Like most e-commerce ventures, Upstage isn't projected to return a profit for several years. Typical of non-retail start ups, the company's revenues right now come almost exclusively from advertising, through banner ads on its Web pages and partnerships with offline corporations interested in reaching the site's audience through promotions. In the meantime, they try to get the most mileage out of whatever venture capital they can raise. But that's not the way to reach a college or high school audience. Trends in this generation are all about grassroots word of mouth, about what's cool with your friends.
Traditional marketing is out.
So are a lot of other business traditions. Upstage's downtown San Diego headquarters has the standard cubicles, but the pool table in the reception area and the CEO's shiny motorcycle parked off the lobby say dot-coms do things differently. Nobody in electronic commerce wears a dress shirt, much less a tie. They play beach volleyball at two in the afternoon. Entire offices go clubbing on Tuesday nights.