Myth: Silicon Valley and San Francisco are the best places to launch an Internet company. 

  Fact: With the ubiquity of the internet, the frontiers of innovation exist wherever 

  one pauses to think. Silicon Valley, with its ultra-high rents, hosting fees, 

  pseudo-tech pyramid schemes, and a press which publishes the words of imprudent 

  venture capitalists as gospel, may be the worst place to launch a business. 

  The frontier hath moved further West. 

Myth: The  Internet was born to support middle and upper level management, bankers, hypesters and venture capitalists. 

  Fact: The Internet supports the collaboration of rugged individuals. Myth: With 

  low barrier to entry, business on the Internet is primarily about marketing 

  and building brand. Fact: With low barriers to entry, business on the Internet 

  is primarily about a product's integrity. 

Myth: The Internet gold rush has ended. 

  Fact: The true Internet gold rush is still dawning, with small, agile companies 

  triumphing in the midst of all the tumbling high-tech pyramid schemes. 

Myth: As the Internet becomes less technology-oriented and more culturally-oriented, 

  those with humanities and business backgrounds shall have advantages over those 

  with technological backgrounds. 

  Fact: As the Internet intertwines technology, business, and the humanities, 

  without a firm grounding in technology, one can no longer fully understand business 

  nor the humanities. 

Myth: The Open Source movement is about socialistically or communistically sharing source 

  code, with elite administrators and Wall Street bankers ultimately calling the shots. 

  Fact: The Open Source movement is about individuals following an aesthetic in 

  creating elegant software which works, wherein administrators must harbor the 

  deepest respect for individuality and freedom. 

Myth: Most Internet companies fail because of "unfavorable market conditions."

  Fact: Most Internet companies fail because of the lack of a business plans. 

Myth: Banner ads and ecommerce cannot support a viable business model. 

  Fact: Companies with high quality content/employee ratios can be supported via 

  banner ads and ecommerce. 

Myth: Entrepreneurialism can be taught in the halls of elite business schools. 

  Fact: Entreprenuerialsm is an instinct and an art, and one can not be trained 

  in it any other way but by doing it. Business schools would have more success 

  teaching creative writing, or instructing their students on how to be rock stars. 

Myth: Money is the key factor in starting an Internet company. 

  Fact: An original, useful idea is the key factor in launching an Internet company. 

Myth: First movers had the advantage when it came to building viable businesses on the Internet. 

  Fact: True originality can take its time, as long as the execution is brilliant. 

Myth: The content worlds (publishing, music, etc.) shall be revolutionized by corporations 

  leveraging the Internet. 

  Fact: The world of content shall be revolutionized by individuals leveraging 

  the internet. The intrinsic beauty of the Internet is that a central bureaucracy 

  of middlemen has no practical function, and on the Net, the poetry must serve 

  the people rather than the traditional bureaucratic prejudices. 

Myth: Venture capitalists and MBAs are primarily interested in building valuable, enduring 

  businesses which offer useful content, commerce, and community, and thus profits 

  aren't always important. 

  Fact: Venture Capitalists and MBAs are primarily interested making money, and 

  thus profits aren't always important, as long as the company is hyped and taken 

  public, and they unload their worthless shares on the duped public. Myth: Raising 

  venture capital makes one an entrepreneur. Fact: Raising venture capital makes 

  one a middleman. 

Myth: It is easy to serve two masters, both the bottom line and the higher ideals. Fact: 

  It is difficult to do this, and it can only be done by serving the higher ideals 

  first. Myth: The years spanning 1995-2000 saw great innovations in information 

  technology. 

  Fact: The vast majority of revolutions in information technology intrinsic to 

  the Internet had already occurred prior to 1995. The only innovations after 

  1995 were in fundamental dishonesty and the marketing of high tech pyramid schemes 

  upon the Internet. 

Myth: The main purpose of the industry trade magazines is to report on business innovations. 

  Fact: The main purpose of the trade magazines is to follow the money and hype, 

  independent of any connection it might have with business or reality. Thus they 

  followed the positive hype on the way up, and the negative hype on the way down. 

Myth: Incubators encourage innovation and creativity by assembling tech people under the management of VCs and MBAs. 

  Fact: Incubators stifle innovation by assembling tech people under the management 

  of VCs and MBAs. Microsoft and Dell did it the right way.