E-Enthusiasm

Revolutionaries undaunted

by Michelle Chihara

Just don't call it a "crash." That's the consensus among young, dressed-down-but-upwardly-mobile Internet professionals. In the wake of last week's NASDAQ dip, the dot-com start-up scene is as breathlessly enthusiastic as ever -- at least as measured by a recent networking event organized by Silicon Spot and sponsored by Zefer and LavaStorm.

Those who gathered at the Top Kat Lounge last Tuesday night disagreed about whether the market slide would have any effect on the booming start-up business. But rumors that it's now harder to get those venture-capital firms to sign on the dotted line do not seem to have bothered most of the young e- hopefuls.

Three twentysomethings from Event Zero, a professional services company for Internet start-ups, sipped their drinks and looked unfazed. "I've heard those rumors," said Aspasia Zouras, "but I really haven't seen it. We're signing contracts. It hasn't affected our clients or business at all. A lot of stocks were overpriced." (As is the rule with people who work at such companies, it took Zouras a few sentences to explain what providing professional services to start-ups means, exactly. She did say that other Internet consulting firms are their competitors, but that companies like Event Zero are "quicker, nimbler, and vibe-ier" than stagnant bigwigs like Andersen or McKinsey.)

A few job-seekers (the networkers' status as job-seekers, investors, or entrepreneurs was broadcast via color-coded star-shaped stickers on their name tags, making for some intense bosom-staring amid the mood lighting) admitted off the record that the stock-market correction had made them rethink a dot-com job offer where the salary was padded with stock options. Then again, those people were still attending dot-com networking events.

Otherwise, the ordinary rules of Internet start-up life applied. Buzzwords flowed unselfconsciously: "B to B to C," "stickiness," "conversion," "100 percent referenceability." And the general feeling of being part of a well-heeled, good-looking revolution prevailed. "Do you wanna change the way that people shop?" screamed one entrepreneur during his presentation about his company, Trailbreaker.com. The crowd whooped obediently. "Come on! Louder! Does anyone here wanna change the way that people shop?!"