Welcome to the January 2002 edition of Minds Over Matter, our quarterly Newsletter.

We dedicate this iMinds quarterly newsletter to those entrepreneurs who won't give up. Despite the most difficult fund-raising environment in recent memory (probably since the early 1970s), this dedicated group of individuals continues to approach iMinds Ventures with business plans for their early and not-so-early-stage businesses.

What comes through is their passion for creating businesses, defying the odds of the current economic climate with new ideas. In the past 3 months, iMinds has been actively looking at (and working with) many of these start-ups. Gone are the wild revenue forecasts, ultra-growth strategies, meaningless partnerships and customer-acquisition plays of the "pre-bubble" years. Now we're seeing teams willing to go back to basics and focus on the simple things in life like building a great product, listening to the customers, and finding short-cuts to help maintain a positive customer relationship.

Unfortunately, some of the larger venture firms are still trying to assess how to put their $500M - $1 billion funds to work in the present environment. They will not gamble on today's early-stage venture frontiers-men. iMinds has been partnering with several venture firms who are willing to roll up their sleeves, work to build teams, build customer demand, and develop product strategy. It turns out that venture capital is a fairly time and thought-intensive business for those of us willing to hit the trenches today and work with those entrepreneurs willing to brave the storm. Who would have though this was true in the late 1990's - a time when all VC investments turned to gold?

Welcome to a new year, and a new style of venture development. It's not so unfamiliar to us here at iMinds and we welcome its arrival.

The iMinds Team
January 2002