【CEO故事】知乎创始人周源：从程序员到创始人 

不平凡的人有不一样的人生轨迹，作为知乎创始人的周源，他的创业轨迹又是怎样的呢？

1999年，周源成为东南大学计算机系的一名学生。入学初期，周源在图书馆看了一本比尔·盖茨传《未来之路》，这是他的创业冲动之源。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

当时，周源发现大部分计算机系的学生都在攒钱买电脑，但普遍的用途仅仅是打“星际争霸”和看视频。他决定和另外几名对计算机感兴趣的同学一起组建一个计算机服务部。周源把组装后的电脑卖给其他系的学生，学生也可以直接到服务部订购组装的电脑，同时如果成为服务部的会员还可以听关于电脑硬件的常识讲座。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

周源大一时成立起来的计算机服务部一直持续到大四，“当时投入了很多时间和精力，觉得能天天折腾电脑就挺好玩，编程本身就是件很酷的事情。”

1999 年冬天周源在成都到北京的火车上与人讲起自己的理想，准备写程序到 35 岁，然后去研究天文。对方摇头笑说，这不现实，程序员能挣多少钱?“我当时心想，这不是关于赚钱的事，而是对世界的看法。”

2003年，周源留在东南大学继续攻读研究生。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

一、开始工作

2004年，周源前往上海一家加拿大公司的研发中心工作，负责数据库接口的开发。做了一年工程师，周源发现自己虽然很喜欢写代码、当工程师，但这离他最初“开一家科技公司”的想法距离很远。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

2005年，周源辞掉了软件开发工程师的工作，到北京成为了《IT经理世界》杂志社的一名记者。当时的周源以期通过在杂志社工作拉近他和他最初想象的世界之间的距离。2007年冬天，周源加入了一个极客俱乐部Apple4us。这是由当时在《环球企业家》做总编助理的张亮发起的一个群体博客。Apple4us.com最初只有几个爱好者在讨论苹果接下来会发布什么新产品，但随着时间推移，张亮找来了大量新作者。开始是几个软件工程师、产品设计师，后来又出现了数学研究者、时尚界人士和几位作家。质变发生了，“Apple4us 的作者像一群知识野蛮人，在一起提出问题，经历激烈脑力碰撞后，进而提出更多的新问题。”周源回忆。张亮后来成为知乎联合创始人之一。

但在做了两年记者后，周源发现这仍不是他想要的工作。他说一个重要原因是，他可以发现、采访、写作和发表，但他无法去验证，不是那个让事情发生的人。于是，他开始创业。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

二、第一次创业

2008年，周源开始了第一次创业。开始的想法是利用模拟人行为的机器人做淘宝这种大型网站的压力测试工作，后来实际操作中发现技术难度比较大。又听取一位朋友的建议，做了帮企业在百度等搜索引擎投放广告用的管理软件Meta 搜索。虽然经过转型的尝试和1年多的努力，由于资金原因，周源的第一次创业却失败了。公司关门那天，周源哭了。他把公司剩下的东西，桌子、椅子、电脑、白板全都送给了和他一起走到最后的团队成员。

多次尝试失败后，周源进入了自我调整期。他去了西藏，想换一个和平时不一样的时空释放积累在大脑里的信息，让自己不再陷入具体细节之中，换个角度看问题。“你可以有很多想法，这些想法验证失败以后，你变得不再相信自己，那时一个人会变得很失落。所谓的调整就是你的想法可能没有得到实现，但是你依然相信自己可以通过努力或其他机会做一些有价值的事情。”CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

在经历 Meta 搜索创业后，周源开始对做产品有了完全不同的理解，他决定要做自己就是用户的产品。周源想起了和之前的Apple4us.com网站，他开始思索如何去验证将Apple4us 扩大1000倍的想法，任何人都可以取一个文章标题，其他有兴趣的人可以共同来完成剩下的内容。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

“经历过失败，我意识到创业的人生依然像打怪升级，但它并不是一次 Game Over 就终结的游戏了，而是一场无限进行下去的游戏。“2010年6月底Meta搜索关门后，此时30岁的周源用了两个月的时间调整自己，8月份，他开始做知乎。

三、第二次创业——知乎

2010年夏天，周源去创新工场找做记者时结识的张亮和黄继新交流，这次交流给周源很大启发及思考，虽然创业两年有了一些积累，但还感觉缺少创业的知识和经验。

而这一次的交流，也开始让他重新思考。结合他们之前创办Apple4us的经历，周源很早就在想，有没有一个更低成本，更高效的方法，让大家可以在交流的同时，学习到好的东西？如何更大规模的产生高质量信息？这时国外有一款叫 Quora的新产品走进了周源的视线，这款由Facebook前雇员开发的SNS问答社区让他开始思考全新的内容创造及传播机制，思考人与人、人与信息之间的关注关系。“我发现有一个网站非常打动我，就是Quora。因为这个网站除了关注人以外，还能关注到知识和思考，能产生和沉淀好的内容。但Quora不支持中文，甚至连中文输入都不可以，这是驱使我去做的直接原因”CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

2010年8月，周源开始做知乎。“我们希望做出一种产品，帮助大家组织和分享知识经验。大家有问题，可以来这里提问，整个社区能帮着找到能够回答的人。同时，这些内容可以沉淀下来——这就是知乎的想法。

周源一平方米左右的办公位紧邻知乎另一创始人李申申的办公桌。这个团队最早只有五六个人，创业初期，这些人每天都是凌晨两三点回家，或者就睡在公司旁边的旅馆里。

最初，知乎的名字成了让周源头疼的第一件事。最开始他们都把思维集中在问和答上，想出了100 多个名字，比如“问事儿”“提问题”“大声问”什么的。“不过，这些名字都有点不痛不痒，缺少兴奋点。”周源回忆。

直到某天下午 6 点，周源正在三里屯找地方吃饭，知乎团队成员张亮的一条短信跳进他的手机，“知乎者.com ”。这个名字在周源的大脑里盘旋了几小时后，他给所有人都发了一条短信，上面只有两个字“知乎”。

“招募新员工和融资也是一个艰难的过程。”周源扶了扶眼镜继续说。当时有一位投资经理找到周源，问他知乎当年会有多少用户。他告诉对方，“两万。”投资人借故接了个电话就走了。“我其实很想告诉他，流量和规模不是知乎的目标。”周源认为知乎不仅仅是要找到一笔资金，而是要找到更合适知乎的投资人。“我们花了很多时间在找投资人上面，这不是比谁给的钱最多，而是谁更理解和相信知乎。”CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

知乎招聘到前四个工程师花了两个月左右的时间。当时招人的过程就跟卖保险差不多。他采用的方式是主动出击，白天发邮件，晚上打电话，“一开始别人并不知你是谁，加上还创业失败过，要做新的事情需要解释。在这种情况下团队的招人过程也变得相对艰难，唯一可以参考的是你相信这个事情会对更多人有价值 。”周源说。

知乎从2010年12月19日开始运转进行内测，40多天后正式发布上线，几个月后，知乎微博的评论区和邮箱里就塞满了索要邀请码的留言和来信。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

知乎会议室的白色写字板上列着几条工作计划和一般人看不懂的代码，从知乎出现的那一刻起，周源说他每天都会花几个小时的时间泡在这个社区里，提问或者回答问题。

虽然人们都知道，如今的互联网世界处于娱乐至死的状态，但周源则认为越是身处这样的时代和环境，越需要逆向思考。“当大家都在说互联网全民灌水和走向娱乐化，你会从直觉上发现高质量的信息是如此匮乏，如果能提供优质的内容和信息，一定会满足不少人的需求。”周源说。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

写过代码，做过记者，直到创办知乎，周源成为了那个让事情发生的人。

翻译：

Extraordinary people have a different life trajectory, as the founder of Zhihu Zhou Yuan, his entrepreneurial trajectory is what?

In 1999, Zhou Yuan became a student in the Department of Computer Science at Southeast University. In the early days of school, Zhou Yuan read a biography of Bill Gates in the library, The Road to the Future, which was the source of his entrepreneurial impulse. CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

At that time, Zhou Yuan found that most computer science students were saving money to buy computers, but the common use was only to play “Starcraft” and watch videos. He decided to form a computer service department with a few other students who were interested in computers. Zhou Yuan sells the assembled computers to students from other departments. Students can also order the assembled computers directly from the service department, and if they become members of the service department, they can also listen to lectures on computer hardware. CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

Zhou set up the computer service department in his freshman year and continued until his senior year. “At that time, I invested a lot of time and energy. I thought it would be fun to mess with computers every day, and programming itself was a cool thing.”

In the winter of 1999, Zhou Yuan told people on the train from Chengdu to Beijing that he wanted to write programs until the age of 35 and then study astronomy. The other side shook his head and laughed and said, this is not realistic, how much money can programmers make? “I thought to myself, it’s not about making money, it’s about seeing the world.”

In 2003, Zhou Yuan stayed in Southeast University to pursue graduate studies.

First, get to work

In 2004, Zhou Yuan went to Shanghai to work in the research and development center of a Canadian company, responsible for the development of database interfaces. After working as an engineer for a year, Zhou Yuan found that although he enjoyed writing code and being an engineer, it was far from his original idea of “starting a technology company.” CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

In 2005, Zhou quit his job as a software developer and moved to Beijing to work as a reporter for IT Manager’s World magazine. At that time, Zhou Yuan hoped that by working at the magazine, he could bring himself closer to the world he had originally imagined. In the winter of 2007, Mr. Zhou joined a geek club called Apple4us. This is a group blog initiated by Zhang Liang, who was then an assistant editor in chief of Global Entrepreneurs. Apple4us.com started with just a few enthusiasts discussing what new products Apple would release next, but over time, Zhang Liang found a lot of new writers. It started with a handful of software engineers and product designers, then math researchers, fashion people and a few writers. A qualitative change occurred. “The Apple4us writers, like a group of intellectual savages, came together to ask questions and, after an intense mental collision, to ask more new questions.” Zhou Yuan memories. Mr. Zhang later became one of Zhihu’s co-founders.

But after two years as a journalist, Zhou found it still wasn’t the job he wanted. One big reason, he says, is that he can discover, interview, write and publish, but he can’t verify that he’s not the one who made it happen. So he started his own business. CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

Second, the first business

Zhou started his first business in 2008. At the beginning, the idea was to use robots to simulate human behavior to do the stress test work of a large website like Taobao, and later found that the technical difficulty was relatively large in actual operation. After listening to the advice of a friend, I did Meta search, a management software that helps enterprises advertise on search engines such as Baidu. Although after the transformation of the attempt and more than a year of efforts, due to financial reasons, Zhou Yuan’s first business failed. The day the company closed, Zhou Yuan cried. He gave what was left of the company – desks, chairs, computers, whiteboards – to the team members who walked with him to the end.

After many failed attempts, Zhou Yuan entered a period of self-adjustment. He went to Tibet, wanting to change a different time and space than usual to release the information accumulated in his brain, so that he would no longer be trapped in specific details, and look at the problem from a different Angle. “You can have a lot of ideas, and when those ideas fail, you stop believing in yourself, and then a person becomes very depressed. “Adjustment is when your idea may not work out, but you still believe that you can do something worthwhile through effort or other opportunities.” CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

After experiencing the Meta search business, Zhou Yuan began to have a completely different understanding of making products, and he decided to make himself the product of the user. Remembering the old Apple4us.com site, Zhou began thinking about how to test the idea of expanding Apple4us by 1,000 times, allowing anyone to pick an article title and anyone else interested to do the rest.

“After experiencing failure, I realized that the life of entrepreneurship is still like fighting a monster to upgrade, but it is not a Game Over the end of the game, but an infinite game.” After Meta Search closed at the end of June 2010, the 30-year-old Zhou Yuan spent two months adjusting himself, and in August, he began to do Zhihu.

Third, the second business – Zhihu

In the summer of 2010, Zhou Yuan went to Innovation Works to find a reporter to meet Zhang Liang and Huang Jixin exchange, this exchange gave Zhou yuan a lot of inspiration and thinking, although the two years have accumulated some accumulation, but still feel the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and experience.

And this exchange also began to make him rethink. Combined with their previous experience in founding Apple4us, Zhou Yuan wondered early on whether there was a cheaper and more efficient way for everyone to learn good things while communicating with each other. How to produce high-quality information on a larger scale? At this time, a new product called Quora came into Zhou Yuan’s attention. This SNS question and answer community developed by a former employee of Facebook made him start to think about a new content creation and communication mechanism, and think about the attention relationship between people, people and information. “There’s one site that I find really impressive, and that’s Quora. Because in addition to focusing on people, this website can also focus on knowledge and thinking, and can produce and precipitate good content. But Quora does not support Chinese, or even Chinese input, which is the direct reason that drove me to do it.

Zhou started Zhihu in August 2010. “We wanted to make a product that helps people organize and share knowledge. If you have a question, you can ask it here, and the whole community can help find someone who can answer it. At the same time, the content can settle down – that’s the idea of Zhihu.

Zhou Yuan’s one-square-meter office is next to the desk of Li Shenshen, Zhihu’s other founder. The team started with five or six people, and in the early days, these people would go home every day at 2 or 3 a.m. or sleep in the hotel next to the company.

At first, Zhihu’s name became the first thing that gave Zhou Yuan a headache. At first, they all focused on asking and answering, coming up with more than 100 names, such as “ask things,” “Ask questions,” and “ask out loud.” “However, these names are a little bland and lack excitement.” Zhou Yuan memories.

Until 6 PM one day, Zhou Yuan was looking for a place to eat in Sanlitun, and a text message from Zhang Liang, a member of the Zhihu team, jumped into his mobile phone, “Zhihu.com”. After the name swirled in Zhou’s head for hours, he sent a text message to everyone with just two words on it: “Zhihu.”

“It’s also a tough process to recruit new staff and raise money.” Zhou Yuan helped his glasses and continued. At that time, an investment manager approached Zhou Yuan and asked him how many users he would have that year. He told him, “Twenty thousand.” The investor excused himself for a phone call and left. “I actually wanted to tell him that traffic and scale were not Zhihu’s goals.” Zhou Yuan believes that Zhihu is not only to find a fund, but to find more suitable investors for Zhihu. “We spend a lot of time looking for investors. It’s not about who gives the most money, but who understands and trusts Zhihu better.” CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

It took Zhihu about two months to recruit the first four engineers. It was like selling insurance. The way he uses is to take the initiative, send emails during the day, and call at night, “At the beginning, others do not know who you are, plus you have failed in business, and you need to explain to do new things.” In this case, the hiring process is relatively difficult, the only thing you can tell is that you believe that the thing will be valuable to more people.” Zhou Yuan said.

Zhihu started its private test on December 19, 2010, and was officially launched more than 40 days later. A few months later, the comment section and mailbox of Zhihu Weibo were filled with messages and letters asking for invitation codes. CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

From the moment Zhihu appeared on a white tablet in a conference room with several work plans and indeciphered code, Zhou said he spent several hours a day in the community, asking and answering questions.

Although we all know that today’s Internet world is in a state of entertainment to death, but Zhou Yuan believes that the more you live in such an era and environment, the more need to think backwards. “When everyone is talking about the Internet being flooded and turned into entertainment, you intuitively find that high-quality information is so scarce, and if you can provide high-quality content and information, it will definitely meet the needs of many people.” Zhou Yuan said. CXO UNION CXO 联盟 cxounion.cn

After writing code and working as a reporter, Zhou Yuan became the person who made things happen until he founded Zhihu.

由CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）转载而成，来源于搜狐；编辑/翻译：CXO UNIONCXO联盟小C。

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