对于年轻的企业家们来说，现在并不是创业的好时候。当2007年12月经济大萧条（Great Recession）爆发时，那时开始创业的十几岁或者二十几岁的年轻人，现在大学还没有走出大学校门。不像.com时代的前辈们靠烧钱过日子，今天的新 兴公司不能大量的依靠风险投资，而且现在的商业信贷也收的很紧。根据考夫曼基金会（Kauffman Foundation）的数据显示，即使企业家在总人口中比率不断增长的情况下，2009年35岁以下开始创业的人数比率依然低于2008年。
The finalists in Businessweek.com's sixth annual search for America's best young entrepreneurs reflect the times: Most of their companies are lean and focused on getting profitable before expanding. Take LiveProud, a group of clothing brands for sailors, hikers, and yoga enthusiasts that two Babson College seniors started in 2007. Founders Phil Tepfer and Charles Bogoian, both 24, keep costs down by sewing their apparel at contract manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada as orders come in. "We work on very low inventory numbers," Tepfer says. LiveProud, which gets its fabric from recycled landfill materials like plastic bottles and corn husks, became profitable within a year, and expects revenue of $375,000 this year, he says.
这次《商业周刊》网站（businessweek.com）“第六届美国年度最具潜力年轻企业家”的最终入围者正好反映了这个时代：大多数公司收益都不 好，且在扩张之前都专注于盈利。就拿LiveProud来说，该公司由两名百森商学院（Babson College）即将毕业的学生于2007年创立，其业务主要是向水手、户外运动爱好者以及瑜伽爱好者销售一系列的服装品牌。该公司的两位创始人Phil Tepfer和Charles Bogoian同是24岁，为了节约成本，他们在美国和加拿大签约了几家工厂，当接到订单后就在这些签约工厂内加工服装。“我们的库存数很 小，”Tepfer说。Tepfer还表示，LiveProud所使用的布料是由一些可回收的废弃材料制成的，这其中包括塑料瓶和玉米壳等，在该公司成立 一年后就盈利了，今年预计年收入达到$375,000美元。
Others have built recession-friendly business models. Onetime Georgetown roommates Ben McKean and Dan Leahy got their idea for a service that would help high-end restaurants fill empty tables in 2009. McKean, then an analyst at Merrill Lynch, was covering the initial public offering for restaurant reservation service OpenTable . By last September, he and Leahy had quit their Wall Street jobs to start VillageVines. Subscribers to their e-mail newsletter can pay $10 for discounts of 10 percent to 30 percent at restaurants in New York and five other cities. The service launched in May and now has more than 500,000 subscribers, McKean says. VillageVines raised $500,000 in angel investment and its New York operation became cash-flow positive in three months, and it's now investing in other cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston, he says.
其他的一些公司也建立了适合经济不景气时创业的商业模式。两位前乔治敦大学的室友Ben McKean和Dan Leahy在2009年产生了一个为高级饭店提供服务的想法，他们想帮助那些高级饭店填满空位。当时的McKean还是美林（Merrill Lynch）的分析师，他曾报道过专门提供饭店订座服务的OpenTable的IPO。去年九月，两人同时辞去了在华尔街的工作，开始创办高级餐馆折扣网 VillageVines。McKean表示，只要其e-mail通讯的订购者支付$10，就可以享受其提供的纽约（New York）和其他五个城市饭店10%到30%不等的折扣。据McKean透漏，VillageVines从天使投资那里筹集了$50万美金，其纽约的业务 在运营三个月后现金流就为正的，现在其正在开拓旧金山（San Francisco）、芝加哥（Chicago）和波士顿（Boston）等地区的业务。
Variety of Revenue Profiles
收入模式多样化
LiveProud and VillageVines are among the hundreds of young companies nominated by readers this summer and vetted by Businessweek.com reporters. Some are multimillion-dollar operations: 23-year-old Ray Land built a fleet of 40 charter buses in northern Florida that brought in $3 million last year. Others, like Bethlehem (Pa.)-based LifeServe Innovations, have no revenue yet. LifeServe's prototype, developed from the founders' university research and now in preclinical testing, is a medical device meant to help minimally trained care providers open patients' airways in emergency situations.
LiveProud和VillageVines是今夏读者推荐的几百个年轻公司中的两个，这两个公司也被《商业周刊》网站的记者们审查过了。还有一些是年 收入近百万美元的公司：23岁的Ray Land在北佛罗里达州（Florida）租用了40辆汽车组建了自己的车队，该车队去年为其带来$300万美元的收入。另外还有像位于宾夕法尼亚州伯利 恒市（Bothlehem）的LifeServe Innovations，LifeServe的样机是从创始人在大学期间的研究发展而来的，目前该机进入临床测试阶段。LifeServe是一种医疗设 备，该设备用来帮助那些经过最低限度培训的护理人员，在紧急情况下打开病人的气管。但该公司目前还没有盈利。
Each of the 25 companies in our roundup share a few qualities: Their founders were no older than 25 at the nomination cut-off date, and they appeared to hold promise based on business model, founders' experience, outside capital, and revenue. Now it's your turn to weigh in. Flip through this slide show of our 25 finalists and vote for your favorite by Oct. 21. We'll announce readers' top picks on Oct. 28.
入围的这25家公司有一些共同的特点：在提名截止日前，创始人都不超过25岁；从其商业模式、创始人经验、外部资本以及收入来看，它们的前景非常广阔。现 在是该您做出权衡的时候了。浏览这25位入围企业家的幻灯片，在10月21日前投票选出你的最爱。我们将于10月28日公布获得读者票数最多的前五名。
Also in this year's report: We profile an effort at the University of Utah to nurture student startups; Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein evaluates funding options for aspiring business owners; and a 25-year-old New Jersey native who recently launched a Mandarin-language teaching business in Beijing describes her journey. You can find each of these features in the Related Items box at the upper right side of this overview.
同时包含在今年报告中的还有：我们简明扼要的描述了犹他大学（University of Utah）在培育学生创办企业方面所取得的成就；Smart Answers的专栏作家Karen E.Klein为志向远大的业主评估可选择的筹集资金方法；25岁的新泽西（New Jersey）当地人讲述其在北京的创业经历，最近她在北京办起了汉语教学业务。这些特别报道您都可以在本文右上角的“相关内容（Related Items）”中找到。
