Think web startup and the picture that comes to mind is of some kind of new web service, perhaps a ‘Facebook killer’, but with pictures of cats making it money (hopefully) through paid subscriptions. But more traditional businesses, especially smaller ones, have been boosted by the democratising power of the internet for almost as long as there has been viable e-commerce. Today, there are enormously powerful resources available to the lone owner who wants to play for big stakes.

Keith Jones has two such businesses and he says the rules of starting an online company are completely different from a traditional business.