Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More
The New Road to Riches, Redux
Following up on my last October’s cover story, The New Road to Riches, many more people are coming around and embracing the build-it-flip-it model. Good to know that Jeff is on board. He writes, “What is interesting is that Topix is the yet another Internet startup to develop a meaningful presence without any VC financing, and end up being taken out – at least partially. These exits would not make sense for ‘traditional’ VCs that need to deploy at least $5 to $10M per deals, and need to generate at a bare minimum 3X to 5X on that capital. But it makes sense for angels and founders – and people helping them develop the shop like yours truly, who have to accept to live for some time on ‘Macaroni and Cheese’. Alternate model ? ” New Road to Riches/Business 2.0.

Thanks for the reminder :-).
The key thing is that “Built it-Flip it” is an alternate model, but entrepreneurs should not believe that it is so much easier than building a longer term, sustainable company.
I have added a reference to your piece and Tim Oren’s, that I find quite complementary on the subject.