As I follow Neil Shen into the head office of DJI, the largest drone company in the world, its staff greet him with bowed heads. Wearing a black shirt, grey slacks and black Italian-made loafers, the 47-year-old is no stranger to this kind of reception.

沈南鹏身着黑色衬衫、灰色长裤，脚上穿一双意大利制造的黑色平底皮鞋。我跟在他身后走进全球最大无人机制造公司——大疆创新科技有限公司(DJI)的总部，员工们低着头向他致意，而他显然已经习惯了这种打招呼的方式。

Shen is one of China’s most successful investors — Forbes magazine puts his personal fortune at $1bn — and head of China operations for the Silicon Valley venture capital outfit Sequoia Capital. At home his rise at a western firm is widely seen as emblematic of the country’s growing status.

现年47岁的沈南鹏是中国最成功的投资者之一，《福布斯》(Forbes)估计他个人财富有10亿美元，他也是硅谷风险投资公司红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)中国业务的负责人。中国国内普遍认为，他在一家西方公司身居高位，也象征着中国地位的上升。

Indeed, some believe it to be only a matter of time before Sequoia Capital China produces more returns than its parent. But on the day of our meeting, in early July, the volatile Chinese stock market is in meltdown (it will fall eight per cent on that day alone). Although he has “only” $6bn under management in his China funds, Shen has, according to a recent estimate from Chinese state television, stakes in companies with a market capitalisation of more than $400bn. The downturn means this figure will have taken a substantial dip.

实际上一些人相信，红杉资本中国基金(Sequoia Capital China)创造的收益早晚超过其母公司。但就在今年7月初我们见面的那一天，跌宕起伏的中国股市大幅下跌（仅在当天就暴跌了8%）。尽管沈南鹏旗下中国基金所管理的资金“仅”有60亿美元，但据中国国家电视台最近的估计，沈南鹏持有的上市公司股票总市值超过4000亿美元。股市下跌意味着该数字会大幅缩水。

Shen, who has a reputation for coolly machine-like calculation, seems unperturbed. Though he admits to carrying three smartphones — to monitor the various service-providers, he says — he hardly glances at the screens.

沈南鹏对此很淡定，他有着像机器一样冷静计算的名声。尽管他坦承自己随身带着3部智能手机——他说这是为了紧盯各个服务提供商——但实际上他很少去看这些手机屏幕。

“Things have not settled yet,” he says. “We need to wait for a few weeks. At the moment, the situation is not market-driven. There are thousands of companies that need money and only five per cent are public. If the valuations come down, that is good for us. The expectations of entrepreneurs were too high.”

他说：“现在还没有稳定下来，我们需要等待几周。目前的形势并不是市场驱动的。千万家公司需要资金，上市的只有5%。如果估值下降，那对我们来说是好事。创业家们以前的期望太高了。”

A decade ago, you wouldn’t have found many Chinese internet entrepreneurs on a list of global billionaires. Today, they are numerous, from Jack Ma, founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, and Pony Ma, founder of Tencent, which began life as a gaming site and is now a social media behemoth, to Robin Li of Baidu, the mainland equivalent of search engine Google, and Lei Jun of smartphone maker Xiaomi. And, while Shen is now primarily known as an investor, he, too — as one of the founders of Ctrip, the hugely successful Chinese travel website — was an internet entrepreneur.

十年前，在全球亿万富翁排行榜上看不到多少中国互联网企业家的名字，如今却冒出了一大批，比如电商巨头阿里巴巴(Alibaba)创始人马云，先是做游戏网站、后来发展为社交媒体巨擘的腾讯(Tencent)的创始人马化腾，“中国内地的谷歌(Google)”搜索引擎公司百度(Baidu)的李彦宏，还有智能手机制造商小米(Xiaomi)的雷军。尽管沈南鹏主要以投资闻名，但他也是一名互联网创业家，他是做得非常成功的中国旅游网站携程网(Ctrip)的创始人之一。

In a technology landscape more complex, concentrated and fast-moving than even Silicon Valley, one or more of the key players Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu has a stake in every one of the top 10 apps in China. Moreover, both of the Mas (who are unrelated) have large family offices that alternately co-operate and compete with investment firms such as Sequoia and its big rivals Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global Management. So, in addition to the direct competition that exists between all of them, there are numerous proxy rivalries that play out through the companies that receive money from them.

在简直比硅谷还要复杂、集中度更高而且日新月异的中国科技业，前十大App中的每一款App都得到了阿里巴巴、腾讯和百度三大互联网公司中至少一家的参股。此外，马云和马化腾（两人并无亲戚关系）都有庞大的家族理财室(family office)，这些理财室与投资公司——如红杉资本及其主要竞争对手高瓴资本(Hillhouse Capital)和老虎环球基金(Tiger Global Management)——时而合作，时而竞争。因此，除了各方彼此之间的直接竞争以外，还有通过各自注资的公司展开的代理竞争。

There are about five private Chinese technology companies with a value of more than $10bn and many others with a value of more than $1bn. Shen is an investor in most of them. As a venture capitalist, his role is to get involved in the earliest stages of a company’s life, when the technology is still untried and the ability of a founder to execute on their vision remains uncertain. To use the analogy of another, admiring tech investor: “Neil Shen would have invested in [Chinese basketball superstar] Yao Ming when he was five, and I would not have had the courage to invest in him even when he was 20!”

大约有5家中国民营科技公司的价值超过100亿美元，还有多家公司的价值超过10亿美元。沈南鹏在这些公司大多都有投资。作为一名风险投资者，他对一家公司的投资通常从最早期开始，在这个阶段，技术尚未经过实践证明，创始人落实自己的构想的能力依然不确定。一位对沈南鹏很是钦佩的科技业投资者比喻说：“沈南鹏会在（中国篮球巨星）姚明5岁的时候对他进行投资，而我即便在姚明20岁的时候也没有勇气对他进行投资。”

“You have to totally change your mindset when you are a venture investor,” Shen explains. “When you do private equity, you have so many reference points. The companies are basically static. In buyout investments, globally, you just improve the operating efficiency, put on a lot of borrowed money and you could make money. VCs in China can’t do that. The situation is much more dynamic. It is all about giving small and fast fish money so they can compete successfully with bigger, slower fish.”

沈南鹏解释称：“如果你是一名风险投资者，你就必须彻底改变自己的思维方式。当你做私募的时候，你有那么多参考点，公司基本上是静态的。如果在全球进行并购投资，你只需提高运营效率，投入大量借来的资金，然后就能赚钱。在中国，风投不可能这么做。这里的形势更加变化多端。你要给规模小、行动快的公司资金，这样它们就能成功地与更大型却行动迟缓的公司竞争。”

Shen was the first outside investor in the drone company we are visiting. Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI), he tells me, is already making money (he estimates $200m profit this year) and is valued at $10bn. It commands 70 per cent of the world’s consumer drone market and is becoming omnipresent: the drone that crashed on the White House lawn in January was made by DJI.

沈南鹏是大疆公司的第一位外部投资者。他告诉我，大疆已经在赚钱了（他估计今年能有2亿美元利润），估值达到100亿美元。大疆在全球消费者无人机市场占据70%的份额，其产品正变得无处不在：今年1月坠毁在白宫草坪上的无人机就是大疆制造的。

Outside the conference room where lunch has been ordered in for us from the restaurant chain Spaghetti House, models of DJI’s latest drones, with names such as Phantom and Ronin, are being shown to a parade of visitors, both local and international. The room itself is sparsely furnished and decorated, save for one piece of framed calligraphy on a whitewashed wall. It reads: “Great Ambition Lacks Borders”: the last character — jiang (“border”) — is the same character as the “jiang” in the company’s title.

我们订了连锁餐厅Spaghetti House的午餐，预备在会议室用餐。会议室外面摆放着精灵(Phantom)、如影(Ronin)等最新款大疆无人机模型，一些来自国内外的访客正在参观。会议室内没有多余家具和装饰，一堵白墙上挂着一幅装裱好的字：“大志无疆”。

Shen lines his phones up on the table, where, for the next two hours, they periodically beep to the rhythm of plunging share prices. He tells me that he uses WeChat, the Tencent messaging app, far more than email. “Western companies don’t have the right mindset for China in many ways,” he says. “When you register for a western app, they always ask for your email address. But your mobile phone number is your identity in China.”

沈南鹏把三部手机依次摆在桌子上，接下来的两个小时里，它们不时随着股价暴跌的节奏而响起。他告诉我，他使用微信（WeChat，腾讯的通信APP）的时间远多于电子邮件。他说：“西方公司在许多方面都没有正确理解中国。当你注册一款西方APP时，它们总是要你的电子邮件地址。但在中国，手机号才是你的身份。”

Shen’s success is a lot to do with understanding the local environment and adapting to it. He recently put money into LinkedIn and Airbnb, with plans to bring both into China. Last year he hired a CEO for LinkedIn China — he is on its board — and plans to introduce locally available products such as Red Rabbit, a networking app aimed at a less sophisticated audience than the wealthy English-speaking professionals who tend to use LinkedIn China.

沈南鹏的成功与他理解并适应国内这种环境不无关系。他最近投资了领英(LinkedIn)和Airbnb，并计划将两家公司引入中国。去年他为领英中国(LinkedIn China)聘请了一位首席执行官——他是该公司董事——并计划推出本土化产品，比如赤兔(Red Rabbit)，这款社交APP针对中低端人群，而不是富裕、讲英语的专业人士，后者往往使用领英中国。

Generally, Shen dislikes coming in at such a late stage of a company’s development. “I don’t feel as deeply involved,” he says. “When I come in early, it’s more of an adventure. I feel more like an entrepreneur again. Of course, you make more money, but you are so closely knitted. You say to yourself, ‘Hey! I identified this company when it had only 15 people camped out in some shabby office in Shanghai.’ You grow with them and they grow with you.” Just for a moment, the persona of a dispassionate investor seems to disappear.

一般来说，沈南鹏不喜欢在公司发展到后期才参与进来。他说：“我感觉没有深度介入。当我早期进入时，更多的是一种冒险。我感觉更像又成了一位创业家。当然，你会赚更多的钱，但主要是你与公司紧密联系。你对自己说，‘嘿！在这家公司只有15个人挤在上海那间简陋的办公室里的时候，我就发现它了’，你和它们一起成长，它们和你一起成长。”就是那么一瞬间，一个冷静客观的投资者的形象荡然无存。

Our lunch boxes have arrived, along with some cheap plastic utensils. Elegant porcelain cups, however, are produced for the hot coffee and steaming jasmine tea. The meal comes to us thanks to a service called Ele.me (translated as Hungry!), in which, I am unsurprised to learn, Shen has also invested. The company, he explains, started in his home city, Shanghai, delivering food to university students who found their dormitory fare insufficiently appetising. It now operates in major cities across the mainland (an average order costs about $4, with restaurants paying the delivery service).

我们订的午餐到了，一起送来的还有廉价的塑料餐具。不过，精美的瓷制杯子用来盛放热咖啡和热气腾腾的茉莉花茶非常合适。我们使用了一款名为“饿了么”的订餐服务APP叫餐——不出我所料，沈南鹏也是这款软件的投资者。他解释称，“饿了么”创办于上海——他本人在那个城市长大——主要面向那些不爱在学校食堂吃的高校学生提供送餐服务。现在该公司的业务遍及中国内地各大城市（平均订单金额大约为4美元，餐馆承担送餐成本）。

It is also part of a chain of mobile internet companies that, in such an opportunistic environment, inevitably trespass on each other’s turf. This poses problems for investors such as Shen. “It isn’t that it starts out as a conflict of interest,” he explains, as DJI staff run around making sure we have everything we require. “It is that they converge because the borders between their models are often times vague.”

它也是一系列移动互联网公司中的一部分——在这样一个充满机会主义的环境中，这些移动互联网公司的业务领域不可避免地出现了交叉。这给沈南鹏等投资者带来了一个问题。在大疆公司的员工忙着准备我们需要的各种东西时，沈南鹏解释说：“并不是一开始就有利益冲突，而是它们逐渐趋同，因为不同模型之间的界限往往随着时间推移而模糊。”

Shen has chosen a lunch box that contains spaghetti with an unidentifiable meat sauce, while I am handed a suspiciously bright pilau rice with chunks of seafood and avocado in a cream sauce. We are both given another box containing a salad of cut tomatoes, eggs, olives, chunks of sausage and chopped ham. Since I don’t eat meat, I put that one aside. There are containers with soup with bits of meat as well. Shen, not known for a big appetite even when he is dining at Hong Kong’s fanciest restaurants, regards his box with a wary lack of enthusiasm.

沈南鹏选了一份不知浇了什么肉羹的意大利面条，递给我的则是一份色泽亮得可疑的奶油酱汁海鲜鳄梨盖浇饭。我们各自还有另外一个餐盒，里面是西红柿、鸡蛋、橄榄、几块香肠和碎火腿做成的沙拉。因为我不吃肉，便把这个放在了一边。盛汤的盒子里也有一些肉。即便在香港最高档的餐厅，沈南鹏也不以胃口好闻名，看起来他对那份午餐也没多大兴趣。

Shen’s role at Sequoia is not the first time he has bridged east and west. Born in the province of Zhejiang, Nanpeng Shen grew up in Shanghai and attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where, according to friends, he was considered a maths genius. He ended up in the US at Yale School of Management and, after graduating in 1992, became one of the first people from mainland China to work on Wall Street.

沈南鹏在红杉资本的角色是为东西方牵线搭桥，这并非是他首次扮演此类角色。沈南鹏出生于中国浙江省，在上海长大，后来考上了上海交通大学，据他的朋友说，沈南鹏在校时被认为是数学天才。他后来前往美国耶鲁大学管理学院(Yale School of Management)留学，1992年毕业后成为最早在华尔街工作的中国内地人之一。

“When I graduated from Yale, I spoke English OK, but at that time Neil Shen was not good at making pitches or presentations,” he says, momentarily slipping into the third person. “I needed a different angle. Because of my math, I had good analytical skills, so I could do derivatives. Lots of Chinese bankers on Wall Street started that way.”

他说：“从耶鲁毕业的时候，我英语说得还不错，但当时的沈南鹏还不擅长推销或者演讲。”他突然用了第三人称。“我需要转换角度。由于数学很好，我有着很强的分析技巧，因此我能够做衍生品。在华尔街的许多中国银行家都是这么开始的。”

By the mid-1990s, the Chinese market was coming alive as people’s wealth grew and, for the first time, they had money to invest. Shen was among a group of so-called “sea turtles”, Chinese who, having studied overseas, chose to return home. “I only became a real banker when I went back to China,” he says, putting down his plastic fork. “There, the cultural disadvantages disappeared. I could pitch to the Bank of China and pitch to the Ministry of Finance. I didn’t have weaknesses any more.”

上世纪90年代中期，随着中国人财富增加，并且首次有钱投资，中国市场开始焕发生机。沈南鹏成了所谓的“海龟”中的一员——“海龟”是指在海外留学，然后选择回国的中国人。沈南鹏放下自己的塑料叉子说道：“回到中国后，我才成了一名真正的银行家。在中国，文化上的劣势消失了。我可以向中国银行(BoC)推销，可以向财政部推销。我不再有弱点。”

By the end of that decade, when the first waves of the new tech economy reached the mainland, Shen was running China capital markets for Deutsche Bank. Internet companies such as Sina and Baidu were in the headlines and the race was on to create the Chinese equivalent of Google. Many of Shen’s classmates from high school, university and Yale were becoming involved, and he, too, decided to jump in.

到上世纪90年代末，新科技经济的第一波浪潮刮到中国内地，当时沈南鹏在德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)负责中国资本市场业务。新浪(Sina)和百度(Baidu)等互联网公司出现在新闻头条位置，争当中国谷歌的竞赛已经展开。沈南鹏的许多高中、大学和耶鲁的同学都参与这股浪潮，而他也决定投身其中。

In December 1999, together with James Liang, whom he had known since they were both 15 and had been nominated by teachers to take part in the first Shanghai computer programming competition, and two others, he founded Ctrip. “There was no Lonely Planet for China,” he recalls. “We knew Expedia was doing well in the US and we thought, ‘There is no information about travel in China, and an internet application for information and online booking would do well’. The internet was the perfect tool.”

1999年12月，沈南鹏与梁建章(James Liang)及另外两人一起创办了携程网——沈梁两人15岁相识，当时他们均被老师推荐参加在上海举办的首届计算机编程竞赛。他回忆道：“那时还没有《孤独星球》(Lonely Planet)中国版，我们知道Expedia在美国非常火，因此我们想，‘现在没有关于在中国旅游的信息，开创一个旅游信息和在线预订的互联网应用会很不错’。互联网是完美的工具。”

The contrast with his former corporate life was stark: “I went from sleeping in five-star hotels and meeting with bank heads to a very different life.” Some security came from the fact that his wife remained an investment banker, he says.

这与他以前的企业生活形成鲜明对比：“我以前住5星级酒店，与银行高管会晤，那时的生活则完全不同。”他说，还算有些安全感的是，他的妻子依然是一名投资银行家。

But, by 2005, with Ctrip valued at more than $1bn, Shen was beginning to realise that, “It was natural for me to combine the roles of investment banker and entrepreneur by taking the role of an investor.” When he received a call from Sequoia later that year, he was ready to listen. The summons came as the mobile internet in China was taking centre stage, and Tencent had recently listed. Shen decided to join, attracted by the promise of “independent investment decisions from day one”.

但到了2005年，随着携程估值超过10亿美元，沈南鹏开始认识到，“通过充当投资者的角色，我可以将投行家和创业家的角色结合起来”。在那年晚些时候接到红杉的电话时，他准备接受聘请。当时移动互联网在中国正成为大家瞩目的焦点，腾讯也刚刚上市。被“从头起就可以独立作出投资决定”的承诺所打动，沈南鹏决定加入红杉。

A decade on from that decision, Shen is as fiercely competitive as ever. During China’s traditional spring festivities, Shen often invites investors to the tropical island of Hainan, where he owns a mansion on the beach, adjacent to Jack Ma’s. Unlike his guests, however, Shen himself rarely indulges in golf or cards. Instead, according to guests, he is constantly on the phone to entrepreneurs: both because he can’t bear to lose a deal, and to stop rival investors getting through to those same entrepreneurs.

自做出那个决定以来已经过去了十年时间，沈南鹏依然同以往一样极其好胜。在中国春节期间，沈南鹏通常会邀请投资者到位于热带地区的海南岛度假——他在那里有一座海滨别墅，与马云的别墅毗邻。然而，与他的客人不同，沈南鹏本人并不沉迷于高尔夫或者打牌。相反，据他的客人说，他不断地与创业家们通话：这既是因为他无法忍受失去一桩交易，也是因为不想让其他投资者联系上那些创业家。

When I say to Shen that this quality of drive and competitiveness is something I more generally associate with people from China’s previous generation, those who endured the bitter hardships of the Cultural Revolution and are trying to make up for lost time, he appears puzzled. But he pauses to think about it, and then tells me he plans to go to Scotland later in the month for some golf, as if to demonstrate that he does lead a balanced life.

我向沈南鹏表示，这种富于干劲和竞争意识的品质通常更容易出现在中国上一代人身上——那些受过文革磨难，并努力弥补失去的时间的人——他听到这句话后显得有些困惑。但他想了一会儿，然后告诉我，他过段时间要去苏格兰打高尔夫，似乎在表明，他的确注重生活与工作的平衡。

“It isn’t about the money,” he says haltingly, as if he has never thought about this. “It’s so exciting. If some of the top companies in China were funded originally by Sequoia, wouldn’t you be excited if you were me?”

沈南鹏犹豫地说道：“不是为了赚钱。”似乎表明他从未想过这个问题。“这份工作非常令人兴奋。如果中国一些最优秀的公司最初是由红杉提供资金的，如果你是我的话，难道不会感到兴奋吗？”

One of the things that complicates Shen’s job most is the tension that exists today between investors and entrepreneurs in China. In the eyes of some backers, entrepreneurs are spending too much money as they compete with one another for the attention and patronage of customers, subsidising users in the process. Shen tries to use his own experience to see it from both sides.

沈南鹏的工作中遇到的最复杂的情况之一是，在当今中国，投资者与创业家之间的关系有些紧张。在一些“金主”看来，创业家在彼此竞争的过程中，为了吸引眼球、争夺消费者而大肆补贴用户，烧钱烧过头了。沈南鹏从自己的经验出发，试图从两个方面来看待这个问题。

“Sometimes, there are tough decisions to be made,” he explains. “When you identify an entrepreneur to back, you have to live with their weaknesses. You reason with him, you argue with him, but you seldom go against the entrepreneur.”

他解释称：“有时候需要作出艰难的决定。当你确定要支持某位创业家的时候，你不得不容忍他们的弱点。你向他们解释，与他们争论，但你很少会与他们作对。”

Along the way, he acknowledges, there are bound to be stumbles. He recalls that he originally rejected overtures from JD.com, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, and now one of the most valuable companies in his portfolio. “That delay was very costly,” he says, shaking his head as he closes the lid on his half-eaten food. It is not clear which he mourns most: the poor quality of our lunch or the cost of his hesitation.

他承认，犯错是免不了的。他回忆道，他最初曾拒绝京东(JD.com)——相当于中国的亚马逊(Amazon)，而现在京东已经成为他的投资组合中最有价值的公司之一。他说：“这种延迟代价非常大，”他摇着头，盖上吃了一半的米饭。不知道他更加遗憾的是哪件事：是我们午餐的质量还是他犹豫的代价。

It is getting late. After prodding doubtfully at a bright yellow jellylike substance that turns out to be mango salad dressing, the smartphones on the table begin to vibrate and beep once more. “Venture capital is a regret business,” concludes one of China’s most successful investors. And with that he finally turns his attention back to the gyrations of the market.

对话临近结束。在他困惑地戳了戳一个黄灿灿的果冻一样的东西之后——后来发现是芒果沙拉酱——桌子上的手机再次震颤着响起。这位中国最成功的投资者之一总结道：“风投是一个让人抱憾的行业。”他随之将注意力重新转向市场的波动上。