OPEN TO ENTREPRENEURS!

Tony's recent post at AlwaysOn:

Open to Entrepreneurs!
Great Internet companies are coming down the pike, sustained by America's inspiring free-market culture.

Even at the very lowest bottom of the dot-com bust, my position remained firm: The coolest companies had yet to arrive. In doing research for The Internet Bubble book in 1998 and 1999, something became clear to my brother Michael and me. History dictates that of the companies born out of new industries, most of the truly great ones are founded after a period of initial funding and financial collapse. We also discovered that many great companies were founded during recessions, including HP, Disney, Intel, and Cisco. So by our rough calculations, many of the great Internet companies would be founded between 2002 and 2006.

Here we are in 2005, and I think we have much to show. Perhaps our favorite of the new class is Skype—an AO100 Top Innovator since we started the list, and this year's Innovator of the Year. Founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, two wild and crazy guys from Estonia who had already disrupted the music business with their file-sharing company, Kazaa. By allowing people to talk and videoconference over the Internet for free, Skype VoIP applications are poised to create major problems for the big telcos. If you don't believe us, read what the Internet's founding father, Vint Cerf, says in his [print blogozine] guest editorial. More Skype-like private companies are coming down the pike; check out our top picks in the list of AO100 winners. (full post)