Nikolay Storonsky prides himself on straight answers. “Ninety-five per cent of founders, they will bullshit you. I’m not going to do it,” says the co-founder and chief executive of Revolut, which offers app-based financial services. The matter-of-fact 33-year-old is talking about work-life balance. He has little time for it.
尼古拉?斯托龙斯基(Nikolay Storonsky)为自己的直言不讳感到自豪。“95％的创业者都会糊弄你。我不会这么做，”这位Revolut的联合创始人兼首席执行官说。该公司提供基于应用程序的金融服务。这位33岁、讲实话的创业者说的是工作与生活平衡的问题。他没有时间来平衡二者。
“I can’t see how work-life balance will help you to build a start-up,” he says. “You are competing with bigger players, with better funded start-ups; you’re competing for customers, you don’t have resources. So how are you going to win this game?”“我看不出工作与生活的平衡会如何帮助你建立一家初创企业，”他说，“你在与更强大的对手竞争，与资金更雄厚的初创企业竞争; 你正在争取顾客，你没有资源。那么，你靠什么来赢得这场竞赛？”There is no doubt that he is building one of the UK’s most promising and fast-growing young businesses, with brand recognition to match: all 59 Team GB athletes at the Winter Olympics in South Korea have been given pre-paid Revolut Visa cards.毫无疑问，他正在打造的是英国最有前途、且增长最快的初创企业之一，其品牌知名度也非常高：韩国冬奥会英国代表团的59名运动员全部获赠Revolut Visa预付卡。Over the past three years, and with the backing of Balderton Capital and Index Ventures, two European venture capital firms, Mr Storonsky’s company has raised about ￡60m and had a valuation of ￡300m last year.
在过去三年里，在两家欧洲风险投资公司巴尔德顿资本(Balderton Capital)和指数创投(Index Ventures)的支持下，斯托龙斯基的公司获得了约6000万英镑的融资，去年的估值达到3亿英镑。Fast growth brings problems. Revolut is grappling with the difficulties of finding and retaining the right staff, as it transforms itself from a tiny, scrappy business into one with hundreds of employees: from a “baby” to a “mature young person”, as Mr Storonsky puts it. It is taking time.快速增长带来了问题。Revolut正在尽力克服寻找并留住合适员工方面的困难，因为公司正在从一个规模小、业务零散的公司转变成一家拥有数百名员工的企业，用斯托龙斯基的话说：正从一个“小宝宝”长成一个“成熟的年轻人”。这需要时间。