Internet Entrepreneurs, The

Breaking the rules

1 Do not be afraid to lose money

What's $4 billion when market analysts forecast that the internet economy will be worth $3.3 trillion in 2003? It's a question well worth asking: if your company is first to market in a business revolution, what price success?

Building market share, establishing a brand and buying customers are all common parlance to internet companies. How much one pays to get there and how long it takes to achieve some sort of critical mass are the $4 billion questions.

Which is where holding one's nerve in the face of mounting losses, with the knowledge that the future is uncertain, that pay-day may never come, and if it does then not in the way your business plan forecast, comes in.

And at the same time, ...