21 Leaders for the 21st century: Net Heads

Even though the phrase net head is a freshly coined addition to our everyday lexicon, we are already wondering what we did without it. So, before the internet, what exactly did fast-talking, charming, insanely ambitious, technologically savvy twentysomethings do with themselves?

The internet draws people into new businesses who, in other more conservative times, would probably have found themselves working for old businesses.

Tim Jackson, for example, was a journalist with the Financial Times before founding the auction house QXL. John Pluthero worked at Dixons before he took control of its internet spin-off Freeserve. Of the net heads on our list, only Danny Wagner, the founder of Dialog and a man who was pushing electronic information at a time when very few people were interested in the concept, comes close to the traditional stereotype of the typical entrepreneur.