What does it take to make it in the Web 2.0 world?
I think the biggest thing is authenticity. That’s the one quality that goes across the board, whether you’re a blogger or someone like Mark Zuckerberg, who’s trying to create the next Google, basically. What I mean by that is, Web 2.0 is about interaction and building a community. And that doesn’t happen unless people feel like they’re relating to the real you.
How’s that changed from Web 1.0?
Back then you didn’t have this whole climate of microcelebrities, and I think that’s because blogs have been such a part of it, YouTube has been such a part of it. I mean, Web 2.0 is all about social networking and user-generated content. The closest you got to community on Web 1.0 was eBay, or a chat room, where you’re not really seeing someone’s identity.
Let’s say I have a good idea for a Web 2.0 application. What should I do to be as successful as the entrepreneurs in your book?
The first thing you should NOT think about is raising money or building out an organization. The common denominator that binds successful companies is they started out bootstrapping themselves, iterating on an idea. That’s the great thing about the Web. It’s so cheap and easy to put up a site and see what people like and how they want to use it and tweak it. The worst thing you could do is raise a bunch of money and spend months building something that you then launch and maybe it’s a huge dud.
Do you have to be a tech geek to succeed in the Web 2.0 world?
Absolutely not. And that’s one thing that’s so exciting about this wave of companies. The way people use the Web now is so much less about coding and math and science, and so much more about creativity and ideas and communication.