Since we assembled the core team and began to see our vision take on tangible form, it has become easier to see why entrepreneurs put up with the great stress and emotional ups and downs that come with setting up a business.

The buzz is fantastic and when we went to test the Rools proposition out with potential business partners, we could see a similar thing in some of the people that we talked to.

We want to offer customers as much choice as possible by developing a network of partner retailers for our secure service to young people to shop online independently.

We approached a mixture of established companies that had expanded on to the net from the high street and pure online players. When we meet with the latter it is always with people with a significant stake in the business, often the founders themselves.

Their determination to succeed and the confidence they have in their ability to do so seems to set the tone for the whole organisation, making them appear innovative and exciting places to be.

Having spoken to a number of people who have founded internet businesses, it appears that it is not a simple lust for wealth that drives them - though the desire to share in some of the economic value that is created is obviously real. Instead, most of the enthusiasm appears to stem from the irresistible urge to make an impact.

Indeed focusing on an eventual flotation may distract a new business; even when the shareholder's personal (paper) wealth is doing a Martha and is subject to amazing levels of public interest, it does not appear to be particularly relevant.

More traditional retailers, whose employees are unlikely to have such significant shareholdings nor to have the opportunity to make a massive difference to the business, are having to compete with these highly incentivised and hugely motivated teams. Some of these big businesses appear afraid of this challenge; others are meeting it head on. Freeserve is a good example of how it can be done.

For us, it is the retailers' appreciation of the opportunities presented by the internet and the pace with which they can make things happen that makes them attractive partners. So far we have found that it is the new kids on the block and the more entrepreneurial traditional retailers that are a little quicker to respond. The reaction from these retailers has been over whelmingly positive - one of the founders of a very successful online business even said that he wished he had thought of it first. They see the Rools service as a way of accessing a valuable new market and developing relationships with their customers.

We have had to back away from a few of the retailers who still appear to be grappling with their internet strategies. The good news for some of these businesses is that start-ups still get it wrong - less around the con cept and motivation, and more around the execution. A number of high profile start-ups have seen poor technology, fuzzy marketing and bad customer service.

However, with the capability, resourcefulness and increasing levels of capital investment available to most start-ups, big business cannot afford to wait. Internet start-ups will not be making mistakes for much longer.

Adam Hamdy and Guy Mallison are co-founders of Rools.com