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NEW YORK — You don’t need a pan and a stream in California to join the next gold rush. A video camera, computer and high-speed Internet connection will do.

A vast array of professional and semiprofessional producers are starting to use those tools to create ad-friendly entertainment and news videos expressly for the Web. The goal is to dramatically change people’s video-viewing habits — and cash in on a potentially enormous business opportunity.

“It’s like the early days of cable,” says former Viacom executive Herb Scannell, now CEO of Internet video investment and support firm Next New Networks. “We’re inventing new business models, new talent and new programming models.”

Internet users already can find countless fresh choices in the middle ground between reruns of slick network TV programming, such as the shows on Hulu.com, and amateur clips such as the kind popularized by YouTube.

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The show, about two geeky physicists and their beautiful female neighbor, got 90,000 views on CBS.com and other Web sites over a week, followed by a better-than-expected 9.5 million for the Sept. 24 on-air premiere.

“The thought was purely to try to find new eyeballs in a medium that generally appeals to younger demographics, and then drive them to put butts in seats to watch on their beautiful plasma-screen TV when the series takes off,” said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive. “It was fairly radical, and we’re happy with how it came out.”

Looking to tap new revenue through online ads, attract new viewers and keep loyal fans, broadcast networks are making bigger, riskier bets on Internet delivery of their shows. The challenge is to grow viewership online without cannibalizing traditional ratings and DVD sales while making more money on programming seen on the Web.

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1) People are Lazy - Don’t assume people will have an interest in your product like you do. They won’t. They’ll look at it for 5 seconds, and i.

2) Being Too scattered - Well said. How many mash-ups do you regularly check in? Do one thing, do it as if no one can do it - this is the key. If you try to combine many things (Digg + Delicious + StumbleUpon + YouTube), you are bound to fail.

3) Lack of Sustained Execution - It is closely related to the cold-start problem. This is like launching a rocket in to the Space - you need tremendous energy to push against the gravity, once it crosses the atmospheric limits, it will free flow. Unless, you battle out the initial years, new web services hardly survive.

4) Pointing the Finger when Missteps Happen - Admit mistakes and take responsibilities. Mistakes can be corrected and reworked towards a great success. Move on.

5) Not Appointing a Full-time Community Manager - I am not surprised to know Flickr developers frequently interacted with the users (added comments on photos) to listen to their suggestions on improving Flickr. I have seen at humblevoice as well - where in I am being treated like a VIP.

6) Not Building Archived Knowledge - There will be always new users and they will be asking the same questions over and over. You can have a simple FAQ list. But, the smart thing to do is to provide the answering powers to the users themselves. Develop a support community / forums for helping your users.

7) An Over-Focus on Social Value - I agree with this because, I would use a social web application for what it can do to me. Flickr helps me to organize my photos, Orkut helps me to keep n touch with my friends and StumbleUpon provides interesting sites to view. I have a personal satisfaction attached to each of these websites as well - Flickr helps to boost my pride on how good my photos are and Orkut proves my social network (how many friends have you got?). If you can’t satisfy a personal need, do not build a social application.

and I would add few more to the list.

8) Addressing a future need - Flickr founders saw the rise of digital cameras and realised people would need an online application to organize the digital photos. YouTube founders realised there should be a way to share ‘home made videos’ to the world. What is the future need? Rise of SmartPhone. People will be on the move - what they would be interested in? Can you serve them?

9) Buy your first users - It may seem unethical, but to avoid the cold-start problem, you need to do it. Buy or hire users who would pretend to be the users of your new Internet application. They would ‘actively use’ your web application, demonstrate the new users what you can accomplish with it. 

10) Reward the Top users - Either by directly listing the “Top Users” as Digg did it or just listing the “Top Things” as Flickr and YouTube. But, reward your users with some pride so they can show it off to their friends, brag about their accomplishments (with your application) in their blogs. 

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Writing A
Business Plan

We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The following format, within 15-20 slides, is all that’s needed:

Company Purpose

• Define the company/business in a single declarative sentence.

Problem

• Describe the pain of the customer (or the customer’s customer).
• Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.

Solution

• Demonstrate your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s life better.
• Show where your product physically sits.
• Provide use cases.

Why Now

• Set-up the historical evolution of your category.
• Define recent trends that make your solution possible.

Market Size

• Identify/profile the customer you cater to.
• Calculate the TAM (top down), SAM (bottoms up) and SOM.

Competition

• List competitors
• List competitive advantages

Product

• Product line-up (form factor, functionality, features, architecture, intellectual property).
• Development roadmap.

Business Model

• Revenue model
• Pricing
• Average account size and/or lifetime value
• Sales & distribution model
• Customer/pipeline list

Team

• Founders & Management
• Board of Directors/Board of Advisors

Financials

• P&L
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow
• Cap table
• The deal

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Elements of Sustainable Companies
Start-ups with these characteristics often foretells the success of a business and the likelihood of it becoming a sustainable, enduring company. We like to partner with companies that have:

Clarity of Purpose
Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card.

Large Markets
Address existing markets poised for rapid growth or change. A market on the path to a $1B potential allows for error and time for real margins to develop.

Rich Customers
Target customers who will move fast and pay a premium for a unique offering.

Focus
Customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition.

Pain Killers
Pick the one thing that is of burning importance to the customer then delight them with a compelling solution.

Think Differently
Constantly challenge conventional wisdom. Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions. Outwit the competition.

Team DNA
A company’s DNA is set in the first 90 days. All team members are the smartest or most clever in their domain. “A” level founders attract an “A” level team.

Agility
Stealth and speed will usually help beat-out large companies.

Frugality
Focus spending on what’s critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability.

Inferno
Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge market with customers yearning for a product developed by great engineers requires very little firepower.

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