Part of what I was supposed to do, as an award winner, was tell the assembled crowd about the money we are trying to raise. So I did. Picture that sea of suits. Spotlights were shining down on the five of us standing side-by-side. We were a complete break from everything anyone had expected. And I began:

We are ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing. We have the leading publication in the Palm market with PalmPower. The leading publication in the corporate Lotus Notes market with DominoPower. And we've just launched the first publication for Microsoft's hot new small-computer operating system, Windows CE Power. We have trademark licenses from Palm Computing and Microsoft. And we have hundreds of thousands of readers. If we can do this with the five people who are in front of you now, imagine what we can do with an investment of five million dollars.

It actually is true. We're entirely self-funded and profitable, with amazing Internet technology (it's how we generate these publications every month), a large base of readers, and powerful brands. And we've done that on our own. It seems, in this Internet-hot market, that we'd be foolish not to try to grow it big. So while we would be a fine company continuing to bootstrap our growth, we also have the opportunity to be the next Amazon, the next eBay, the next Broadcast.com. And we're going for it.

One way we're going for it is by expanding our relationships and base of publications. Clearly, as a growing technology publisher, we can't ignore Microsoft products. So, on Thursday March 25th, we launched Windows CE Power Magazine. You can visit it at http://www.windowscepower.com.

It's very much like PalmPower in that it's completely independent and completely objective. Obviously, there's some degree of cross-over since Windows CE runs on Palm-sized PCs and PalmPower is all about Palm devices. But there's a lot more to that. Windows CE is a modular operating system and it runs on everything from milk analyzers to mini-laptops, from gaming consoles to set-top boxes. Our goal with Windows CE Power is to cover everything about Windows CE, from embedded AutoPCs to the new, handheld color devices and everything in between (although I suspect our coverage of milk analyzers will be somewhat sparse).

Can't we all just get along?
Now, I know some of you feel very strongly about Microsoft. Some of you -- at 3Com especially, but also many of our readers -- aren't big fans of the Big M. Rest assured, many users we've met on the Windows CE side of the fence feel pretty much the same way. The best parallel I've found has been the old Mac vs. PC religious debates. The weird thing is that people I've spoken to on each side (Windows CE and Palm) have accused the other of being "Mac-like zealots". Then again, some of them have proudly claimed to be Mac-like zealots. Go figure.

The fact is, they're very different markets. The other fact is, we have no vested interest in either community. Our job is to create great content for readers. That applies to both publications. Our job is to create a great return on investment for our advertisers. That applies to both publications. The no-favoritism reality even applies to our relationships with each company. We have a trademark license from Palm and a very similar trademark license from Microsoft.