Guy Kawasaki has a very interesting post detailing the start up cost of his new baby - By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09. This highlights how it is possible to finance a new media/new technology company on your credit card rather than by pitching to investors. We are living in a new world.

Trumeors is kind of a Digg for rumours which is explained on their site as follows:

"Truemors is a web site that enables you to "tell the world"â€"within the bounds of good taste and the law anyway. You can post your rumors, news, and sightings, and anyone with web access can read and rate them within minutes. We wish to acknowledge the pioneering and inspiring work of Twitter, BoredAt, Digg, PostSecret, PopSugar, and HotOrNot in this field."

My friend Mat is just about to enter public beta stage with his company Approvr. Approvr tackles the approval workflow that so many companies require for sign off of designs, documents and specifications. My friend Dennis has teamed up with three developers and is launching FreeAgent this week at Wiki Wednesday and OpenCoffee Club. FreeAgent tackles the invoicing and money management issues for freelancers and contractors. I just joined the advisory board of another company started by three guys developing a SaaS based document management solution that will initially be aimed at smaller legal and accounting firms. We'll be looking for some beta test clients soon. I'll be tracking the start up costs of all three of these enterprises, and hope to report on them when I can, but we're living in a new world.

When I started this blog back in 2005 I wrote about Joe Kraus. Joe needed $3m to start search company Excite back in the 90s. When he started the JotSpot wiki company in 2005, it only cost him $100,000. He sold out to Google late last year for an undisclosed sum, but he looked pretty relaxed at the time. Here we are in 2007 and the barrier to entry has been dropped again. We're living in a new world indeed.