Way back in January 1994 (practically the beginning of time in Internet commerce), Cutler and an undergraduate pal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided the World Wide Web was going to be huge. So they started a company ``to do cool things'' with it.

Cutler and his friend, Eric Richard, named their company net.Genesis and, working out of a dorm room, drummed up business helping firms build corporate Web sites. But first they had to convince companies they needed Web sites. ``You'd start meetings saying there's this thing called the Internet,'' Cutler remembers with a grin. ``We'd make the wild prediction that someday people would have business cards with their e-mail address on it.''

Proceed with caution

Now a 27-year-old with a ponytail and goatee, Cutler was one of the early visionaries ofthe Internet age, someone who understood the technology's potential to revolutionise the way business is conducted.

His experience is a cautionary tale for young entrepreneurs and would-be millionaires. It shows that you can have a cool idea, a keen grasp of new technology, be way ahead of the market--and still flounder. In the end, Cutler had to come to terms with the fact that if his company was to succeed, he'd have to turn over control to someone with far more business experience than he.

That can be heartbreaking. ``You have so much of yourself invested, you've lost a lot of your friends, your hobbies. You're so committed to making it work on your own,'' says Cutler. ``But at some point you have to realise it's not about you. It's about the business.''

Back in its early days, the little company with the odd name (firms with ``net'' and ``.'' in their names were unheard of then) got a big boost when a sports-information Web site Richard, 25-years-old, had set up for fun, caught the eye of ESPN. Thecable sports network hired net.Genesis to develop a Web site, becoming the fledgling firm's first big client. Soon net.Genesis became known for its technical wizardry, winning acclaim for an interactive Web site for the Saucony athletic-shoe company in Peabody, Massachusetts.

The novel site asked people to enter information about their exercise habits and physique, then responded with a recommendation for a particular shoe model and a list of what was in stock.

By mid-1995, the net.Genesis founders decided the real money lay not in consulting work but in helping firms track the activity on their Web sites. They thought such information could be hugely valuable in marketing and product development. So they developed new software to sell.

That's when their momentum stalled. The business ``just sort of plateaued,'' Cutler says. ``It was really frustrating.''

The young business owners were stumped. They had the technology down cold. They had come out of the MIT culture of cutting-edge work, no sleep andthe belief that you can accomplish anything with hard work. And they had been on a roll.

The problem was that the business community was eating their dust, technologically speaking. ``They say if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat its way to your door,'' Cutler says. ``Not if the world doesn't know it needs a better mousetrap...I'd postulate that being ahead of the market has killed as many companies as it has helped.''

The net.Genesis founders realised they needed a lot more money if the business was to survive. The initial start-up was financed by friends and family; now they needed serious cash. One firm interested in backing them was Charles River Ventures, which recommended what Cutler knew in his heart was necessary: a new chief executive--someone from the outside.

They suggested Larry Bohn, a 40-something executive with an extensive background in the software industry. Cutler conducted secret negotiations with Bohn, not wanting to upset other employees.

Bohn joined the companyin early 1998 and soon came to a verdict: The business model was all wrong. He said the company was trying to be a package firm when it was really a solutions business. He said it couldn't sell just products; it had to sell services. And he suggested raising prices. The company was charging $7,000 for a software package. Today, the average price approaches $100,000, including extensive consulting services.

Modest price

The change has had a remarkable effect. Company revenue last year quadrupled, although the firm has yet to make a profit. (It won't give figures.) Among the new customers are Bell Atlantic, CBS, E*Trade and Charles Schwab. The company, which had about 28 employees in January 1998, just hired its 100th worker. It recently completed a $22 million round of financing and plans to go public.

If the young founders hadn't stepped aside, Cutler believes, net.Genesis probably would have been out of business by now, or acquired for a modest price.

``We were way ahead of the market,'' hesays, ``and didn't have the business model to capitalise on it.'' Now that he has learned the ropes, Cutler doesn't want to stay in someone's shadow. ``I absolutely hope that I will do future start-ups,'' he says, ``and that I will truly be the CEO.''

The Asian Wall Street Journal