Lessons learned from the dotcom bubble - The entrepreneurial check list - Flexible business ideas - Don't read the last chapter first

How it beganThe world of finance, funding and investmentThe reality of the e-business worldA seemingly illogical sequenceWhich contacts to choose?Finding collaboratorsA collaborative strategyDiscussion forums for strategic issuesThe concept of the cafeWhat's in it for the other collaborators?The consultants' view point

Anyone can have a great idea - The business idea has to emerge later - Two different mind sets - A little bit of history

The dilemmaEntrepreneurial businesses - Current price versus fundamental value - Fashion trends in Stock Market valuations - The pricking of the dotcom bubble - Funding problems after the dotcom bubble - The increasingly difficult problem

Exasperation and despair - Looking from the financier's view point - Getting financing into perspective - Discounting through time - Discounting for risk - The fallacies of conventional funding requirements - Two kinds of player - Looking for a sensible way to invest - Calculating an investment decision - A more realistic strategy for e-business funding - Comparing the two ways of financing a start up - The efficient structuring of an e-business

A question of strategy - Ideas and trust

Starting to explore - Creating a source of wealth creation - A system of portals and vortals - The links are not in control

Emergent opportunities

Reverse engineering a thought process - An unplanned, emergent solution - A static, top down solution space - A dynamic, bottom up solution space - Services and consultancies - The technological food chain - Who hires the services?

The uncertainty of an entrepreneurial strategy - The business situation at the start of this chapter - Copying the master strategist - Many ways to use the cafe - Creating an adaptive cafe of contacts - Using several cafes for different purposes - Using a cafe to explore opportunities - What makes a conceptual component? - The subtlety of bottom up design - Why should people collaborate with a cafe owner?

Welcome to the world of the entrepreneur - Rags to riches - Scaling by duplication - The concept of space - A real life opportunity presents itself - The first clue - Creating a database of cancer treatment options - Similarity to the problems facing all e-businesses - Helping people to do it for themselves - Formatting a people space - Scaling up - The creation of such a scenario

Visualising a living database - Keeping up with trends and fashion - From the general to the particular - The ubiquity of empty formatted space - Growing into a space - Finding a way through thousands of spaces - Abstracting this model for other purposes - What happens at the meeting places? - Individual communication strategies - Using components to produce solutions - Critical mass - Competition for critical mass

A hybrid solution needed - Summarising the last two chapters - Visualising a people space - Focus of attention - The necessary paradigm shift - Structure of a meeting place - Meeting people on-line

What is a bot or personal electronic agent? - The missing link