From the book lists at Adware Report:

All information current as of 03:05:41 Pacific Time, Monday, 21 February 2005. Zero Gravity 2.0: Launching Technology Companies in a Tougher Venture Capital World, Second Edition    by Steve Harmon / Ann Winblad   Hardcover:     Bloomberg Press     June, 2001    US$19.77     Usually ships in 24 hours Click the button below to . . .      (which will add the book to your Amazon U.S.A. "Shopping Cart") . . . or use your browser's Back button to return to the search-list page.

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Editorial description(s):

Bob Davis, President and CEO, Lycos, Inc.
[A] "how-to guide" that no entrepreneur should be without.


Marc Andreessen, Co-founder, Netscape
I wish this book had been around when I co-founded Netscape....must-read for any entrepreneur looking at the Internet opportunity.


Ann Winblad, founding partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Steve explains better than anyone the new metrics for success in the high velocity Internet Economy.


Guy Kawasaki, Founder and CEO of Garage
"Read Zero Gravity 2.0 or you'll get zero traction in your fundraising efforts."


Vinod Khosla, Chairman, Asera Inc. and General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
"The standard has always been building profitable, DURABLE companies, something that Zero Gravity 2.0 emphasizes now more than ever."


Book Info
Offers entrepreneurs a guide to obtaining investments for starting a business, smoothly and painlessly. Discusses current market issues and explains which types of companies will do best, based on current trends. Includes new chapters, new statistics, and insights form professionals. DLC: Venture capital.


About the Author
Steve Harmon is a prominent stock analyst and was featured in Smart Money magazine as one of three rising stars in technology investing. CBS Marketwatch named him one of the Best of Wall Street, and Worth magazine lists him as one of the 15 top Internet visionaries. Harmon has created venture capital and other investing funds. He is frequently quoted in the financial press, appears regularly on CNBC TV and ZDTV, and his comments appear on a number of leading finance Web sites.


Excerpted from Zero Gravity 2.0: Launching Technology Companies in a Tougher Venture Capital World, Second Edition by Steve Harmon, Ann Winblad. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There's no better time than now to start a technology company. Sounds ridiculous, given the technology stock market's volatility and the Chicken Little mentality of doomsdayers spreading word that the Internet opportunity has passed. Truth is, technology start-ups are much bigger than the Internet, which is only a small segment of the technology sector. Thirty years ago venture investors were considering semiconductor start-ups, then PC start-ups, software start-ups, and now Internet start-ups. The revolution continues. The big opportunity-the enging that now powers all this-is the move to a digital and networked world for both consumers and businesses. The PC and the Web are only two facets of this digital landscape-there's a lot more to come.

Venture capitalists are cash-flush and itching to invest in companies that are revolutionary. And the good news is that because the noise of the hypesters and scam artists is gone, truly great business ideas are more likely to be funded now. Good businesses are no longer competing with garbage ideas for venture capital attention. The dump truck that was humming up and down Sand Hill Road (the venture enclave in Silicon Valley) and unloading napkin-scribbled business notions has been banned by the roadworks.

Gone are the dot-com opportunists and weak business models based on yesterday's thinking. Many of those opportunists didn't understand the basic value proposition of the networked economy: build a business that shows real profits. You can use the network to control costs and to grow to a scale that companies offline cannot enjoy. Easy, huh? Better think again. Building a valuable company takes more than your skills.

If you want to start a technology or Internet company, remember that profits matter-a lot. Don't even think about starting a technology enterprise and trying to get funded without having profits as the number-one goal on your list. 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. The ups and downs make it that much more difficult for even experienced executives-who simply aren't attracted to pure tech start-ups when the environment is unpredictable. (Ironically, though, if you are an experienced exec thinking of launching a new venture, now may be the best time to do so, since venture capitalists seek experienced business veterans to help mitigate their risk.)

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. A stock market driven down by day-trading speculators and the repeated warnings from the Federal Reserve chair against "irrational exuberance" knocked the wind out of Nasdaq with a one-two punch. 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. The reality is that the sixteen-year-old entrepreneur-turned-IPO-paper-millionaire should have been focused on building a profitable business and not on a finance event.

Having inter nal cash flow insulates a company from the whims and wishes of investors (both VCs and the public market) who may not have the best interest of the company in mind. Investors seek a return on their investment first and foremost; they are looking for a moment when they can convert their interest to cash or liquidity. Having a business that generates cash flow, or better yet, earnings, means you can have more influence over the direction of your company; you won't have to sell off equity for capital to outsiders who may not always invest on terms you like. With profits, you rule.

From Zero Gravity Version 2.0 (c)2001 Bloomberg Press


Book Description
The handbook for the next phenomenal period of venture capital. Zero Gravity quickly became one of the defining books during an unprecedented period in entrepreneurship. But, the world it described and helped shape changed dramatically in the spring of 2000. Now, noted Internet stock analyst Steve Harmon provides an even more penetrating look into the quicksilver world of Internet venture capital and its lasting role in the world enterprise economy. Zero Gravity 2.0, revised in concept and content like a major new software update, confidently capitalizes on the best of the old and the new. It features insightful analysis of the 1999-2000 dot-com correction, which affected the portfolios, psychology, expectations, and metrics of venture capitalists. Harmon looks at emerging trends from the vantage point of an entrepreneur. He also shares his perspective on the prospects for obtaining early-stage money over the next several years, now that the first Internet wave has crested. Zero Gravity 2.0 also includes new sections on Web incubators, long-term trends, and other recent dot-com developments, plus updated statistics, tables, and resources. And Harmon offers a thought-provoking analysis of the dark underbelly of e-commerce: backlashes by copyright holders and regulators to some Internet business models, new roadblocks in broadband data capacity, and more. Zero Gravity is written from an insider's point of view. It's packed with insights from top Internet venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, features a new foreword by Ann Winblad, and is the perfect plug-in to the world of e-commerce start-ups.

Key Features:
· In-depth coverage of the current operating climate of technology start-up companies
· Definition of the outlook for venture capital in the evolving, sobered-up, dot-com business environment
· The pros and cons of Web incubators; a snapshot of the top incubators and rising stars
· Updated "little black book" of venture capital
· New foreword by Ann Winblad, cofounder of the prominent venture capital firm Hummer Winblad
· Centric vs. Internet-enabled business models; how the model makes all the difference. Includes a list of which public companies fall into which category




Reader review(s):

Absolute Dribble, June 13, 2001
Wow this is a stinker. The only thing worse than the pointless musings in the book, is the revisionist history slant that is present throughout the text, pointing out that the author did not _really_ buy the internet hype. Well Harmon, you got Caught UP.

Zero Velocity, May 15, 2001
Readers who have followed Mr Harmon in his role as a columnist for internet.com (Internet Stock Guru) will find little new here. Harmon fills too many pages with quips and similes (and re-statements of the obvious) instead of insight or research.

Worth reading, June 28, 2001
Steve has presented an in depth look at the venture capital world in this release of Zero Gravity 2. I appreciate his no-nonsense approach and his willingness to expose what goes on behind the scenes. Very good insights!

Right on the Mark!, June 20, 2001
Steve Harmon knows how to get to the heart of the matter. This book has given me very helpful insights and has helped me make sense of the recent investment arena.

What a disappointment, April 20, 2004
This book is pure rubbish. Even worse than the first Zero Gravity book (I should have learned my lesson). If what you want is mindless anecdotes, shameless name dropping, and little substance, this is the book for you. For shame.

Thumbs Up!, December 14, 2001
I just purchased a copy of Harmon's book Zero Gravity 2.0.
I am new to the investment arena and found this book extremely useful. In fact, I have already acquired backing for my venture.
My hat is off to you Mr. Steve Harmon...

A true superstar in a pool of sharks, July 19, 2001
Steve Harmon's reputation as one of the brightest stars in the stock world is well deserved. Steve has a gift for uncovering real value in this Internet age. I follow Steve's Broadband Report and my portfolio is up 220%.I rate Steve's new book with five stars because it's even better than his first...and I learned volumes from that book. I always say, the proof is in the pudding and I happen to be enjoying a rather large bowl thanks to Steve Harmon.

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