WHERE'S THE MONEY COMING FROM?

I know friends who worked at some of these Dot-coms. They had great ambitions, great drive, great plans, and all sorts of startup capital. What they didn't have a *clue* about was where the money was coming from. They were interested in the "new paradigm" (Internet! Freedom! Lotsa Money Floating Around! Everyone Needs One!) and forgot the old paradigm of know what the market is, identify the value to the customer, analyze the need, know how to find where and who the customers are, know what the customer thinks they'll need and what they'll pay for. It was the "if you build it they will buy" mentality and combined with the joy of playing with the venture capital, it was a formula for disaster.