The lobby of the Empire State building is as spectacular as the view from the top, a marble and gold homage to the 1930s. Stepping out of the art deco elevator and into the 21st-floor offices of Shutterstock, an online marketplace for stock imagery, feels incongruous, like fast-forwarding 80 years.
帝国大厦(Empire State Building)大厅的壮观程度绝不亚于大厦顶层风光，整个大厅就像以大理石和黄金向20世纪30年代致敬。步出装饰派艺术风格的电梯，走入网络库存照片市场Shutterstock在21层的办公室，让人产生一种不适应之感，就像时光快进了80年。
The glamour is gone, replaced by minimalist white walls and glass cubicles. Everyone is wearing jeans and casual shirts apart from one male employee, dressed in a pink tutu for a party later that evening (it is, to be fair, fancy dress).
室内装修一改华丽风格，代之以简约的白墙和玻璃隔间。每个人都是休闲衬衫配牛仔裤，只有一位男性员工除外。由于当晚要参加一个聚会，他穿了一条粉红色的芭蕾舞裙，平心而论，这确实是奇装异服。
Like many chief executives, Jon Oringer has a corner office, but the only thing he could conceivably sit behind is a drum-kit. Welcome to start-up land.
与许多首席执行官一样，乔恩•奥林杰(Jon Oringer)的办公室也在角落，但他看上去唯一能让人想到的职业就是鼓手。欢迎来到创新王国。
Yet Shutterstock, founded by Mr Oringer in 2003, is in some ways the antithesis of a tech start-up. It is in New York, not Silicon Valley. It has made a profit from day one. And it has never taken money from a venture capitalist.
但奥林杰于2003年创建的Shutterstock在某些方面完全不像科技创新公司。它的总部在纽约而不在硅谷，它从第一天就开始盈利，而且它从没接受过风险资本家的投资。
“The problem with taking venture capital is if you take $5m from someone, it may feel great, you may feel like they’re validating your business model. But they’re giving $5m out to 20 different people hoping one of them will be a hit. They don’t really care if it’s you,” he says.
奥林杰说：“接受风投的问题在于，如果你从某人那儿获取了500万美元投资，感觉可能很棒，你可能觉得他们认可了你的商业模式。但他们给20个人都投了500万美元，希望其中一个能大获成功。他们并不真正在乎成功的是不是你。”
Instead Mr Oringer, now 40, “bootstrapped” his business with his own savings. “If you’re sitting there with your own money from your own bank account, it’s live or die by that cash. You’re going to do whatever it takes.”
于是奥林杰（现年40岁）用自己的积蓄“自力更生”地办起了公司。“如果你花的是自己银行账户里自己的存款，死活就那些钱。你只能全力以赴。”