Business plan competitions are popular again in the USA as are incubator programs for early stage start-up companies. To help participants prepare for the rigors of real-world meetings with venture capital investors, incubators often feature a session where fledgling companies can practice and perfect their fund-raising pitch. The theory is that start-up teams will benefit from the candid assessment and advice of the seasoned industry veterans who typically serve as mentors and judges at these events.

In the spring of 2009 a start-up management team took the floor at one such incubator to present its plan for launching a home networking company that would integrate various smart entertainment devices, appliances, energy monitors, and PCs. The team presented ample evidence of unmet market demand and unsolved technical challenges in current home networking platforms. Instead of friendly advice, however, this team received a chorus of negative feedback about its plans. According to the panel of mentors the home networking space was a guaranteed death trap for any small technology company. The skepticism was so pervasive that management eventually shifted the company's focus to a product with a different value proposition. In aspiring to become the lynchpin of home networking, however, the start-up team was undeniably following in some well-trodden and notable technical footsteps.

Samsung trademarked the phrase “Home Wide Web” (HWW) in 1998 for its widely publicized technology platform for connecting PCs, TV sets, remote controls, modems, VCRs, and cable boxes using a standard called IP (Internet Protocol) over IEEE 1394 (Samsung, 1998).