An aspiring entrepreneur on Hacker News recently asked, “I want to start a startup, but have no ideas. Start by consulting Mike Jones told us how he built a chat application for a consulting client and then turned it into userplane, a company that he sold to AOL. Andrew What should I do?” 8221;

If you want to know the value of having a good network, take a look at what it’s done for Peter Pham’s new company, BillShrink : Networking helped him get an adviser who successfully sold a startup in the industry Peter wants to dominate. Go where they are - To get hooked into the web startup community, Peter went to tech events. Networking helped him find a co-founder who is a former venture capitalist. Networking helped him land a top creative director without having to pay a recruiting fee.

Michael bootstrapped userplane and sold it to AOL, then went on to found Tsavo . Along the way he’s invested in and advised startups like GumGum and Dogster . They may not be metric businesses when you initially start and you’re just building your software, but at some point it becomes about new users per day, new signups per day, etc. ( Can’t see video? Try this. )

Santa Monica-based Tsavo Media, the new startup founded by Userplane founder Michael Jones, has launched a new division, focused on search engine marketing. The firm announced the division Tuesday afternoon, saying that its new Tsavo Agency will provide search engine marketing and content monetization services for companies. The new unit comes shortly after Tsavo Media's acquisition of Better Inc, which runs the DONE! search engine marketing business.

One of the recent trends in the technology industry here in Los Angeles is the use of "coworking" spaces--flexible workspaces where companies can rent open office space. Chang is looking to open up two to three more similar spaces in the next year. The existing space on Wilshire is heavily used by meetups, business networking groups, as well as local startups, and we thought we'd talk with Jerome to better BLANKSPACES (www.blankspaces.com) -- which is on Wilshire Blvd.--is is the brainchild of architect Jerome Chang.

What if you can’t get funding for your startup? Before launching Tsavo , his current startup, Mike Jones funded a startup through consulting work. Do you have any advice for a startup that can’t raise money? If you have a good concept that you really want to pursue, and there’s absolutely no way that you’re Here’s an edited excerpt from his interview. But it is a substantial distraction and a lot of people might not either have the discipline to do it or the stomach for it.

In fact, even though most folks in high tech here (given the carpet bombing coverage of Silicon Valley companies) know the tech celebrities of Silicon Valley, only the “in-the-know” folks seem to be aware of the huge successes here. I’m thinking of folks like Mike Jones (Userplane/AOL/now MySpace), Matt Coffin (LowerMyBills), Sky Dayton (Earthlink etc.), I’m sure everyone’s seen Intel’s big advertising push “ Our rock stars aren’t your rock stars “–comparing the firm’s technologists to celebrity rock stars. I