This week marked the 15th year anniversary reunion of the launch of the Business 2.0 magazine (first issue July 1998). As their first columnist, I was involved with Business 2.0 during the planning stages, leading-up to the first issue’s release, and working with the founders and original editors and writers. If you are young enough not to remember the magazine, Business 2.0 chronicled the transformational power of the Internet on business, hence the name Business 2.0, and the name came out of a conversation between Chris Anderson (Business 2.0 founder who later purchased TED) and Jeff Bezos at TED. Jeff apparently blurted it out.
One of the staples of that first issue was a seminal centerpiece titled “10 Driving Principles of the New Economy”. A small group of 29 advisors that included me, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, Halsey Minor, Kim Polese, Steve Jurvetson and others, helped Business 2.0 develop these principles that became the foundational thesis of the magazine’s content for several years ahead.
