从硅谷到深圳：美国科技创业者寻梦大湾区
Raj Oswal
Entrepreneur
Founder of Interface (Shenzhen) Technology Co.
Video by Liu Minxia, Lin Jianping
A STROLL in places like Shekou Net Valley, one of Shenzhen’s many industrial parks incubating high-tech startups, often gives a glimpse into the hottest tech trends. It may also lead to an informative talk with an aspiring entrepreneur like Raj Oswal.
坐落在前海蛇口自贸区内的蛇口网谷，是深圳众多的科技产业基地之一。来这里转一转，可以让人迅速了解科技发展的新趋势，幸运的话，还可以遇到老罗这样的外国创业者，听他谈谈科技、聊聊梦想。
Sent to Shenzhen in April 2019 by Gupshup, a San Francisco-headquartered company, the Californian with a 25-year expertise in go-to-market initiatives for disruptive technologies has been on a mission to explore the Chinese market for the U.S. business messaging disruptor.
2019年4月份从美国加州来到深圳的老罗，是一位有着25年破坏性技术从业经验的资深科技人。当时他被东家Gupshup派到深圳来开拓中国市场，寻找会话式消息传递领域的潜在用户。
Raj Oswal poses for a photo with his dog at the doorstep of his own company — Interface (Shenzhen) Technology Co. in the Shekou Net Valley area in Nanshan District. Photos by Liu Minxia
After making successful inroads into the local market and building relationships with mobile phone giants like Xiaomi Corp., which had a part in helping Gupshup raise an additional US$240 million in its Series F financing round in July, Raj (he prefers to go by his first name) has recently set up his own Shenzhen company in Shekou Net Valley called Interface (Shenzhen) Technology Co.
在过去两年半的时间里，老罗的市场开拓工作进展顺利，帮助Gupshup与包括小米在内的许多中国大型科技公司建立了合作关系。Gupshup于今年7月份完成了F轮后续融资，募集到2.4亿美元，这其中也有老罗的一份功劳。在为东家拓展业务的同时，他自己也嗅到了商机。不久前，老罗在蛇口网谷成立了一家名为因特飞思的科技初创公司。
Stepping into the newly furnished office, one cannot miss a framed Steve Jobs quote and photo hanging on the wall facing Raj’s desk, which reads “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”
走进老罗的办公室，一幅史蒂夫·乔布斯的照片跃然入目。相框挂在老罗座位的正对面，上面还印着这位美国苹果公司联合创始人的一句名言：“要有勇气追随你的内心和直觉。从某种程度上，它们知道你真正想要成为什么样的人”。
Raj hangs a photo of Steve Jobs and his quote on the wall facing his office desk.
Raj’s strong intuition at present, based on years of strong observation across several countries, is that education needs to change.
目前让老罗感触最深的，要数教育领域。他说，他的直觉，以及多年来对一些国家教育体制的观察告诉他，教育领域需要有所改变。
“We need to do something new and concrete to help cultivate critical thinking, soft skills like empathy, as well as creativity among kids,” he said.
“我们需要玩点新花样，做点实事儿，来培养孩子们的批判性思维、创新能力、以及同理心这类软性技巧，”他说道。
He chose to develop a new career in education also because he said that people like him in their 40s tend to invest life with meaning.
他的新公司就打算在教育领域闯一闯，选择这个领域，也是因为年已不惑的他，想做点让人生更有意义的事儿。
“I do feel that if I can do my little bit to create some impact [on education] through disruption, we’re doing something bigger than ourselves,” he said. Disruption, another term for disruptive technology, is change, as Raj put it. “It’s going from the old way to the new way,” he said.
“如果我能运用破坏性技术来对教育方式产生一些影响的话，我会觉得自己所做的事情很有意义”，他对记者说。在他看来，使用破坏性技术简而言之就是变革，“是从旧方式到新方式的一种转变”。
Asked how he had become a tech geek, Raj attributed it to his father, who moved to Silicon Valley from India in the 1970s in pursuit of his American Dream.
当记者问他是怎么变成一名科技极客的，他谈起了自己的父亲。在上世纪70年代，老罗的父亲为追寻美国梦而从印度移居美国硅谷。
A scene at Raj's office.
“That place (Silicon Valley) has decades of history of innovation and to see what Shenzhen’s doing in such a short amount of time is amazing,” he said. Shenzhen is now “really competing with Silicon Valley, which is kind of the cream of the crop in terms of technology innovation.”
“硅谷发展到今天，已经经历了数十年的科技创新，而深圳只用了很短的时间，就发展到了可以和硅谷相提并论的程度，这是非常惊人的。要知道，硅谷可是科技创新方面的顶尖地区”，他说道。
Shenzhen’s long-term investment in both innovation and education has seen its technology innovation ecosystem come into being, according to Raj, who has also formed a local disruptive tech community on WeChat, with 400 entrepreneurs who mostly work on very cool things.
老罗认为，深圳在创新和教育方面的持续投资，已经让科技创新创业生态圈在这座城市里应运而生。连他这个外来创业者也在深圳创立了一个破坏性技术社群，目前已经有400人加入。在老罗看来，他们中的大多数人所研发推广的技术都是非常酷的。
“So, Shenzhen’s a natural second home for me,” he said. “I love being around tech. It’s very modern. You see it everywhere. You see it from day to day.”
“从这一点上来讲，深圳顺理成章地成了我的第二故乡，因为我喜欢待在科技发达的地方。这里的一切都在与时俱进，在这座城市的每个角落你都能感受到这一点，在这里的每一天也都会体会到这一点”，他说道。
Raj cited a recent experience as an example of the city’s tech application. He ordered groceries online at 11 p.m. one night and it was delivered to him 10 minutes later. “You can’t have that happen anywhere else in the world,” he said. “So it’s the tech. The tech is very, very strong over here.”
老罗说起了前阵子有个晚上11点左右，他在线下单买了点食品杂货，结果10分钟以后货就送到了。“这在世界其他地方是很难实现的”，他告诉记者。“这就是科技的力量，深圳的科技实力非常雄厚。”
Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Raj said it’s very exciting for him to be immersed in another rising bay area – the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area – with the two bay areas enjoying similarities in terms of innovation atmosphere.
从小在旧金山湾区长大的老罗，如今又置身于另一个冉冉升起的世界级湾区——粤港澳大湾区。说起这一点来，他十分兴奋，因为他发现这两个湾区在创新氛围方面极其相似。
“It’s similar to what I saw over there as a young 20-year-old what I’ve seen over here with a lot of young entrepreneurs,” he said.
“我20几岁时在旧金山湾区所看到的，和现在在这里跟一帮年轻创业者们所经历的，十分相似，这让人非常兴奋”，他说。
Dedicated and hardworking, Oswal said he doesn’t miss out on Shenzhen’s lesiure life because he has a dog to walk. “Having a dog has been amazing, and we go on lots of adventures. We go to Nanshan Mountain. We go to Shenzhen Bay. We go to OCT Harbor.”
老罗工作起来专注努力，平时喜欢遛狗，也因此有幸没有错过深圳的休闲生活。“养狗有很多趣事，我们经常一起出游。我们一起爬过大南山、去过深圳湾、逛过欢乐海岸”，他说。
Being a Californian, Oswal said he loves the outdoors and Shenzhen’s pleasant natural environment is another reason he likes the city. “Just going for walks, or going to the ocean, or just the fresh air is something I really like. So that’s part of the reason I like Shenzhen,” he added.
作为一名加州人，老罗很喜欢户外活动，而深圳优美的环境是他喜欢上这里的另一个原因。“哪怕只是散散步，到海边走一走，或者只是出去呼吸一下新鲜空气，我都很喜欢。这也是我非常喜欢深圳的原因之一”，他告诉记者。
内容来源：ShenzhenDaily
编辑：刘东博
校审：肖刚 黄淳
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