the electronic commerce initiative but that does no) have experience II starting new businesses. Then, equity partners, which arc entities that have provided start-up money to new ventures in the past and have developed knowledge about operating new ventures, provide advice to the venture sponsor. The operational partners arc people and companies that previ¬ously have built Web business sites. Thus, they can provide expertise in the technologies and business practices needed to create a successful operating electronic commerce site. The fig¬ure shows the flow of information and activities over time, starting with the venture spon¬sor, whose activities lead to the work done by the equity partners, which then pass the project on to the operational partners for implementation