Imagine a monthly disaster, a tsunami, a cyclone or a class five tornado hitting your town - every month - and thinking it was normal, or worse - just ignoring it because "that's just the way it is".

Seven of ten start-ups fail in the first two years  -  and I, for one, am fed up with it. It isn't acceptable. Small business failure in the United States alone causes nearly a trillion dollars a year in bad debts, foreclosures and broken families - and it doesn't have to!

I've seen the dreams of dozens of small business owners quickly become self-inflicted catastrophes. Our passion, and lack of patience convinces us to 'go it alone' and eventually people label us 'eccentric', 'irresponsible' or just a failure. I walk in and out of small businesses every day, not having a clue how much they are struggling, and how sick and tired, ready to throw in the towel the owners are. And I care to know.

As an entrepreneur of 30 years serving start-ups and small business owners, I've seen the casualties, the damages and the costs of micro-enterprises that were ill prepared for the effort, or the market. I have built and filled numerous web servers with the dreams and aspirations of challenged entrepreneurs, rich and poor, experienced and virgin. I've been frustrated and angry at the thousands of hours of painstaking programming and graphic design that has been discarded.

And, I had a divinely serendipitous meeting. I got a huge 'AHA'. I had an, 'Oh, my god', a life-changing introduction to penicillin for small business and rural community economic development.

I know for a fact that there is a cure, a turn-around, a solution. The Sirolli Institute has developed a methodology that has proven in hundreds of communities, in tens of thousands of businesses, to absolutely reverse business mortality statistics. The communities and small businesses that have adopted the Sirolli model have an amazing success rate, in most cases over 80%, and in some communities they're as high as 97% - for over 5 years. Some of the communities are literal Cinderella stories.

I found out about "Enterprise Facilitation®" and could hardly believe what I heard. I've spent the last 16 months interviewing people, from the US, Brazil, Canada, Australia and the UK, who are involved in the 'business' of economic development, and who are passionate about delivering the solution to entrepreneurs everywhere.

I wanted to be a part of the solution. I know the web, and the power of online communities, rich with mavens and cause 'evangelists', and I know the long tail of e-commerce, and the call to use IT to end poverty. I, and others are stepping up to the task.

HippoNexus is a social enterprise, a small business aggregator, a community development tool that is committed to reversing the failure rate of entrepreneurs, and the social and financial impacts that result from dissolution, hopelessness and fatigue. Enough of this. It doesn't have to be this way!

Thanks for taking a peek at the new portal. I'm adding modules and configuring details of the server farm. You can follow the progress, as I feel this is the most important, and fulfilling work of my career, and there's a ton of good stuff coming on.

You're here, likely because you know something before the public does. What a cool time to come on site. That's like peeking at eBay, Amazon or Google in their first year. Remember this, I promise you'll be amazed at what happens when a few passionate and committed people bring technology and the hugely successful micro-enterprise and community development model of the Sirolli Institute, with the 'Long Tail' of the Internet under a 'social enterprise'. Wow.

Back to work...

Daniel Comp
Creator of Intelligent Netware
Information Facilitator for the Sirolli Institute