Web 2.0: It's all in the meme
Brad Burnham points approvingly to Long Or Short Capital's How to tell if it's Web 2.0. Funny stuff, to which I'll add:
Can you describe it only with superlatives that, if eliminated leave no substance, e.g. "it's a ground-breaking form of engaging transformation of data" becomes "it's a form of data"?
That's Web 2.0!
Are you breathing it now? Like air, you can't monetize it, but eventually we'll have a business plan.
That's Web 2.0!
Is the lead (or sole) engineer independently wealthy?
That's Web 2.0!
Does the UI require a new programming language or substantial hack on an existing language to deliver functionality that was available in Java or Flash?
That's Web 2.0!
Is there a door-turned-into-a-desk, just like Web 1.0 companies had, but this one has bumperstickers on it?
That's Web 2.0!
Have you seen the founder's bedroom? Is it next to the company lunch room? Are these factors key to the projected high margins touted in the executive summary?
That's Web 2.0!
Have you read about the company on a collaboratively filtered news aggregators and, if so, is that aggregator owned by the founder?
That's Web 2.0!
Could humans do the same data processing work in half the time?
That's Web 2.0!
Does the exit strategy anticipate calculating multiples in terms of nonpaying beta customer sign-ups?
That's Web 2.0!
Does the founder worry that Google could build the same thing by giving the project to a single engineer for 10 percent of their time a few days?
That's Web 2.0!