????今年夏天的一個(gè)早晨,，維多利亞?蘭瑟姆和阿蘭?查得將他們的本田思域車(chē)開(kāi)進(jìn)了谷歌（Google）的山景城總部。四年來(lái),，他們的社交營(yíng)銷(xiāo)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)Wildfire已經(jīng)發(fā)展到了近400名員工和2.1萬(wàn)名客戶,，并與Facebook建立了緊密的聯(lián)系。現(xiàn)在,，谷歌也希望參與進(jìn)來(lái)。

????1個(gè)小時(shí)后,，一群谷歌高級(jí)經(jīng)理報(bào)出了詳細(xì)出價(jià),；據(jù)稱是3.50億美元，外加1億美元的留任獎(jiǎng)金,?！爱?dāng)時(shí)我想，我可能很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間都忘不了這一刻,，”36歲的蘭瑟姆說(shuō),。

????蘭瑟姆在正確的時(shí)間和地點(diǎn)，成立了一家正確的企業(yè),。Wildfire是由蘭瑟姆和她當(dāng)時(shí)的合伙人,、如今的未婚夫阿蘭?查得共同創(chuàng)立,，屬于企業(yè)社交軟件公司，專(zhuān)門(mén)幫助各種品牌在社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上到達(dá)用戶,。今年早些時(shí)間,，三個(gè)月時(shí)間內(nèi)有半數(shù)企業(yè)社交軟件公司被收購(gòu)。5月份甲骨文（Oracle）斥資3億美元收購(gòu)了Vitrue,，6月份Salesforce.com出資7億美元收購(gòu)了Buddy Media,。接著7月份，搜索巨頭谷歌差點(diǎn)錯(cuò)過(guò)機(jī)會(huì),，最終據(jù)稱是付了3.50億美元收購(gòu)Wildfire,。

????在大多數(shù)公司都還沒(méi)有認(rèn)真對(duì)待社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)之時(shí)，蘭瑟姆和查得很早就看到了Wildfire的市場(chǎng)需求,，他們打造了一家極富競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力的企業(yè),，待價(jià)而沽。這樣極富遠(yuǎn)見(jiàn)的策略,，加上堅(jiān)持不懈,，讓蘭瑟姆在《財(cái)富》雜志40位40歲以下商界精英榜單中與Buddy Media的共同創(chuàng)始人邁克爾?拉澤羅并列一席。而且,，這個(gè)故事不是始于硅谷,，而是在新西蘭。

????蘭瑟姆自小在新西蘭北島一個(gè)只有65位常住居民的鄉(xiāng)村Scott's Ferry中長(zhǎng)大,。她的父親是一位蘆筍種植戶,，母親是一家農(nóng)用設(shè)備公司的辦公室主任。為了賺些零花錢(qián),，蘭瑟姆在家里的地里幫忙摘蘆筍,，裝上一輛紅色拖車(chē)，賣(mài)給住在Rangitikei河岸附近的漁民,。

????青少年時(shí)期的蘭瑟姆開(kāi)始向往外面的世界,，17歲時(shí)她拿到了一份獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，離開(kāi)新西蘭前往美國(guó),。后來(lái),，她進(jìn)入明尼蘇達(dá)州的馬卡萊斯特學(xué)院（Macalester College），成了家族中第一個(gè)大學(xué)生,。她遇到了專(zhuān)業(yè)滑雪運(yùn)動(dòng)員查得,，后來(lái)成為了她的商業(yè)伙伴以及未婚夫。蘭瑟姆在華爾街短暫工作過(guò)一段時(shí)間,，擔(dān)任摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）的傳媒分析師,，后來(lái)決定自己闖一闖。她說(shuō)：“經(jīng)過(guò)一輪又一輪的裁員后,，我相信生活中應(yīng)該有有更美好的東西,?！?2001年，有一次她正在籌劃一次度假,，在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上搜索沖浪營(yíng),，尋找探索旅游地的新方式。結(jié)果什么也沒(méi)找到,，她和當(dāng)時(shí)身為所羅門(mén)美邦(Salomon Smith Barney)分析師的查得決定建立自己的旅行公司,，專(zhuān)注于他們熱愛(ài)的滑雪和其他活動(dòng)。

????他們?cè)诓剪斂肆諪ort Greene的公寓里,，利用晚上和周末的時(shí)間寫(xiě)出了商業(yè)計(jì)劃書(shū),，包括帶領(lǐng)年齡20-45歲的小隊(duì)旅行者前往偏遠(yuǎn)目的地。2001年,，他們放棄了在銀行業(yè)的工作,，前往新西蘭，成立了自己的公司,。他們?cè)诰W(wǎng)吧,、青年旅社以及Lambert的后排座椅上辦公。Lambert是他們的1980年豐田卡羅拉,，以一位滑雪伙伴的名字命名,。他們將公司命名為Access Trips，2002年推出了首款產(chǎn)品：新西蘭南島14日沖浪滑雪之旅,。

????On a summer morning earlier this year, Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard pulled their Honda Civic into Google's Mountain View headquarters. Over four years they had grown Wildfire, their social marketing startup, to nearly 400 people, 21,000 clients, and had become closely tied with Facebook. Google wanted in.

????An hour later, a team of senior Google (GOOG) executives shared details of their offer, reported at $350 million plus $100 million in retention bonuses. "That's when I thought, 'I'm going to remember this for a very long time,'" says Ransom, 36.

????Ransom was in the right place at the right time with the right entrepreneurial play. The company she'd founded with her then partner and now fiancé Alain Chuard, Wildfire, was one of a series of enterprise social software companies that specialized in helping brands reach customers over social networks. In the space of three months, half of them got bought earlier this year. Oracle (ORCL) shelled out $300 million for Vitrue in May, and Salesforce.com paid $700 million for Buddy Media in June. Then in July, before the search giant missed its chance, Google paid the reported $350 million for Wildfire.

????The story of how Ransom and Chuard saw a need for Wildfire long before most companies took social networking seriously, and then built a business strong enough to command that high price, is one of smart strategy paired with flat-out tenacity— the stuff that earned Ransom, who served as the company's CEO, a spot on Fortune's 40 Under 40 (she shares a spot with Buddy Media cofounder Michael Lazerow). It begins not in Silicon Valley, but in New Zealand.

????Ransom grew up in Scott's Ferry, a rural village of just 65 people on New Zealand's North Island. Her father worked as an asparagus farmer; her mother was the office manager at a farming equipment company. To earn pocket change, Ransom picked asparagus at the family farm, loaded it on a red wagon, and sold it to fishermen on the banks of the nearby Rangitikei River.

????As a teenager, Ransom grew restless, and at age 17 she won a scholarship and left New Zealand for the United States. At Minnesota's Macalester College, she became the first member of her family to earn a college degree. She also met Chuard, a professional snowboarder who would later become her business partner, and eventually her fiancé. After a short stint on Wall Street, where she worked as media analyst for Morgan Stanley, Ransom struck out on her own. "Going through round after round of layoffs, I decided that there had to be something better in life," she says. In 2001, she was planning a vacation, searching the Web for surf camps that offered a way to explore the country she'd be visiting. Finding none, she and Chuard— then an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney— decided to start their own travel company, focusing on snowboarding and other activities they loved.

????At night and on weekends from their Fort Greene, Brooklyn apartment, they wrote a plan for their business, which involved taking small groups of travelers, age 20 to 45, to remote destinations. In 2001 they quit their banking jobs, moved to New Zealand, and built the company while working out of Internet cafes, youth hostels, and the back seat of "Lambert," their 1980 Toyota Corolla named for one of their snowboarding pals. They called their venture Access Trips, and in 2002 launched their first product: a 14-day ski and snowboard trip on New Zealand's South Island.