Thanks to a ”Cold-War dividend” – manifested by the breakthrough of the internet browser some ten years ago – a transformation from the industrial society to the knowledge society is rapidly under way all over the world. While some nations or economies can already be labeled as knowledge societies, many are still a mix of the (vanishing) agricultural, the (prevailing) industrial, and the (emerging) knowledge society; more or less of all three, at the same time.

Building business “from idea to IPO” in the knowledge society differs from the building of business in the industrial society. Global division of labour and extremely narrow market segmentation can be often readily utilized from the start. Moreover, while new business ideas are increasingly knowledge intensive and ever less capital intensive, there is – for once, in the world – no shortage of financial capital. However, and paradoxically enough, there is a shortage of small (and smart) enough doses of it. In fact, there is a shortage of knowledge capital investments (hands-on involvement, entrepreneurial commitment, passion, and market wisdom) and those making such investments in ambitious entrepreneurial ventures as “co-entrepreneurs”.

The report at hand is a compilation of research papers produced by eBRC’s “V2C Research Team” during its predetermined life (2001-2005) as part of the eTampere program. Albeit far from complete, this report can be viewed as a small history of the evolution of the “V2C paradigm”, the conceptualization of knowledge vs. capital investments, and the rise of knowledge investors.