A new high-tech firm that will help grow Web and e-commerce companies from scratch has just been launched in Silicon Valley.

The firm, which calls itself a venture catalyst, is breaking new ground by taking Net start-ups at the business-plan stage, injecting venture capital, adding management know-how, recruiting the management team and building the Internet infrastructure. It will even help develop a merger and acquisition strategy. All the entrepreneur needs is a good idea and a sound business plan.

The firm, Intend Change, is the brainchild of Mr Joe Firmage founder and former chief executive officer of the $1.6 billion (£1.14 billion) website consulting and construction company US Web/CKS. It will be backed with venture capital from Softbank Technology Ventures and Crosspoint Ventures Partners.

"It's a way to take great ideas, put them on steroids and propel them at the market at Mach One speed," said Mr Toby Corey, cofounder of Intend Change and President of US Web.

Intend Change will take a 10 per cent stake in a protege and have US Web build its infrastructure. Fifty per cent of its profits will be donated to Intendchange.org, a foundation that will fund environment, youth, health, and cultural diversity charities.

"One day I hope all for-profit business will build both a .com and a .org," said Mr Firmage.

Twenty-nine year-old Mr Firmage has a colourful reputation having already made not one but two fortunes in Silicon Valley. When he was 18 he founded Serius, a computer networking firm that he sold to Novell in 1993 for $24 million. Then in 1995 he went on to create US Web, but last year stepped down as CEO following his outspoken and controversial views about the existence of aliens and extra-terrestrials.

Mr Firmage believes that many recent scientific advances - including semiconductors, fibre optics, and lasers - can be traced back to technology recovered from a purported 1947 alien spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico, which was allegedly covered up by the government.

"There is truth to the UFO phenomenon, that is undeniable. The evidence is overwhelming from around the globe," Firmage told Reuters in January. "To deny it is to simply stick your head in the sand."

However at the launch in San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, last week, Mr Firmage said he did not believe that his extra curricular interests would interfere with Intend Change.

"This is different, everybody now knows my beliefs," he said. "I don't have to lie about who I am or what I believe anymore."

Certainly, people attending the launch seemed unperturbed by Mr Firmage's beliefs.

"Really, who cares what a guy who can build a $1.6 billion company believes as long as he performs," said an investment banker for Goldman Sachs. "His beliefs are prompting him to give something back to the world through Intendchange.org and that can't be bad."

Meanwhile, Intend Change will take on up to six start-ups each year and has already signed its first three firms: Electron Economy which will provide logistics for e-commerce firms; Infrastructure Defense, a security firm that will help companies defend them selves against attacks and breaches in security from the Internet; and online retirement services company InveSmart.

Intend Change will differ from venture capital firms because it will dedicate time, energy and contacts to start-ups. "VCs don't give you a lot of the intellectual heavy lifting needed to create a successful company," he said. Meanwhile, back in Dublin several new venture capital firms and businesses also have similar ideas to help bring Irish companies into the US market. For example, Mr Sean Melly, the founder of TCL Telecom, is reinvesting the estimated £11 million from the sale of the company to MCI WorldCom in 1997 in Irish and eastern European start-ups. Mr Melly has interests in the Irish software training company EMG, and the Dublin-based customer relationship management firm e-Ware.

"I will be putting more than just cash into these companies," said Mr Melly. "Obviously I have a lot of valuable experience that I can contribute."

Likewise, the US-owned venture capital firm in Dublin, Agincourt, intends to help companies it finances with all aspects of growing a US operation, according to Agincourt founder and partner, Paul Kane.

However, perhaps the most significant aspect to the creation of Intend Change is the rare occurrence of philanthropy in the booming high-tech economy. Until now, Hewlett-Packard was one of the few companies that donated sizeable amounts of money to charities.

"It's interesting that a new company like Intend Change is willing to give up 50 per cent of its profits to make the world a better place," said Mr Tom Harvey, Director of the Citizens for Responsible Forest Management, an organisation trying to save California's Redwoods. "Funny that in the caring 90s most companies that are making billions from the Internet seem to be reluctant to give anything back to the community."

Niall McKay can be reached at Irish-times@niall.org