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Some stuff all web startups should know March 27, 2008

Posted by Stephen Sammartino in Bootstrapping, Business admin, Business planning, Corporations, Customer, Ideas, Innovation, Launch, Selling, Venture Capital, articles, books, brand names, brands, business, business ideas, business plans, capital raising, debt, employees, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, home office, internet, marketing, startups, strategy, web 2.0, websites.
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I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.

 50-great-e-businesses.jpg

I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:

  • More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
  • Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
  • ‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
  • The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
  • Most took much longer than 2 years to build
  • The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration 
  • The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.

Worth a read.

Comments»

1. May - March 28, 2008

Thanks for the bullet points Steve…. :)
Don;t mind if you put more! hahaha!

2. Ross Hill - March 29, 2008

Thanks for the bullet points Steve :) Would love to see the extension of the fun parks idea.

3. Dex - April 2, 2008

Great review - especially highlighting that most are not overnight successes. The rules of the game for small business are the same, even in the internet age!

My one man operation - http://www.1manop.com