When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Times are now tougher. Which makes most people head home. The half-hearted entrepreneurs, the wannabes who thought it was going to be easy, the folks with connections to VCs who could get a $5m Series A for a copycat app. Who will be left? The gritty entrepreneur of the old school who knows that it is really, really tough to build a great company. At ReadWriteWeb we celebrate these gritty entrepreneurs and in a series kicking off today we will be writing about them – and for them.
Who Qualifies to be a Web 2.0 Gritty Entrepreneur?
In a word – profit. We are looking for companies that have some Web 2.0 characteristics. But we can be loose in that criteria. We are not looking for a “pure” Web 2.0 characteristics. Whatever works, works. But something that is using online technology to disrupt an existing market, maybe using SaaS, user generated content, social media, whatever works in the Web 2.0 bag of tricks.
But we do want to write about companies that have crossed the most important threshold, the one where cash flows from the business and not from investors. So, as we don’t believe in overnight sensations, the company was probably founded before 2004. We want to hear from the CEO, who maybe the original founder or somebody who took over when the original business had failed.
We want to hear about massive skepticism, huge mistakes, changes of tactics and even of strategy, near death experiences, all the usual tales of derring-do.
The company can be bootstrapped, or funded by angels, friends and family or VC. No matter where the financing came from, the entrepreneur can now say to them a) no more dilution, and b) thanks for your help, enjoy the ride.
We are launching this series later today with a profile of Jigsaw and their Founder CEO, Jim Fowler. Our earlier profile of Zoho (Part 1 and Part 2) fits the bill too.
We will also give unsolicited advice to these gritty entrepreneurs about the Great Credit Crisis (we’re hoping you help us out in the comments on this).
We Want Names
If you know any gritty entrepreneurs, or you are one yourself, we want to hear from you. Send us an email or leave a comment below.
Obligatory cat pic: pasma
UPDATE:Gritty Entrepreneurs: Jigsaw, a Profitable Web 2.0 Venture; the first post in this series
