I have a quite a bit of experience in assessing business plans for equity investment and for general robustness, as well as advising new businesses, so I hope you wont mind if I share a few thoughts with you. The internet is often seen as an easy way of starting a business; it seems that an internet business is like a novel, in that everyone has one in them. Having said that, we are not all authors.
Also, there is not really such a thing as a true internet based business. All the businesses that have been successful are established business models that use the web to simplify or automate some or all of their business processes. Amazon did not invent selling books.
Friends Reunited is probably the closest to a true web-based business, although universities have been tracking alumni for years; the Internet just provided a means whereby FR could do it on a much bigger scale.
I would advise that when you consider your business idea, see if it would work without the web and then try and identify ways in which the internet could make it better, faster or more efficient, rather than the other way round. The reason why most web-based businesses fail is that they dont take this critical first step.
Good luck with your project.
