If this hasn't dissuaded you, read on. If you enjoy having your teeth pulled, or having toothpicks placed under your fingernails, then starting a technology or Internet business may be for you. The road ahead is a hard one. Juggling employees, family, growth, and rivals in real time is a huge challenge. Not only that, but raising capital, recruiting people, finding office space, and attacking your market opportunity is even more difficult with a volatile stock market that one day embraces technology and the next day can't stand it.
Young guns shooting for the big-ticket IPO can all but forget about it.
The days of quick and easy IPO profits have been put on hold while investors reevaluate the technology landscape and valuations in general. It is now time to build a positive cash flow business, which is the best approach to take no matter what the current sentiment on Wall Street is. Before the stock market whipsaw, many start-ups didn't have to rely on generating cash flow but instead relied on investors to foot the bills. This was a bad strategy that backfired. With profits, you rule.