The answer is simple. Starting and building a "dot.com" company is as exciting and cool as it gets. We know, we started ePublicEye.com a century ago. (Okay, it was May, 1996, but that's a long time in Internet years.) Minor details aside, we started with less than a thousand bucks and in 4 years opened offices in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. Next, we launched our services in Spanish, French, German, and Chinese, and registered members in 81 countries around the globe. In the process, we quickly discovered that the Internet is a fast way to get into business and an even faster way to loose lots of sleep and money. In fact, listen closely. The giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of millions of dollars leaving the pockets of people like you and me and pouring into the accounts of web site designers, builders, hosts, and various other e-commerce "service providers." (Many of whom, we should mention, are committed to making money whether or not your company ever makes a dime.)

Yes, owning an e-business is still cool and easy to start. But as we discovered, choosing the wrong hosting company, the wrong programmer, the wrong payment processor, or the wrong promotion vehicle can put you out of business in an Internet minute. (If you're new online, that's the equivalent of a New York minute divided by ten). So JackStreet.com was created to be the resource we wish we could have consulted along the way.

Our goal is to educate, amuse, and prepare new e-business people to help themselves. Sure we hope to make a cyberbuck or two in the process, but we're committed to doing it the old fashion way- by providing you with a tool that is more valuable than a fast modem. Y'know, that thing you use to connect your computer to the Internet. Most importantly we're committed to keep it simple, because we believe that much of what we read on e-business today would have been too complex for us back when we first flipped the on switch at ePublicEye.com. Now about that name...

Why we called it JackStreet.com?

Here's the truth, we thought about calling it e-Business for Dummies, An Idiot's Guide to e-Business, or Cliff's notes on e-Business, but our lawyers mentioned lawsuit and management ran for cover. So we ended up calling it JackStreet.com: The Guide for those who don't know jack about e-business. In short, it's a simple, slightly irreverent e-business guide for the rest of us. Again, our mission here is to inform, amuse, and encourage small e-business owners. What sets this guide apart from the hundreds of other small business sites cluttering the web is our commitment to be a "quick study" resource. If you own a typical growing e-business, you don't read The Industry Standard (too much) or The Wall Street Journal (too stuffy) and you've ruled out Andersen Consulting (too expensive). You're simply too busy, too overwhelmed, and too impatient to use most of the small business resources available. Most of all, if you're like Jack, you just want to know the really important stuff, when you need to know it, and not a moment before. Well, welcome to JackStreet.com.

What you'll find on Jackstreet.com.

JackStreet is an audio guide to starting, building and expanding a business online. On JackStreet.com you'll find really quick, easy to understand answers to the things you absolutely need to know about e-business. The information is presented in a simple, bottom line way and best of all, since it's delivered in an audio format, you can just listen to it while you do other things. You see, Jack knows you're busy, so he doesn't waste your time. For example, Jack's Notes are one to three minute briefings on the most important stuff you need to make those initial business decisions you'll face online. Need more information? Jack will lead you to the Top 10 resources he's found on the subject. Then there's Jack's Buyers' Guides which let you access ratings and reviews from e-business owners like you about products, services, and vendors before you buy. The JackStreet Index will keep you ahead of the small business trends revealed by polling our network of over 15,000 e-businesses. "The Word From Wall Street - The Word From JackStreet" will compare the difference between what the latest e-business news mean to the big guys versus what they mean to the every day Jack (and Jill). Speaking of Jill. JillStreet zeroes in on women in e-business. Then there's our favorate, Behind the Dots where Jack goes in search of the most out-of-the-box strategies being used by small e-businesses to compete online. In short, if you're new to e-business and you don't know Jack, You've stumbled into the right neighborhood. So go ahead, turn up your speakers and take a stroll down JackStreet. We promise that if you hang out long enough, you'll get to know Jack and you'll be glad you did.