There's another way that Arts Alliance stays creative: by staying small. The firm is not interested in raising billions of dollars' worth of investments. It limits the size of its funds to about $150 to $300 million each. Billion-dollar funds have to make larger investments, which usually means investing at later stages of a company's development. Hoegh and his colleagues believe that as well-known VC firms raise bigger and bigger funds, Arts Alliance will have a clearer opportunity to focus on what it knows best -- building companies from the ground up -- even as the firm faces growing competition from all of the venture funds that are streaming into Europe. (Softbank, for example, recently announced a billion-dollar fund that is aimed at Europe.)

"We don't believe in flipping companies, or in incubating and then graduating companies," says partner Victoria Hackett. "All of our companies are sustainable because of how much time we spend with them -- referring deals, helping solve problems, and searching for new opportunities."

While Hoegh is faced with many diverse options, he is revolving his search for the next wave of business opportunities around a sense of community and the customer experience. He wants to understand how mobile computing can lead to "user profiles" that are owned by people, rather than by companies. His passion for user-generated content is so strong that he believes that it can spur a renaissance in the most passive form of media -- television. And, assuming that cell-phones continue to operate as "remotes for life," he is exploring how people will use them in richer and more-complex ways.

Hoegh is exploring one last frontier: the experience of business itself. Hoegh is both a champion of technology and a victim of it. He totes a different cell-phone for each continent on which he does business, and he calls British Airways his "unofficial residence." It's all very exciting and alluring, Hoegh concedes, but it's not sustainable forever. When, he wonders, will the 24-7 work style give way to a more rewarding experience? "At some point," he says, "we will need to switch off."

Rekha Balu (rbalu@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer. Visit Arts Alliance Ltd. on the Web (www.artsalliance.com).

Sidebar: Work This Way

The Web is about big ideas, bold bets -- and relentless execution. Arts Alliance coaches CEOs on how to build a strong culture and how to embrace effective business techniques. Here are some of the company's lessons, adapted from the "Arts Alliance Guide to Best Practices" and from the firm's conversations with CEOs.

1. Find your truth teller. Make sure that you have at least one employee who is plugged into the office and who isn't afraid to tell it like it is.

2. Eat and greet. Take every employee out to lunch at some point. Meet regularly with direct reports (but make sure that you don't have more than five direct reports).

3. Don't be afraid of information leaks. When employees feel trusted, they will unite. And, in turn, they will be honest with you. Give every department a chance to speak about its progress and to take ownership of it.

4. Check your ego at the door. Don't expect or ask anyone to do what you would not do yourself. Make it a point to do "nonexecutive" tasks, such as washing the coffee mugs.

5. You don't have to be CEO forever. Let employees know that there's room for advancement at every level. If you hire people who are good in areas in which you are weak, you'll have a ready pool to promote when the company needs to shift gears.

6. Less sooner beats more later. Don't let your long-term ambition detract from your short-term focus. Your job is to create results quickly.

Sidebar: Invest This Way

Venture capitalists are taking lots of heat for making some big bets on some pretty flaky ideas. Here's how Arts Alliance decides whether or not to invest in a company.

1. Is the company's product 10 times better than what's already out there or just incrementally better?

A product that wouldn't be possible without the Web is a winning business idea.

2. Does the size of the industry that the company is entering exceed $10 billion?

If not, then the company won't be able to grow -- or to handle the inevitable competition.

3. Is the business model sustainable amid competition, market downturns, and other tough realities?

The business must be built from multiple revenue streams. It must also offer the prospect of above-average margins: Big revenues with no profits is not a sustainable strategy.

4. Does the company have a genuine first-mover advantage?

Arts Alliance doesn't fund me-too ideas, and it doesn't fund business models that don't involve a fundamental change in the structure of an industry.

5. Does the management team exude hustle?

It's not enough to have a great idea. You also have to be able to execute it -- and fast. A winning team has solid experience in key functional areas, such as finance, operations, and technology. It also knows how to make decisions quickly and how to detect whether the current game plan is faltering. The team that makes the quickest adjustments wins.