The state of Charlotte's technological world has undergone a noticeable shift of late. Some basic fundamentals that would go unquestioned in most Metropolitan areas have come under some serious scrutiny in the uptown area. For instance, a seemingly straightforward term like "success" has undergone some redefining in recent years. The notion of sliding into a corporate juggernaut via the mailroom and spending year after year clawing your way up the corporate ladder to become one of a thousand Vice Presidents has become obsolete. That version of successful has been replaced by the ideological notion that if given the title, office, and the microphone, you could do things better. This reoccurring belief has produced an emerging subculture of headstrong futurists who make the difficult decision to leave their current employment and trek it out on their own. Maybe it's the influx of egotistical young professionals to the Queen City, maybe it's their inability to adhere to the corporate structure or maybe it's just the thwarted sense of "good business" in the huge industries, but the growing fad in Charlotte these days, is to round up some fellow visionaries and start your own enterprise.

By and large, I would say that, usually, these visionaries are people that are too proud or too stubborn to be told what to do and how to do it. They are people whose productivity and work merits are offset by their boat rocking and challenging of the system. They are tired of carrying the dead weight that slips through the corporate cracks. They are people who no longer want the term "boss" to represent one individual with Big Brother type qualities, looming over them. They want their boss to be the fast-paced, high-energy Charlotte client base. To them, the thrill of sweating through eighty hours a week trying to impress themselves is far greater than yawning through forty hours a week to impress one person.

Driven by wide-eyed wonderment and youthful optimism and armed with the new innovations in web based tool sets, the little guys are picking up steam. Small Internet integrators like E-dreamz and Vicious Systems are not yet ready to take over the driver seat in the vehicle of IT prominence, but they are making a substantial enough dent in the frame to cause some serious body work. They have become a viable option to companies who have lost patience with the bureaucracy of the big boys. Their convoluted management structures, quagmires of paperwork and a lack of confident decision-making have given this IT underworld a competitive advantage. Potential customers have become less impressed with marble floors, vaulted ceilings and plush offices and are often being persuaded away by competitive rates and quality work. The cut-and-dry bottom line has become more pleasing to the palette than the gourmet coffee and the breakfast buffets served at the sales presentations of the big boys.

Decision-making downtime is another pro of dealing with a modest firm. They don't need to call an executive board meeting, with appetizers and a shorthand stenographer taking minutes, just to pick a background color. For example, with the impending magnitude of wireless technology and with developers finding previously unimagined ways of applying its power, E-dreamz was able to quickly solidify a partnership with Net Morf, a leader in mobile commerce technology. The ability to make snap decisions and turn on a dime without needing the signoff of eight vice presidents has proven a great differentiator between David and Goliath.

Another perk is that you are guaranteed that you will receive their "A" team. You can often be sold on a big company's "A" work but then receive their benchwarmers. When dealing with a smaller group, there is no second string. There is no place for them to hide from the coach. The team budget for bench space is limited and eventually they get bumped off the edge, back into corporate America where day trading and Yahoo games of Spades can be overlooked.

It takes a rare breed to work for these companies. It takes hungry, motivated people who have become annoyed by their sluggish career progress as a result of the swamp called due process and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices of working for a little firm. And the sacrifices can be large. Less importance is given to extravagant Christmas parties, company picnics and corporate getaways to Pawley's Island. There is no LAN administrator to call when the mail server goes down or when you forget your password or when you simply need help installing software. The underlings must have a great sense of personal autonomy and an impressive work ethic. That incredible urge to pound on the snooze button and enjoy nine more minutes of sleep must be controlled. Your actions directly and immediately reflect the success or failure of the company. And when you development staff consist of two people, the ever-popular corporate blame game is extremely tough to play. You can either accept responsibility for your actions and remedy the situation, or you greatly anger the other guy.

There is an obvious question that arises, is it worth it? All the things that go along with this life: the sleepless nights, the migraines, the hair loss, does it prove rewarding? Is it better than just leaving all the seedy deals to management and remaining sightless to the intricacies of the business, collecting your hefty paycheck and basking in the sun stress-free through three weeks of vacation? Their answer is simple, yes. Their vision of the future can be seen much more clearly through bloodshot eyes than it can through blind eyes. The soothing sense of awareness that goes along with controlling your own destiny trumps the unnerving sense of helplessness knowing your life can change in a second due to plummeting stock prices in a volatile market or corporate layoffs to save face triggered by unseen upper management.

The local perception is that a small dot com can not be successful in a traditional town like Charlotte, that stamping your product with a brand name is only sure way to guarantee satisfaction in the conservative South. The supports for the foundation of that perception have become brittle with attacks from such local success stories like internetsoccer.com and LendingTree.com. Uptowns best and brightest are coming together by the dozens in an attempt to show that these stories are not just one-hit wonder, flash in the pans that resemble random carrots on the end of a stick, but that in the future they will be commonplace occurrences that frequent the Charlotte gossip mill. They want to show that the conformity and orthodoxy that go hand-in-hand with being the country's second largest financial city will be broken down by the ever-changing dynamics of Charlotte, and they are banking that those changes will find favor with a pioneering movement that symbolizes something less than mainstream.