Word: start-up
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
They skipped spring break--and most of their classes--to finish their plan. In May 1998 they secured VC funding. The next month, they quit Stanford. "It wasn't a hard decision," says Lefcourt, sitting in the company's office, which is luxurious by start-up standards. "The things I was trying to get out of business school I'm getting right here...
...plot is familiar: two ambitious Internet geeks graduate Stanford business school, devise a lucrative idea for an e-business, get funded by a prestigious venture-capital firm, set up shop in dingy offices, hire a lot of people, generate buzz, go public. The 15-month-old Internet start-up Della & James hasn't had its IPO yet, but so far it has nailed down the idea (an online bridal registry), the VC (Kleiner Perkins), the hiring (15 to 70 employees in six months) and the buzz (everybody in the Valley has heard of Della & James). But there are some twists...
Having just locked up a sizable second round of venture capital, Della & James (from O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi) has become an object of both envy and contempt among other start-ups. ("You can't even call them a start-up anymore," grumbles a friend and fellow entrepreneur.) Herrin, 26, and Lefcourt, 30, come off as the girls who were too smart to talk to you in high school. Herrin had an outline for her wedding-registry business even before she entered Stanford in the fall of 1997. "I wanted to do something entrepreneurial," she says...
MUTUAL-FUND VOYEURISM Want to see your money manager in action? Trading activity at OpenFund can be viewed in real-time updates on its Meta-Market.com site. You can even watch the trading floor through a Web camera. The start-up also features online discussions with industry gurus. Coming soon: Stock-Jungle.com's Community Intelligence Fund. This planned mutual fund will choose its holdings on the basis of investors' suggestions, as culled by the fund's managers. SEC approval is pending...
...that doesn't mean aspiring programmers should quit school and dash off to the nearest Internet start...