Before I get into the business of thanks, a quick disclaimer. Everything you’ve read – or are about to read – in this book is true. More or less. A couple of names (no more than a couple) have been changed at the request of those with reputations more valuable than mine to protect. When faced with either keeping them out of the book or giving them a pseudonym, the decision was a no-brainer. Also, for reasons of space, I’ve had to leave out a number of people who have been enormously influential on me and my adventures. I hope they’ll forgive me.

As far as possible I ‘ve relied on the many Moleskine notebooks I’ve carried with me over the last eight years or so to make sure that events are described exactly as they happened. Emails and press cuttings have helped a lot, too. Inevitably, though, I’ve had to rely on my memory to reconstruct some of the conversations and the chains that connected various events.

Given the amount of alcohol consumed at Internet events, there ’s a possibility that my memory has let me down in places. If I’ve quoted you inaccurately, then I apologise, sincerely. Feel free to email me with any corrections – and I’ll them put on my blog, www.paulcarr.com (which also contains bonus content and all that good stuff).

Alternatively, perhaps try to say something more memorable next time.

* * * *

And so to the thank-yous. If I know the entrepreneurs featured in this book – and I do – then this will be the first page they turn to, before even starting to read the rest of the book. I don’t blame them; that’s exactly what I’d do, too.

Thanks firstly to the London Internet community, without whom there would be no story to tell. Particularly Robert Loch, Angus Bankes, Michael Smith, Tom Boardman, Richard Moross, Oli Barrett, Zoe Margolis and Alex Tew. Alex: sorry about the trainers. And Michael: feel free to copy and paste any part of the book for your next business card. What’s mine is yours, you cheeky bastard.

Thanks to Clare Christian for being a great friend and an amazing business partner and for giving me more opportunities than a lazy law student ever deserved. Thanks to Heather Smith and Clare Weber for all of your hard work during my time at The Friday Project – your professionalism saved my arse on more occasions than I can count.

Thanks to Maggie Richards for constantly reminding me that we’re all responsible for the paths we take and to Michelle Acton Bond, Anna Melville-James, Sarah Bee, Eddie Crozier, Paul Walsh, Scott Rutherford, Elizabeth Varley, Ruth ‘Mimi’ Fowler and the rest of the members of Mr Rong’s for always trying to convince me to take the path marked ‘Warning: danger of death’.

Thanks to my parents for patiently rolling their eyes as their eldest son flits from job to job. I owe them everything. Thanks to my agent, Robert Kirby, and my editor, Alan Samson, for being a dozen kinds of brilliant and for batting back the bores. Thanks to Bea Hemming for taking care of all those things that people in publishing houses rarely get credit for but, if left undone, books would never get published – and a special thank you to Rebecca Lewis for being the best publicity manager a book could wish for, and for still talking to me, despite what I did to ‘those poor women’.

Thanks to Karl Webster for all the years of brilliant writing and exciting adventures. May you enjoy success and happiness in all that you do.

And finally to Savannah Rose Christensen: thank you for sticking around through the best of times and the worst of times. Without you lots of things would still have been possible, but none of them would have meant a damn thing. This book is dedicated to you.