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BUSINESS
DISCOVERIES VIEWPOINTS FEATURES FASHION
BUSINESS
DESTINATION GUIDES
The CEO’s
guide to
launching an
internet
start-up
Words
SIMEONDE LA TORRE
Illustration
OWENGATLEY
I
t’s not a bad time to be a geek.
Across theworld, a new internet
gold rush is takingplace as
developers inLondon, Berlin and
evenKrakowcreate hot newapps that
have investors queuingup. And the
rewards are tangible:May’s flotation
of Facebook catapulted its founder
MarkZuckerberg into the echelons
of the super-rich, where he joined the
CEOs of Amazon andGoogle.
But while we can come upwith 20
billion good reasons to persist with
a newonline venture, a great idea
alone isn’t going to ensure untold
riches. Indeed, 90% of start-ups fail
within the first 120 days, while the
market for the survivors is ever more
competitive. In the UK, for example,
there are 30%more retail businesses
online today (228,000) than last year.
So how to beat the odds?
AnMBA is a start. At Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business, an all-
time high of 16% of the class of 2011
started their own ventures (a third of
themonline). It also helps to have a
great name and be big on listening,
as we found when we asked four top
CEOs to share their secrets...
Fancyyourself asawebentrepreneur?We speak to fourCEOs toget
the lowdownon the secrets of their success…
TRAVELLER
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