DotCom Divas: E-Business Insights From The Visionary Women Founders of 20 Net Ventures

From the Book: As someone who has worked for 22 years in information technology and, more recently, as a leading e-business consultant, I was flattered when Elizabeth asked me to preview her book. It's great to read so many fascinating stories about gutsy women who have risen to the challenge of this vibrant new economy. The dotcom businesses you're about to discover range from financial disclosures to astrology, pet supplies to 13213 e-markets, email marketing services to online communities, and Web applications to Net infrastructure. Twenty different businesses, with almost as many different business models. Each one took an amazing amount of chutzpah, some luck, and a lot of hard work. What impressed me most about the stories you're about to read is the variety of creative ideas these women brought to life, and the dedication and passion with which they pursued them. I found it refreshing to learn how these women spread out across three continents-balanced their work and personal lives. This is a dimension that's usually left out when you read about male entrepreneurs and their triumphs and tribulations. Some of them partnered with other people, but each was a key driving force behind her company's success. Many raised money while they were pregnant, launched new products as they were giving birth, and kept up the blistering pace required to nurture a new company into adolescence while balancing home and family. How did these dotcom divas fund their businesses? You'll learn about a wide variety of successful approaches. Some of these brave souls bootstrapped their startups, drawing on their own resources--credit cards, second mortgages, life savings. Othersconvinced private investors and "angels" to help them get off the ground. Many went the venture capital route. (It's encouraging to note that venture money was available to these women entrepreneurs, although it took imagination and guts to land it.) A few have already taken their companies public. And as the founder and owner of a successful,15-year-old privately held consulting firm, I was delighted to see that several of the entrepreneurs opted to keep their companies private-a satisfying choice that is too often overlooked in the traditional business press. How successful have these entrepreneurs been in recruiting top talent? Very. And, as you'll soon learn, the techniques they used to pursue the key players they wanted on their team were imaginative and persistent. For example, iVillage's Candice Carpenter and Linda Evans repeatedly wined and dined one reluctant recruit until she finally saw the light. When another candidate slipped through their net and took a job at a different firm, they intercepted him in a rented car after his first day at work and pitched him again all the way to his home. The seduction worked. Whether they were recruiting software developers or marketing professionals, these women used the most persuasive recruiting tool on the planet-their personal enthusiasm and passion for their burgeoning businesses. One of the things that's particularly perverse about launching and shepherding an e-business to success is the constant morphing process. Internet businesses are notoriously slippery beasts. You start out with a focused product or service and a business model that seems to make sense, and, in the space of 12 months, you find that you've changed your product design three times and your business model at least twice. As one young but seasoned business executive explained to me after he'd embarked on his first dotcom, "Every time I think I know what to do, I realize that I can no longer trust my business instincts and judgment. Instead, I have to let go, and let my customers design my business." How have the savvy women profiled in Dotcom Divas evolved their Internet businesses? With great agility. All the stories you're about to read are packed with dead ends and new beginnings, transformations and acquisitions, and shifts in focus. For example, Rosalind Resnick's NetCreations began life as a company developing Websites, then morphed to offer a service that let Webmasters register their sites with popular search engines, and then transformed again into a very successful permission-based email marketing company. Veronica Allende Serra's Brazilian auction site, Superbid.com.br, quickly evolved from consumer auctions offering good deals on home appliances and computers to a business-to-business infrastructure platform for a variety of vertical marketplaces. And these are just two of many examples. You're about to read story after story of changing business models and directions. But notice that, in each case, as these dedicated women followed their dreams, they let their customers lead the way. Patricia B. Seybold