Digital Rush: Nine Internet Start-Ups in the Race for Dot.Com Riches [Hardcover]

Jonathan R. Aspatore (Author), Alicia Abell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

The only rule for Web success is that there are no rules. The dot-com entrepreneurs who make it big are the ones who forge their own paths and hammer out their own strategies. But where can a Web start-up or spinout go for reliable guidance, other than the school of virtual hard knocks?

Digital Rush explores the experiences and ideas behind some of the most fascinating and fast-growing Internet businesses of our time. Unlike other Web profile books, it digs deep by concentrating on a select group of cyber-entrepreneurs. And they're hardly the usual dot-com suspects. Readers go behind the scenes with innovators such as: Startups.com, VarsityBooks.com, Enews.com, LivePrint.com, foofoo.com, RocketRadio, and others.

The people who created, financed, and sweat blood over these sites talk about their dumbest mistakes, their smartest moves, how to cut through the clutter, and what they'd do differently if they were starting today.

This candid and business-savvy book delivers invaluable insights on how to: Start an Internet company -- Take it to greater levels -- Add an e-component to a brick-and-mortar business -- Secure capital at every stage -- Find talent -- Attend to customer service -- Generate new ideas -- Forecast future Internet trends, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Succeeding in today's 24/7 Internet world requires a variety of business skillsAand luck. If there's one common thread among the myriad entrepreneurs who have started Internet companies, say Aspatore and Abell, it's their relative youth and lack of traditional business experience. Today, it's not years on a job that will land an Internet pioneer financing and a board of directors but persistence, connections and, most of all, a sound business concept. To illustrate these principles, the authors have focused on nine Internet companies that have been launched over the past few years. SomeAlike Varsitybooks.com and BuyandHold.comAhave already received media attention, while the others, including Startups.com and LivePrint.com, are less well known. Aspatore, a business consultant and author of The New Electronic Traders, to which Abell was a main contributor, goes behind the glamorous veneer of the dot-com world and talks with the founders of each venture he profiles, who candidly describe their work routine and how they were able to get their companies off the ground. Accompanying the practical lessons learned by those on the firing line is specific advice for other would-be Internet entrepreneurs. Much of the counsel is familiarAmanage your time, seek customer feedback, hire the right people. Occasionally, though, there are more meaty comments such as "Take intellectual property protections seriously and get legal advice on this matterAfor yourself and any third-party suppliers." While the book is topical, the interviewees appear na?ve and awestruck, and only readers lacking extensive experience in Internet business will find this book useful. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Jonathan R. Aspatore (Arlington, VA) is the founder of EPS Business Partners, which helps existing companies spin out new business ventures. He is the author of The New Electronic Traders and Fire Your Broker and Trade Online, as well as a monthly column for Guerrilla Marketing.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814405673
• ISBN-13: 978-0814405673
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,285,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Careers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure junk, January 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Rush: Nine Internet Start-Ups in the Race for Dot.Com Riches (Hardcover)

I can't people can get away with publishing this garbage. This guy doesn't know a thing about the hi-tech/dotcom scene. If he had a brain in his head, he would have been in the middle of it, making some money of his own instead of sitting on the sidelines writing about it.

A previous reviewer mentioned the review at salon. com - read that review - it is right on the money, as well as being a pretty funny attack on Aspatore's stupidity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The timing is laughable....., January 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Rush: Nine Internet Start-Ups in the Race for Dot.Com Riches (Hardcover)

The events of the past year have made this book totally obsolete. ALL of the rules have changed. Anyone thinking these stories are applicable to today's market must have been in a coma for the past year.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars YOU CAN BE RICH TOO....not..., January 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Rush: Nine Internet Start-Ups in the Race for Dot.Com Riches (Hardcover)

This book reads like an infomercial. YOU CAN BE A SUCCESS! GET RICH TODAY!! EASY STREET HERE YOU COME! Does it talk about the serious problems many start up's face? No. Does it talk about the large number of sites that have gone bankrupt? No. Does it talk about PROFITABLE businesses? Just Barely. This book is easy to read...and exciting to read...no doubt about that. But...it's not a good book. I suggest that you do some serious soul searching before you start a small business, and make sure NOT to read this book.