Anonymous asked: You, and the rest of the CV founders seem to write frequently about the internet as not being a worthy business idea, yet you have certainly made a more than sustainable living, and perhaps more importantly, developed a great reputation for yourself to further your career, off of internet business ventures, do you think this is a recent phenomenon? Was it, or did it at least seem, different when you got into the business in the late 90's, or have you always viewed the internet as being a horrible way to achieve business success?
I can’t recall anything discouraging I’ve written about the Internet as a business platform. Perhaps you’re referencing Ricky’s frequent self-depricating smacks on advertising models? In these cases I generally agree with him.
However, I believe every generation has its great frontier industry — publishing, railroads, broadcasting, etc — and the Internet is certainly my generation’s easiest lever to pull and create wealth.
Of course, I work on the Internet for reasons other than just money — the incredible feats of one to many! — but if I thought it were absolutely profitless I would have changed careers.
The most significant of my few Internet-Entrepreneur-as-a-lifestyle complaints is the intangibility of what I do. But that quality is quickly improving (See: Vimeo Meetups and Boxee Box).
To be perfectly clear, I’m working as hard as I can now, on the Internet, so that I can ‘buy back’ later years of my life to be more free to do what I want: raise kids full-time, build houses and travel.
