As a web professional, I read many books written for my industry. SMART STARTUPS is probably the single most useful book I've yet read on Web 2.0, and it makes the phenomenon of Social Networking online entirely accessible and exciting. If I were teaching these days, it would be an indispensable textbook. As it is, I always insist that clients who approach me about social networking sites read this slim but powerful volume before we begin even talking about development. There are invaluable examples of successful startups and cogent discussions of what factors contributed to their success. This is a gold mine of information for the would-be web entrepreneur. I heartily encourage you to get a copy for yourself and one for each of your partners and/or investors.

My copy of smart start ups is highlighted, full of post it notes and gets reviewed everytime I am thinking about next steps for my social networking site. (www.imspirit.com) Davids approach to show you what has worked in the past and what is working now is both encouraging and enlightening. I have avoided some common mistakes because he pointed out things that didn't work and gives you real sites to look at and study for their model of success. My favorite advice is to put a cold cloth on your head when you are tempted to try to grow a social site by marketing it. He is not a soft touch on what works, he makes it very clear. He explains the specific business models that have transitioned from physical communities into wildly successful cyber communities such as weight Watchers. The price of the book is already paid in the preface: " I have written this book to encourage the massive and worldwide formation of useful and profitable online and mobile phone communities..." Whatever your dream is, there is encouragement and sound advice in this book! We have just gotten started but I know I have the information to make great decisions and to let my dream come true.

I bought this book to get an overview of the social networking space. I found it very valuable. He does a good job laying out the space, the levers to use, etc. It gives you a good idea of how to think as a socnet business person. This space changes very fast, so a lot of the ideas are already being implemented in various forms. Its emphasis of mobile over online is debatable two years on. verall, great for someone who is not too familiar with the space.

Unbelievable amount of research on the topic. Finished the book in two sittings because I couldn't put it down. The formula for starting a great business is priceless. I've never read anything that helped break down the different channels of revenue which is very important if you want to start an online community. I enjoyed the chapter about product formation. Having a community that will help solve a huge problem is very important. The bigger the problem, the more someone will pay to join. The different business models at the end are brilliant. The only problem now is getting a team together. So who's coming with me?

David Silver's "Smart Start-Ups" is by far the best book I've read about social communities. Besides providing terrific examples of communities that work, Silver offers a concrete recipe for internet entrepreneurs in the form of his "First Law of Entrepreneurship" and "The Eight DEJ Factors" (DEJ = Demonstrable Economic Justification). At a time when some venture capitalists question the traditional community business model, focused on advertising, this business veteran tells serious readers how to make money. His case study for Fungible.com makes it easy to put pen to paper for anyone seeking to build a social network. What I particularly found useful was the way Silver translates marketing, bottom-line finance and behavioral economics into a user-friendly message - If you want your business to succeed, go online now! Thanks Mr. Silver - great job.

After several conversations with friends regarding starting a social network I have been passionate about, I was wandering the aisles of our local bookstore, looking for inspiration and advice. And I am so glad I chanced upon David Silver's book.

David's book is at once encouraging and fact-filled. He comes across as a financier with a heart, who understands the psychology of entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-wannabes intimately, while have a time-tested point of view of what it takes to make a community work profitably.

You can expect a great blend of theory, examples and solid advice from Smart Start-ups. Drawing upon learnings from offline communities and how they evolved, David makes a strong case for growth in the number and use of web-based communities. Having tackled the 'why', he then draws upon numerous examples to give us practical advice on 'how' to go about setting up a community that will not only be popular, but also deliver revenues well beyond what would be required to support the ongoing growth of your social network. David also devotes a chapter to 'Raising Capital' for your community. I realized that David is an entrepreneurship guru who has been sponsoring and helping start-ups for thirty years, and was prompted to seek him out for help and advice with setting up my community.

If you are looking for one and only one book to read as a prelude to building and launching your social network, pick up David Silver's Smart Start-ups.

David Silver's hypothesis is that the period of 2007 - 2010 is the greatest opportunity for community entrepreneurship in the economic history. if you belief too that we live in the "age of communities", that you have what it takes to launch a useful, sustainable and profitable community, David's book is a MUST READ. his enthusiasm for communities is very addicitive and ... his got credibility; four decades of experience as an entrepreneur/angel/VC. David shows without going into much details which industries will decline, that USD 300,000 are enough to launch an economical justifiable community, and, and idea of how a communiter could forever change how consumer goods and services are marketed. this idea would need USD 4,600,000, but a person could move the earth ...

a GREAT GREAT GREAT book for bold & visionary entrepreneurs !

'Smart Start Ups' does start up smart: interesting possibilities to consider. But then, page and page is spent trying to convince you that the future is this one way street of online communities. Only in the final chapters does the author begin to unravel what you need to know the most: the 'how to do it' part. But once the book is finished you will still find yourself wondering how to get started.

This book is a phenominal book. If you are an entrepreneur and looking to build a cutting edge company, this is a must read!!!!! The ideas described and the central theme of where the Internet and Mobile age is moving is dead on. David provided some very insightful examples that, given some thought, can be applied to many different areas of business. I have read the book a few times and it keeps getting better and better each time I read it. If you don't read this book before embarking on your new journey, you will be short-changing yourself in a monumental way. Keep it up David. Looking forward to the next book!!!!!

After reading countless books that all seem to re-hash the same general "nuts-and-bolts" information, this book blew me away. David goes as far as telling you what to do, how to do it, why you should do it, and how to make millions doing it. Truly a one-of-a-kind book and author. I recommend this book to all entrepreneurs, whether starting or running an online, or offline business. The insight is pricesless.

I think this book is going to change my life.

Q: How many books truly have that potential?
A: Not many.

Buy this book. You won't regret it.

When the desire to start a social network hit, i began scouring the web for information, how to's and how not to's. As an entrepreneur information overload can cause you to burn out. David Silver's book is an eye opener and a page turner, giving the essence without fluff. I read through all the reviews before I purchased his book and it was the one stars that convinced me that the book was worth a read as the reason the reviewer gave the one star was what i wanted. Excellent, Excellent book for any one who has their eye on the future

I bought this book about one or two weeks from its debut, and I was thinking it would be in another line to cover communities topic. I run a business to build and manage communities and I was anxious to read about my fav topic. But instead, the book was a source of knowledge about how can an average person [well, an entrepreneur is not so average] start to earn really good money with Web 2.0 ideas.
Since the begining of the book, its author covers topics from Success Stories, Fundraising and even Float generation.
I strongly recommend you to read it. It's one of the best books I've ever read.
They even have a website you can check right now: [...]

After reading Smart Start-ups by David Silver, this is a book that without a doubt should be in every office across the country. If you are starting or currently running a consumer based business, then you should read it as soon as possible. David's guidance on how to effectively communicate with the costumer through social networking creates a formula for success. I am now building my third online shopping community and without the social networking component front and centre, we would have disappeared into obscurity as many others before us have.

David Silver's knowledge and expertise has made social networking incredibly simple to understand and achieve. As a society, we have been socializing and networking in groups and organizations since the beginning of time, why then, have we not adopted this habit in the way we conduct ourselves online.

Some businesses may fear what their customers have to say and the power social networking gives to them, to them I say "shame, shame".

Social networking is crucial in understanding how to better meet your customer's needs thus improving your product quality and service levels so that your customers stay YOUR own. David's book teaches you how to create a tool that if used properly ensures your companies offerings are in line with what the customer is asking for, no guessing.

In closing and probably most importantly, he also shows us how to monetize social networks in a simple step by step manner. I quickly understood that he is a business man, not some self proclaimed guru of the net. We all have a business to run and David understands that it takes an investment to develop a social networking solution and doesn't leave you wondering how you will get that return on your investment. It is quite simply the greatest solution to any consumer based company.

Read it! I now hand it out at all investor presentations and to clients I do business with - they all love it and are blown away by its proven success!

Thomas Elwell
CEO
Your eLife, Inc.

As a long time entrepreneur, I've been a fan of David Silver's many books on the topic throughout the last 15 years, so I was delighted to learn that he had written a book on the latest growth trend of Web 2.0, online communities and social and professional networks. In doing research on this emerging growth area, I think I've read just about every book on the topic (there still aren't that many good ones out there), so I was really pleased to know that there was resource from this very credible source.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed, and Silver has written, what I think, is one of best books on the topic from a "streetwise" entrepreneurial perspective. In my opinion, there are lots of writers out there that theorize in an ivory tower in business books, especially on emerging new business areas. Silver is one of the few that can not only speculate, but ground his views in real world examples of the past and present. In addition, he isn't afraid to present his research and insight in a way that both gives forward thinking streetwise business venture ideas, and stimulates the readers' thoughts in that area.

Although this may be a "hackneyed" phrase, take it from one who has read much on the topic, if you read one book on the power and future of online communities and social/professional networks and how these can translate into ground breaking new businesses, make it Silver's "Smart Start-ups" and you won't be disappointed.

John Possumato,
Possumato.com

The whole first part of the book is basically built around one idea: mobile phone based "communities" & social networks. He keeps reiterating the same point in different ways while promising to explain how to do any of the stuff he talks about in later chapters. The first hundred pages come off sounding like a commercial for the author's other chapters or other projects.

By the time you actually get to the later chapters you'll find them very weak on any substantively useful information or action steps to emulate. The whole project just seems rushed to capitalize on current Web trends and makes a hypothesis of dubious relevance.

On page 63 he makes the claim that if Telecoms want to stay in business they will need to switch to the real estate business and sell all their downtown property that houses their switches and where their employees work NOW. In the next three to five years, downtown land will be worthless because retail stores are moving online and people will be tele-commuting from their country homes. He also predicts the demise of many industries over the next 3-5 years: Advertising, Automobile, Insurance, Banking, Mortgages, Law, Movies, Music, Computers and more.

I was tracking with what he says until he started claiming that Telcos would go away and then he lost credibility with me.

I read a lot of business books, and Smart Start-Ups is one of the best I've read in a long time.

I'm extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and online communities, and David Silver's book makes 3 key points that really hit home with me on a personal level:

1) The historical perspective of "Second Age of Communities" and moving away from infrastructure building to community building. This idea was intuitive to me, but the analogy of past guilds/unions rising to power compared to the present growth of online communities gave me an immediate "ah-ha!" moment.

2) Online communities need multiple potential streams of revenue to succeed. David draws from a few proven business models (like Mary Kay) to give very useful ideas on monetization. The idea of creating float to fund online communities is also extremely powerful.

3) Online communities not only as a business opportunity, but as an artistic expression and social movement. This part is excellent. Many business writers tend to be more one-dimensional and I found it inspirational that David alludes to artistic and historical contexts within his book.

In addition to all the innovative ideas, Smart Start-Ups provides useful tools for assessing the robustness of business ideas using David's First Law of Entrepreneurship and the Eight DEJ Factors scores.

Smart Start-Ups is a must-read if you are at all interested in online communities and entrepreneurship. The historical context provided in the book gives entrepreneurs and investors conviction that online communities are a macro trend and not a mere fad, while the example business models give concrete ways to approach the market for many years to come.

David Silver is giving it all away in this book. Most authors and business men with this much knowledge hold their cards close to their vests, not David Silver. Not only does he tell you where the future of online communities are going, what to do, and what NOT to do, he offers countless new business ideas that you can run with immediately. If you're planning an online ANYTHING read this book.

This book changed my life and business, literally. It has humanized the Internet for me like none other and explained what the Internet always was, and will be moving forward. Enabled by video and social media technology, it's all about the rise of the community. You Tube, MySpace and Facebook are just the start of this online transformation. I had heard of ideas like Web 2.0, but now it has meaning. Read this book and you'll understand too.

David Silver delivers with revolutionary force, entrepreneurial expertise, and a practical plan. He is someone who has the experience to future pace this forward thinking state of the Internet. I can't say enough about this book. I'm now going to re-read it.

This is one of those books that you dream about after you read it. Don't read it at night--you won't sleep.

Ever wonder why all these social networking sites keep getting bought for these outrageous sums of money? It's in this book. It's written as a blueprint for starting your own online community. These will be the cities of the future, as Mr. Silver observes. The city builders are starting to emerge now. Fortunes will be made. This is the instruction manual.

If you have any entrepreneurial tendencies, this book should be required reading.

This book is an excellent look at Web Community development, angel capital, and how to develop ideas that will be successful in the new Web 2.0 world. As a consultant and entrepreneur, I was extremely excited to learn a valuable way to quantify an idea in terms that will speak volumes to Angel Investors while helping me to crystallize my thinking around several Web Community ideas I have been trying to get off the ground.

This is a very good book for entrepreneurs looking to understand a new model for web communities that is cutting edge and current. I have never been this excited by the possibilities created by an author and his subject. Thank you David Silver!

With the convergence of telecommunications, electronic banking and the internet, online social and business networks will become one of the most important virtual tools to get along.

David Silver captured all this in simple and very straight forward terms for anyone who wishes to either join or build their own community.

David Silver gave us all a priceless gift in this book. His experience and absolute knowing on the many subjects visted are true pearls of wisdom. My fiancee and I have read this master piece three times and we still can't put it down. Silver gives us all insight into his amazing vision and at the same time, he gives us real world how to examples. We have never read a book so full of value and Silvers selftest scoring system is a great gift in and of itself. Kudos to David Silver!

Mitchell Yow & Elke Wilkerson
CO-Founders of Attract @ the Speed of Light, LLC

If you buy one business book this year make sure it's Smart Start -Ups .

Author David Silver has over thirty years experience backing entrepreneurial companies,and it shows from the getgo.Silver's message is simple ,within 3 years Internet Communities will be seriously big business,names like MySpace,YouTube,Facebook have been sold for millions or are being offered millions of dollars.The success of these embryonic companies has been built on two primeval human instincts ,the need to search and share.In the past it was tribal hunting of game,now its information ,globally in real time.When citizens have the urge to search and share common data/information -Communities are formed-Online.The money will go to those forward thinking entrepreneurs who aggregate,those search and share hungry individuals into Online and more recently Mobile(phone) communities.Despite being a highly respected VC not only in the business but on the lecture circuit,David Silver,many times emphasises that very little venture capital or indeed business experience is essential.The beauty is that like the Weight Watchers business model ,the assets are the subscribers themselves!.Or as Silver puts it, think like this `'My Community will not incur cost of goods sold and my members will generate the data and pay me for the privilege of sharing it with other like minded members''.Pure and simple if you build it they will come in their mobbing digital droves,wagging their ,music,pictures,videos,stories, behind them.So what ? heres what! get enough millions of like minded people together and the bricks and mortar boys (traditional business),will have ready made customer bases.If you are smart enough You will be the one selling You Tube est 2005 selling it to Google for $1.3 billion in 2006.If you take the Initiative NOW,you will be positioned to take full advantage of the coming WEB 2.0 ,i.e the age of communities.

But putting it that simply does not do Smart Start-Ups justice.This book is refreshing in non prejudice detail,and glorious insight.I would recommend this book be referenced over and over ,by those budding `'Communiteers'' as Silver calls them.From raising Capital,to the rules for creating Successful online Communities,to Reputation management it's all here.Traditional business is reeling ,the online/mobile consumers like you and me are calling the shots.There is serious money to be made ,by giving people something simple online/mobile ,that something, a digital space to share a common interest.I cannot rate this book highly enough and recommend it more as a vital handbook-than to be ever left on a shelf.