Fred Wilson has a terrific post on how the face of the Web, as a business is changing. It is harder to build mega web properties today than it used to be. And VC money is flocking more to new verticals like enterprise (long time forgotten) and even hardware related businesses. It's a Cycle thing.
But
That is far saying that it is not possible to build today a very healthy, non VC backed consumer business. Why? because the web, as a business has become so large that it opens the door for thousands of very profitable consumer facing businesses.
You don't need any more VC money to fund a nice consumer business (meaning doing 1 to 10 million USD a year in annual revenue). Very quickly you can manage to get to break even or even pre fund your business (thanks to services like IndieGogo or Kickstarter)
The most important channel/ecosystem (and fastest growing one) to build a non VC backed profitable business is to create a mobile app.
App Stores have empowered ten of thousands of people to create their own decent business
Not all of them are successful (Fred talks about the difficulty of being successful in mobile). But thousands make over 100k of revenues a year.
The new face of consumer internet is precisely a wide range of mobile apps that do not have to be funded by VCs, because enough people are educated to buy content. And this trend will only go up
You could start a "paid" mentoring program (offer to a limited # of folks - be sure to invite me if you do) and conduct live training, and coaching. Consider this…how much $ would a person like myself be willing to pay you for let's say a 45 minute one on one w/ you (I'm sure I can't pay your normal fee). But I could…and would likely pay let's say $200 per meeting. Well multiply that times 10 (the # of people you can have in a hangout).
Posted by: woolrich outlet | 18 December 2012 at 01:41 PM