她會是“下一個穆斯克”嗎？

????批評者認為她正在追求一座海市蜃樓。然而對于雄心勃勃的uBeam共同創始人和首席執行官梅瑞迪斯·佩里來說，遠程無線充電擁有光明的前景。

????馬克·庫班把它稱作“價值無限的想法”。在甚至沒有看到產品原型的情況下，他就進行了投資。知名投資人馬克·安德森、肖恩·范寧和謝家華也加入了投資者的行列。僅僅與發明者交談了15分鐘以后，瑪麗莎·梅耶爾就做出了投資決定。

????這個創意是，跨越房間給電子設備的電池充電，是的，不需要電線。這家公司叫uBeam，位于圣塔莫尼卡。其共同創始人兼首席執行官梅瑞迪斯·佩里是一位才華橫溢，雄心勃勃，偶爾也氣勢逼人，年僅25歲的女性。

????在2011年一次會議上，佩里與公司另一名創始人諾拉·德懷克宣布了無線充電的概念，頓時吸引了全世界的目光。兩個烤箱般大小，相距幾英尺擺放的盒子，能夠利用超聲波發出少量電能。公眾對此反響不一：科技博客TechCrunch的創始人邁克爾·阿靈頓將它稱作“我見過的最接近魔法的東西”。一位物理學家則表示“這是天方夜譚”，會對身體造成損害。面對這一切，佩里始終沒有推出一款商業產品，而是不斷埋頭苦干。

????2014年底，在獲得1000萬美元的投資之后，uBeam公司宣布產品原型已經完成。佩里表示：“也許網上會有人覺得這不是真的?！钡切┈F場見過它的人“會立刻改變想法”。（不過她拒絕向《財富》展示這一原型。）

????佩里堅稱，總有一天，酒吧、圖書館和工業倉房中都能看到uBeam的身影。面對那些質疑，她感到很高興，因為這意味著該領域幾乎沒有競爭。

????佩里出生于科學世家：父親是一位整形外科醫生，研制過一系列化妝品；母親則是一位兒童心理學家。她則延續了這一傳承。上小學三年級時，她發明了帶有照明功能的老花眼鏡。四年級時，她發明了可以搬運木材的機器人。五年級時，她培養了取自她嘴里和一只狗嘴里的細菌，來研究到底誰的嘴更干凈。

????如今，佩里總是口若懸河。她滔滔不絕地說著，卻記不起前一天她做了什么。她郁悶地表示：“我的記憶出了點問題?！眜Beam一心要證明批評者是錯的，所以她開了太多的會，難免記憶出現差錯。

????親身見證uBeam的技術之后，安德森表示，那些懷疑論調“完全是杞人憂天”。

????“面世后，它將被所有市場熱烈追捧?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W）

????譯者：嚴匡正

????審校：任文科

????Her critics say she’s pursuing an impossible idea. But for Meredith Perry, the ambitious co-founder and CEO of uBeam, wireless charging at a distance is the real deal.

????Mark Cuban calls it a “zillion-dollar idea.” He invested without ever seeing a prototype. Marc Andreessen, Shawn Fanning, and Tony Hsieh invested too. Marissa Mayer chose to invest after spending 15 minutes with the inventor.

????The idea? Charge the battery of an electronic device from across the room—no wires necessary. The company is uBeam, based in Santa Monica. And the 25-year-old woman behind it all is Meredith Perry, its brilliant, ambitious, and occasionally overwhelming co-founder and CEO.

????Perry grabbed the world’s attention after demonstrating the concept with co-founder Nora Dweck at a conference in 2011. Using ultrasound waves, the pair beamed a small amount of power between two toaster-size boxes positioned a few feet apart. Reaction was mixed: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington called it “the closest thing to magic I’ve seen.” A physicist wrote that “it’s an impossible idea” that would cause bodily harm. Through it all, Perry tinkered without producing a commercial product.

????In late 2014, uBeam—flush after raising $10 million from investors—announced that it had finalized a working prototype. “There may be people on the Internet who don’t believe it’s true,” Perry says. But those who see it “are converted instantly.” (She declined to show the prototype to Fortune.)

????One day, Perry insists, uBeam will be in bars, libraries, and industrial warehouses. Doubts about the concept make her happy because it means there is little competition.

????Perry, who comes from a family of scientists—her father is a plastic surgeon who developed a line of cosmetics; her mother is a child psychologist—continues the tradition. In the third grade she invented a pair of reading glasses with lightbulbs on them. In the fourth grade she developed a robot to carry firewood. In the fifth grade she cultured bacteria from her mouth and a dog’s to see which was cleaner.

????Today, Perry buzzes with blinding frequency. She talks a mile a minute and has difficulty remembering what she did the day before. “I have the memory of a gnat,” she laments, a product of her many meetings as uBeam works to prove critics wrong.

????Andreessen, who has seen uBeam’s technology firsthand, calls the skepticism “highly unfounded.”

????“This will be the mother of all markets when it comes together.”