There was only one problem. In common with many hi-tech start-ups, Wolff New Media's monthly "burn rate" (its cash expenditure over income) was running at $ 500,000, meaning that however profitable it might be, within a month or two Wolff New Media would still have trouble meeting payroll.

One technique is to look at the "burn rate" — how quickly a company is running through its cash. But this is not really a clue to the intrinsic value of the company, or to the prospects for its technology.

Rumors began to fly around..about 'the very high burn rate in cash consumption'.