<Venture Capital, Netpreneur?>

<Do you fit the winning profile>

Speed. With advances in computing, globalisation, the changing expectations of stakeholders, and the emergence of the Internet, the pace of change is faster than ever. You have to be able to react quickly.

Adaptability. The pace of change around the Net requires that a business be much more flexible and adaptive than ever before. You must be adept at reading and interpreting, and rapidly responding to changes wherever they occur--in technology and competition as well as in shifts in markets and buyer patterns.

Experimentation. The netpreneur must be willing to try out new ideas in the marketplace. You don't have the time or the empirical base for traditional "market research" to evaluate an action. Experiment and be ready to move quickly to adapt to what the market tells you.

Constant Innovation. Today, getting the product to market is only the start of the journey. The competition’s unrelenting force and the market's demand for improvement makes it imperative that businesses focus on innovation.

Multi-disciplinary. Companies are creating successful solutions in the New Economy by integrating diverse disciplines like technology, content, graphics, services, and relationships. The traditional business world calls these models hybrids, but they may well represent the norm for the New Economy.

Collaboration. Netpreneurs are inherently collaborative. You can't work alone in a medium moving at this speed. The Net enables you to engage and involve stakeholders every step of the way, from product conception through research and development, packaging, delivery, support, and the ongoing improvement process.

Distribution Driven. The real challenge in today's business world is distribution--the dissemination of your brand and identity and of your products and services. In one sense, the Net lowers barriers to entry. Yet to sustain success, businesses must build their brand and distribution channels, which is more involved and costly than many netpreneurs assume at the outset.

Niche Focused. The Net's reach and distribution open up new market opportunities. Netpreneurs must focus on well-defined market sectors--niches --where they can achieve a dominant position or discover unserved or under-served markets. In fact, the really exciting opportunities lie in creating new ones.

These are an incredible set of skills and attributes that are always in flux in the fast-changing business environment. Each might play a role in a conventional start-up business, but all of them must be present to run a successful startup in the New Economy.