Original Web 2.0 Offerings -- Or, Other Companies U Sphere Has Had the Pleasure of Meeting

We've been happy to make the acquaintance of a few Web 2.0 enterprises over the past several months, and we thought you'd like to meet a few of them here:

Inkling Markets. Set up your own prediction market...do you think Ron Paul will be the Republican nominee for President? Will Tiger Woods win the British Open? Does that company have ANY chance of success? Lots there -- and there's a complex algorithm involved, too.

PerkSpot. We bumped into founder Chris Hill last week and his portal to the next generation of employee perks is pretty cool.

GrubHub. These folks are going places -- ANY online aggregator of places that deliver food to Evanston can't be all bad. Way way nifty a tool.

The common thread between these businesses? Founders who dare to be great, dare to bootstrap their businesses (that means building smart, efficiently, a ton of sweat equity, not just throwing cash at perceived problems). Their businesses don't look like anything else we've seen...and that's part of what makes them cool.

Their founders happen to be younger than I am, so I like to root for the kids, too.