers,’” Machiz said, recalling when he used to help plan founder retreats. “Another weekend in Sonoma was never going to do that, and the reviews were always that while [it was] nice to spend time together and to meet tech luminaries or VIP speakers, they’d have rather been building or meeting customers.” 马奇兹曾在 Redpoint 工作，几个月前才加入 Lightspeed。他想做的第一件事就是挑战“传统创始人静修”的理念——即初创公司及其投资者在偏远地区聚会，聊天、叙旧，嗯，有时还会感到无聊透顶。“创始人的一贯要求总是相同的：‘帮我结识更多的买家，’”马奇兹回忆起他过去协助策划创始人静修活动时说道。“在索诺玛（Sonoma）再过一个周末永远无法实现这一点，反馈总是说，虽然在一起度过时光并结识科技界名流或贵宾演讲者很不错，但他们宁愿去开发产品或会见客户。”
Instead of another retreat, he took the Lightspeed Venture portfolio to F1. It is, after all, he said, “one of the densest concentrations of enterprise buyers anywhere.” “The opportunity was obvious,” Machiz concluded. 他没有选择再次举办静修活动，而是带着 Lightspeed 的投资组合参加了 F1。毕竟，他说，“这是任何地方企业买家最集中的地方之一。”“机会显而易见，”马奇兹总结道。