. . plus more thought leader columns from others are on their way

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

In January, I started writing about the "new dotcoms," the ones that will eat lunch, this time around, in the new Internet economy.

The new dotcoms are not technology companies, necessarily, but they are all "technology enabled" companies. And they will play by whole sets of new rules, many of which challenge the old rules, the established notions of business reality.

I call these new dotcoms new rules enterprises, or sometimes I call them newrules ventures [I can't decide which one to use.]

There are new rules enterprises of various sorts, and their distinction is in which new rules they embody, and how many of them. There are already some newrules ventures around, and more are on the way.

They share some of these characteristics: most are small, they have a large impact, and they are very profitable — you have no idea how much money they are making.

They are private, and will remain private, they have first mover advantage, and they innovate through technology enabled business processes.

And they capitalise themselves through creating and selling businesses.

The rules

I don't know how many new rules there are altogether, but I know what some of the rules are, and some of my readers have told also me about some of them.

Here is one of the original new rules of the newrules enterprise, and some from our community of contributors. And please, contribute your new rules, too. Remember, you get a byline and a date stamp!

When you contribute ideas there will always be a permanent link to your words of wisdom. This means you should contribute often :-)

First rule

The first rule of the newrules enterprise is that it is new. Brand spanking new.

That way you don't have to deal with layers of legacy information technology, culture, administration, departments, all the legacy thinking and legacy reputations. A whole lot of problems and obstacles go away.

You can read more about the rules of newrules enterprises here:



These are the new dotcoms of the new rules economy...

Here are some new rules contributions posted earlier this year:

John Kim writes:

When I go to a venture forum in the bay area now and hear "entrepreneurs" whining about how they could launch a Billion dollar company "only if we could find an investor..." I want to puke.

There is no better way to get people to understand your business than to show them the money your business is making - and how you made it on a shoestring.

So let me add one more rule - Surround yourself with zealots ONLY early on, and think like you're building a new religion as much as a new business.

[BTW - I define "zealot" as someone who quits a $100k a year job for a $30k year start-up position.]

Jeff Clavier notes:

I would extend the fifth rule [no VC funding needed] to include some level of angel or seed financing, that allows you to get all the way to a critical milestone: profitability, early take out or a "real" VC financing focusing on growth.

I'd like to bring to your attention again, to a new rule that I've been thinking about a lot, it comes from Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies.

Without VC money, you are forced to figure out how to extract funds from your customers for value you deliver. Ultimately that is the only thing that really matters.

-Money removes spending discipline. If you have the money you will spend it - whether you have figured out your business model and

market or not.

Read more here:

Most startups should avoid venture funding, not pursue it