Furo’s founders left Silicon Valley — and it’s paying off

Furo 创始人离开硅谷，这一决定正带来丰厚回报

U.S. venture capitalists once insisted that international startups move stateside before they would write a check. The three 28-year-old founders behind Furo are convinced that their decision to leave Silicon Valley and move back to their home country of Germany has paid off in both VC dollars and business growth. 过去，美国风险投资人曾坚持要求国际初创公司搬到美国，才愿意开出支票。Furo 背后的三位 28 岁创始人坚信，他们离开硅谷回到祖国德国的决定，无论是在风投资金还是业务增长方面，都已经获得了回报。

The startup, which developed software for industrial battery storage systems, has secured $4 million in funding from mostly U.S. backers. And just a year after its founding, Furo has locked in enterprise clients such as German rail company Deutsche Bahn. “We’re currently moving faster in Europe than if we’d have stayed in the U.S.,” Furo co-founder Lena Sophia Voß said. 这家开发工业电池存储系统软件的初创公司，已经从主要来自美国的投资者那里获得了 400 万美元的融资。在成立仅一年后，Furo 就锁定了德国铁路公司（Deutsche Bahn）等企业客户。Furo 联合创始人 Lena Sophia Voß 表示：“我们目前在欧洲的发展速度，比留在美国要快得多。”

On paper, Furo is a Delaware C Corp. that raised a funding round led by U.S.-based TQ Ventures with participation from Neo and Sheryl Sandberg’s fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners. But its journey is also representative of an observation recently shared by VC firm a16z that “there is now an advantage to having one foot in your home country, and one foot in Silicon Valley.” 从名义上讲，Furo 是一家特拉华州的 C 型公司，其融资轮由总部位于美国的 TQ Ventures 领投，Neo 和雪莉·桑德伯格（Sheryl Sandberg）的基金 Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners 参投。但它的历程也印证了风投公司 a16z 最近分享的一个观点：“现在，一只脚留在祖国，另一只脚留在硅谷，反而具有优势。”

Furo’s bridge to Silicon Valley was Munich’s Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), which also participated in its round. It was through this program, which is tied to their alma mater TU Munich, that Voß and her co-founders Leonie Wagner and Simon Wittner made it to the Bay Area, where they studied at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Furo 通往硅谷的桥梁是慕尼黑数字技术与管理中心（CDTM），该中心也参与了其融资。正是通过这个与他们的母校慕尼黑工业大学（TU Munich）挂钩的项目，Voß 和她的联合创始人 Leonie Wagner 及 Simon Wittner 才得以进入湾区，并在斯坦福大学和加州大学伯克利分校学习。

When they decided to start Furo with the ambition of helping industrial companies reduce their electricity costs, they determined that the problem was more pressing in Europe. Voß said it was especially critical in Germany, where over the last five years the country went from one energy crisis to another. 当他们决定创办 Furo，立志帮助工业企业降低电费成本时，他们认定这个问题在欧洲更为紧迫。Voß 表示，这在德国尤为关键，因为在过去五年里，德国经历了接二连三的能源危机。

Furo could have addressed this market from the U.S. — and briefly did so when it joined Neo’s accelerator program under its former name, Lumera Energy. But Voß said being far from Germany made their work more difficult. “If you are an early-stage company, very often it’s mostly about your network, and also about being close to your customers,” Voß said. Furo 本可以在美国处理这个市场——事实上，当它以原名 Lumera Energy 加入 Neo 的加速器项目时，曾短暂尝试过。但 Voß 表示，远离德国让他们的工作变得更加困难。“如果你是一家早期公司，很多时候关键在于你的人脉，以及与客户保持紧密联系，”Voß 说道。

Amid concerns over immigration restrictions that are also affecting tech employees, the German entrepreneur insisted that in the trio’s case, going home after their respective stints at Apple, Google X, and AI startups was a deliberate move. She said they all had full-time offers from the companies they’d worked at, and all of them could have stayed with visas. 在移民限制影响科技从业者的担忧背景下，这位德国创业者坚称，对于他们三人而言，在分别于苹果、Google X 和人工智能初创公司工作后选择回国，是一个深思熟虑的决定。她说，他们当时都收到了原公司的全职录用通知，并且完全可以通过签证留下来。

“So it was a decision to go back to Europe not because we needed to, but because we see that right now, it’s a better time to build an energy startup in Europe instead of the U.S.,” Voß said. “所以，决定回到欧洲并不是因为我们不得不走，而是因为我们认为，现在在欧洲创办一家能源初创公司，时机比在美国更好，”Voß 说。

According to Voß, starting Furo out of Munich was “highly beneficial” for its growth, “because a lot of people in our network recommended us to our first customers,” as well as for “operational expertise” and mentorship. “Every time we have a challenge, we know exactly whom to call,” she said, adding that being close to technical universities is also helpful for hiring. 据 Voß 所述，从慕尼黑起步对 Furo 的成长“非常有益”，“因为我们人脉圈里的许多人将我们推荐给了第一批客户”，同时在“运营专业知识”和导师指导方面也大有裨益。“每当我们遇到挑战，我们都知道该找谁求助，”她补充道，靠近技术类大学对招聘也很有帮助。

It doesn’t hurt, either that “if you compare the salary of an engineer in the U.S. versus Germany, it is just way cheaper,” Voß said. She recalled that Furo’s U.S. investors wondered whether it would be able to source talent for the amount it had budgeted, which was actually at the top end for salaries in Germany. “So it’s definitely better that you can do more with the money,” she added. Voß 还提到，如果比较美国和德国工程师的薪资，“德国要便宜得多”，这当然也是个优势。她回忆说，Furo 的美国投资者曾怀疑他们是否能用预算内的资金招到人才，而这些预算实际上已经是德国薪资水平的上限了。“所以，能用同样的钱做更多的事，绝对是更好的选择，”她补充道。

Salary is just one aspect, though. Voß said the quality of talent is also on par, while workers are more accessible because there is less competition with Big Tech and also thanks to Furo’s CDTM ties. “It’s such a great network in Germany and in Europe that people somehow start to know you.” 不过，薪资只是一个方面。Voß 表示，人才质量同样不相上下，而且由于与大型科技公司的竞争较少，加上 Furo 与 CDTM 的联系，招募员工也更容易。“德国和欧洲的人脉网络非常棒，人们不知不觉就开始认识你了。”

The startup is also maintaining its U.S. network. “We’re back in the U.S. three or four times a year for admin stuff, but also to catch up with our investors and maybe see new investors,” Voß said. It’s a reminder that, even for startups that are now happy at home, getting the best of both worlds may still mean fundraising from the United States. 这家初创公司也保持着其美国人脉网络。“我们每年会回美国三四次处理行政事务，同时也为了与投资者叙旧，或许还会见见新的投资者，”Voß 说。这提醒我们，即使对于那些现在在本土发展得很好的初创公司来说，想要兼顾两地优势，可能仍然意味着需要从美国进行融资。