I'm listening to a free Web-seminar by Guy Kawasaki based on his book "The Art of the Start." Very interesting. I've been part of a few startups and can relate to much of what he says. Unfortunately, none of my startups were Apple Computers.
You can read many ideas on his blog, but several of his comments struck a chord with me. On hiring, he talks about hiring "infected" people, people with passion, people who "get it." Check this before degrees, experience. When he discusses business plans, he talks about being realistic in your VC pitch. I guess he's heard one too many "we just have to sell to 1% of the people in China" comments. Reminds me of the M2M argument--there are billions of devices out there, if we just connect x% of them we'll all be billionaires. But I think, in that case, that the sales are for applications not devices. That may be why five years later many of the M2M companies are disappearing. Others have discovered that that is just one good thing in a portfolio of many good things.
All in all an interesting session. You may see more in my February editorial in 1:16:28 PM 
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