This article - SpaceX finally gets a rocket into space - VentureBeat - points to an example of the sort of startup commercial space project - GeoOptics LLC - that migth become viable with $8M Falcon I launches. See also Satellite company to privatize high-accuracy weather data - VentureBeat.
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Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides looks at the roadmap ahead for SpaceX: Next for SpaceX: Falcon 9, NASA, Humans and the Moon? - Wired Science

If SpaceX meets all of these milestones they will receive their full $278 million COTS award. To put that in perspective, NASA awarded a $3.9 billion cost-plus contract to Lockheed Martin to develop the pressurized Orion capsule that will carry the crew atop the Ares I rocket. NASA has already modified the contract to Lockheed to add in two additional abort tests and to push back the program two years. The modification alone cost them an additional $385 million, more than NASA will pay SpaceX for the Falcon 9 rocket and pressurized Dragon capsule should the flights prove successful. Quite a bargain.

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Even more Falcon I articles and commentary:
/-- SpaceX Becomes First Private Company to Achieve Earth Orbit - Space 2.0 Blog
- Elon Musk Makes Orbit - Fresh Inc. - includes a video interview with Elon from last year
/-- Fourth Time's the Charm for SpaceX as Falcon 1 Reaches Orbit - Popular Mechanics
/-- Successful launch for fledgling rocket company - Nature
/-- Silicon Valley businessman launches rocket into orbit - San Jose Mercury News
/-- Private Rockets Could Boost Military, Too - Danger Room/Wired.com