Inspired by the BusinessWeek ebiz 25 and Fortune's Young rich and powerfull (listing of the top 40 under 40) you can now check gurugeek's exclusive condensed listing of Net Guru's...

It is surprising how many people are getting rich out of an innovative idea. This time is not one of my bashing but a listing of the people who made it happen online. My listing is not solely flawed on my preferences : I am selecting the best out the reliable listing of both BusinessWeek and Fortune, excluding someone and adding someone else... Enjoy!

Sergey Brin, co-founder Google Age: 30 wealth $800 million
and on the same spot
Larry Page co.founder Google Age: 30 wealth: $800 Million

Despite most thoughts that the search-engine world had nothing to be discovered, In 1999 and backed by Sequoia Capital, the 2 Stanford University graduate students made it happen. They showed net's leaders how to make money with discrete text ads linked to search results. They might try to clone it, but fast, inktomi (largely employed by msn..) and other search technology dinosaurs are on their way to an unavoidable (and hopefully fast) extinction.
Their search technology and advertising idea deserve full credits. For the record, advertising money on msn is just a waste: whomever is using msn to search the net is either an ignorant or idiot of epic proportions.

Pierre Omidyar, chairman and founder, eBay Age: 36 weath: $7.06 billion

I often see a lot of hype around Meg Whitman (eBay CEO) but I prefer to include in my listing the pony-tailed founder. With 30 million active users eBay is expected to top the current year with $20 billion in sales.

With no inventory to worry about, simple yet effective rules of governance he created an empire. Don't get fooled by the simplicity of the idea, clones of eBay popped and closed everywhere: there is nothing special on the technology but a lot special in the brand and the community itself. Even big players like Yahoo failed miserably and their attempt. eBay takes no hostages, and wins every battle.

Linus Torvards, Age:33, Fellow, Open Source Development Lab, wealth: not relevant

Here's another example of a guru where wealth is not relevant. He dreamed up Linux and now controls its growth. Linus was featured on Forbes as one of the must influential leaders. A clear example that power is not solely linked with wealth. Despite the continuous moaning of the GNU freaks, he made it happen, not them. Whomever insist on GNU/Linux is a brainless monkey. Face it, under this principle it should be KDE/GNU/Linux...wait KDE/Apache/GNU/Linux..hand on ...KDE/Apache/GNU/mysql/Linux.. get real.

Linus managed to hit the start on the timer. The timer is counting the seconds till the end of micro$$$$oft first on the server business, and work in progress in the desktop world. Well done!

Steve Jobs, CEO Apple and Pixar, Age: 48 weath: $2.3 Billion

Ranked 78th on the 21st annual Forbes 400 list , with his net worth climbing to US$2.3 billion in 2003.
My reasoning for a listing is more for the innovation side. Apple always innovated and their products are just UNIQUE and pure rock. Now before you start your pc-geek mac bashing try one. The Guru's I know, which regularly bash Macintosh, never tried one...so..get a life. Mac rocks, gets the job done, you have all the development and programming tools you need...


Michael Dell, CEO and Founder, Dell Age:38 wealth: $17.12 billion

Every simple idea requires great execution. On both fronts he is a winner. The simple idea is let people build their own computer and order online, keep inventory low. The great execution has to do with great supply changes management skills and low to zero inventory.
$50 millions a day online distribution channel speaks volumes.

I am not a Dell fan, but he deserve credit for the accumulated wealth with such a simple concept while his competitors are losing money and a flood-like bloodbath.

Jamie Cameron, Webmin developer and inventor
Ok ok... another league then Google founders but heck, he created a unique tool which is simply great. You can manage a server which is not running redhat linux but e.g. Slackware from virtually every location (with an internet connection..won't work on the sahara desert).

It made my life easier and this is innovation. Trash out all the commercial mumbo jumbo like cpanel, ensim and plesk and you can make it happen and manage a server or a cluster remotely via webmin. His book is a must buy and while his innovation might not be relevant to non-geeks...it still rocks.

You might think that this listing is unfair, stupid and silly but is my blog remember ? :D

To summarize, great net guru's are not necessarily rich and famous. In fact, Michael Dell isn't making my life any better but a simple programmer guru can bring his genius into your life with an application like webmin.


Dinged: Who didn't make it and why
Excluded

John Thompson CEO of Symantec: included on businessweek ebiz25, excluded by gurugeek

Why: his answer "give consumers and corporations a whole array of defenses in our integrated package"
my answer: give consumers and corporations a real operating system and a real computer.
Peter Lewis, on his Fortune's columnTech, wrote:
"Problem: your computer suddenly seems constipated. Then, at midnight, it turns into a zombie and attacks the Pentagon. Min in black come and take away your family. You may have a work or a virus or a Trojan horse"

I might well add, or you are simply running on Micro$oft Windows with the latest update...

Lewis continues: "Solution: Get a Macintosh. The big reason Macs don't get target by virus writers is that Windows-based computers offers a more target-rich environment" How True!

No hot spot on my list of Symantec fellows. The contributed to propagate the must dangerous of all virus: tech_stupidity. Low brains computer users are under the impression that is something doesn't work as it should, it must be a virus and the run buying symantec yellowish box. When micro$oft will include a default antivirus (see my other article) even said that it will be probably a less efficient application, consumers will be more then happy with the default solution and they will possibly snob the expensive Norton fellah.

Marc Benioff, CEO Salesforce.com

This fellow was included in both Fortune and Businessweek listing, nice try but not enough to trick me. His web-based sales force and customer service/management software is pretty weak. Nothing new, just few integrated gyzmo's with outlook. Whichever solutions integrates with outlook has a problem. Sure his company posted $100 revenue but well..not enough to make it as a guru. You can be rich and make money with a nice idea, poor technology as a marketing whiz as he probably his, but miles away from being a true guru.

Once I got into a list used by a marketing guy from an advertising company using salesforce to manage their contacts and prospectives.
I have to admit that the personalization was good enough for me to believe on it.I even replied to the sales guy once.

But...as a demonstration of the weak tech base by using header-specific tags, I managed to instruct spam killer on duty to remove anything with salesforce on the Xmailer tags...et voilà. True...not many people would be able to set such a filter..but still...where is the innovation ?


Bill Nguyen,32, president and founder SEVEN networks, listed on Fortune top 10 entrepreneurs

Well, you are probably thinking...Bill who ? I had the same feelings. Fortune quotes "why mobiles phones have email: thanks to him"
Some mobile phones might have some sort of email capability, but this chap must have forgotten, in the hurry to innovate, the keyboard. That's right..you need one to type.

And no, the small little gameboy like pad on new mobiles isn't a keyboard. Oh..how many emails can I save on these revolutionary mobile phone ? What about attachments, right I am getting a pdf financial report on the go, how do I see it on my mobile phone ?

For the record, email on a mobile phone is a failing miraj, small screen, high fees, with the future handed on wireless computers..why bother.


Carly Fiorina, Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard

Lot of promises but after the merge with compaq many people (like me) are counting the days. She could be good, but when it doesn't look good and smell like a fish chances are low to nil.



gurugeek
P.S. this article has not been edited. If you see a typo, several mistakes, horrible formatting, spare me.