Just a little Cooqy

The Web 1.0 dot-com boom of the 90’s saw many smart programmers and engineers making other people very rich. Sure, developers frequently had stock options as a part of their compensation packages, but the real money was made at the top by forked-tongued business people who frequently never knew how to operate a computer, let alone actually *use* the product their company developed.

With the Web 2.0 boom we are seeing much smaller companies taking much less VC money, if any at all, because all the technology needed to launch a Web 2.0 business is either free (software) or magnitudes cheaper than in the ’90s (hardware).

An even more important factor is that the software technology has become far more powerful and efficient, with freely available libraries providing all the needed low-level infrastructure found within Internet applications. It is possible today to simply snap together free prefabricated infrastructure components and begin building the value-added product functionality immediately. Contrast this with Web 1.0, where it was necessary to have teams of people building the application tiers. Time and money were invested (wasted?) in creating software security mechanisms, object persistence layers, logging, etc.

The turn-key software technology powering Web 2.0 is making it possible for smaller and smaller teams of people to implement and operate a service. Very soon, grid computing services like Amazon’s EC2 (currently in Beta) will make the hardware side of the equation equally commoditized. As with software, there are layers of “grunge” in hardware that are necessary evils…grid computing services provide an abstracted walled garden to software developers, hiding the grunge from view and allowing focus to remain on the value-add service being constructed.

Just as we have mom-and-pop restaurants at your local strip mall, I believe we will start having more and more mom-and-pop Internet companies. The difference will be that your average ma-and-pa bricks-and-mortar business will be unlikely to generate the income possible with a worldwide Internet service.

Marcus Frind of PlentyOfFish.com is an extreme example of how successful a one-man band can be on the Internet. Note the check for over $900K from Google for two months of AdSense revenue! Marcus is generating $10,000 per day, yet only has about $15,000 in monthly expenses for hosting the service, with zero employees to pay. So, out of $300K in monthly revenue, $285K is profit.

Marcus built and grew his website by himself over the course of a few years, and is now taking on the largest online dating companies in the world with his free service. Similar to Craigslist, Marcus is blazing a new trail that will doom existing industries. This makes Marcus my new, favorite superhero. Go Marcus, go!

There is something very satisfying when smart technologists make themselves rich, rather than being milked by others. The best news is that there is plenty of room on the Internet for new wealth to be created. Indeed, today only 1/6 of the world has Internet access. The Internet is a level playing field without boundaries that welcomes all players without discrimination (well, at least if you reside in a country that supports individual freedoms).

Google’s AdSense, eBay’s Affiliate program, and other similar payment platforms make creating free services like PlentyOfFish and Cooqy not only possible, but possibly very lucrative. Marcus proves the results within reach of a one-man band technology act. I predict that more and more examples of Marcus’ singlehanded success will be replicated.