Web 2.0 and Beyond, Embracing the Start-up Culture

According to the famous MoneyTree/PriceWaterhouse survey, 901 companies secured first round funding worth $5.1 Billion for 2005. That means the market is fresh and hungry for entrepreneurs. Web 1.0 taught us a lot but now what... Talking with a circle of chronic start-up "addicts" has revealed a couple of interesting things: They love the lottery ticket atmosphere with hopes of investing their intellectual brainpower to the fullest capacity. They expect to receive a handsome payout in less than 3-5 years. The fact that technology life-cycles are headed back to the home office with off-shore resources like elance etc. makes the funding game fierce because start-ups are farther along in terms of substance and in many cases an entire market share. There is something in the human spirit that longs to fill that void of using one's creative juices but some places don't really foster that kind of environment. Many people are going into start-up stealth mode and after investigating some of them I'm learning they are bringing their A Game to the table. The run-and-gun approach 8 years ago is at a different level now. I'm excited to report that the technological playing field has brought more substance and the due diligence for both the entrepreneur and the angel or VC investors is a lot broader due to the sheer amount of players today. Someone fill me in on cool resources for start-ups. Redherring, SiliconValley.com, ventureone and so forth don't have much of an interactive blog community with people in the trenches. Please shoot me an email if you know of some good research....