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by keiretsu 6944 days ago
I have yet to see any true ipo-able web business to appear so far. When i mean truly ipo-able, i mean it has a REAL business model and one that can scale to billions. Something like Paypal or Ebay. Let's face it, Youtube, Facebook are all toys. They have eyeballs but no scalable business model. The best hope i've seen so far is Prosper.com. It doesn't have the massive eyeballs yet but hey, at least their biz model is scalable.

Does this mean that all the good billion-dollar ipo-able web ideas have been taken up? Is this it?
2 comments
akkartik 6943 days ago
A startup doesn't have to be IPO-able to be viable. It doesn't have to need VC to be viable. Working to show a large employer that you're worth a large "sign-up bonus" is a perfectly valid reason to start a startup.

Starting startups is more about mindset and lifestyle choice than about the current project being monetizeable.

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steve 6944 days ago
You're worrying too much about respect a company gets. It's not about that.

If a company makes a billion dollars selling retarded pink web2.0 bunnies while you built high power laser communication systems and made one tenth that -- as a company, they have won.

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keiretsu 6944 days ago
Who is talking about respect here? I'm talking about biz models!

Most web 2.0 co. are based on advertising revenue.

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steve 6944 days ago
There are ad based companies that make far more income than non-ad based.

I've come to the conclusion that advertisers and many websites can get far more money out of people than either can individually. I don't like it either, but that's how it seems to be working.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It would be nice to see some actual numbers.

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