Beyond 2001: Investing in Internet and Early Stage Technology Companies

Chris Rollyson

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Footnotes

1:   For more on increasing investor participation, see 2001 Summer Wrap-up (http://www.rollyson.net/public/Summer2001.html).

2:  For an expanded treatment, see The Electronic Communications Revolution: View from 2001 (http://www.rollyson.net/public/papers.html).

3: Extensive sources exist on this subject. Among others, see The Digital Economy by Don Tapscott, Blown to Bits by Evans and Wurster and New Rules for the New Economy by Kevin Kelly.

4: Find a more detailed account of communications economics at Exploring the Communications Economics of Electronic Communities (http://www.rollyson.net/public/papers.html).

5: Forrester, Gartner, Jupiter and IDC have consistently pegged B2B transaction value and e-business investment as dwarfing B2C through 2010 at least. Eventually, as transformation of analog processes penetrates the economy as a whole, that will probably change as it reflects the economy today, with consumer spending accounting for roughly 67% of GDP, with this caveat: a significant percentage of the total will undoubtedly remain analog and never be a candidate for digitization.

6: To whit, a complete Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution would entail integrating over 300 vendors in 2000.

7: One ramification of this point is the current "downgrading" of the "New Economy’s" productivity gains. For one example, see "Productivity Myth," The Industry Standard, August 20, 2001 (http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28629,00.html).

8: For more on the history of the Internet, see http://www.historyoftheinternet.com (of course ;-)

9: For a lucid and insightful description of adoption, see Inside the Tornado, Geoffrey A. Moore.

10: Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore.

11: Written from the bricks and mortar perspective, nonetheless offers detailed description of the transformation process (http://www.rollyson.net/public/papers.html).

12: An excellent source for more on network vision is Digital Capital, Tapscott, Ticoll and Lowy.

13: To take an innovation to market dominance, it is necessary to provide the entire solution required for customers to realize the promised value. Especially when rapid growth or a tornado results, the company and its alliances must be focused on core competencies that are complementary and that can scale rapidly, without major problems. Therefore, the innovation company must take active responsibility for its alliances, almost as if they were one company.

14: Even in the automotive market, it is not feasible to integrate horizontally under one roof, and even less so in the rapidly changing technology industry. The faster the change and the higher level of competitiveness means that technology companies must choose their competencies and make sure that their network delivers the entire solution that is required for the customer to realize the value proposition.

15: This lens closely resembles a knowledge strategy in that it seeks to define what knowledge is required to achieve a business result.

16: Products, services and processes are all potentially classified as "intellectual property," which is a more specific legal term.