I’m not sure who’s article kicked it all off – but I recently found a few all buzzing around the same topic.  It is very interesting to me – because I am involved in a new star-up called “e-Me Ventures” and we discuss some of these things weekly, if not daily!

The first one is by Jason Calacanis and is called “How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)“.  Jason is known as a good guy, a little “over-the-top” at times and definitely into quality.

I really like #4 and #5:

Don’t buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, folks would rather get calls on it, and 99% of communication is NOT on the phone. Savings? At least $500 a year per person… 50 people over three years? $75-100k

Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs. Tables are a complete rip off. We buy stainless steel restaurant tables that are $100 and $600 Areon chairs. Total cost per workstation? $700. Compare that to buying a $500-$1,500 cube/designer workstation. The chair is the only thing that matters… invest in it.

That article lead me to read this one at Found/Read called “My 10 “Un-Tips” for Starting-Up Right“.  This has a little more fundamental advice.

In the Found/Read article – there was a link to “36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More!“.  This was broken into sections and my favorites were:

 Tip 4: Ask tough questions during the interview
here is nothing worse than being soft during an interview with a prospective employee and hiring the wrong person into the company as a result. This is bad for you, but more importantly bad for the person. In the end you will end up parting ways, but it would be best to just not make this mistake to begin with. So be tough and ask a lot of technical questions during the interview.

Tip 2: Sponsor/attend a few high impact conferences
Tech, SWSX and Defrag are our top picks so far. Make sure there is a fit between the conference and your product. Check out who else is sponsoring, and get feedback and blog posts from last year’s attendees before signing up.

And lastly a post from Mark Cuban called “A Couple of My Rules for Startups” backs up others (plus pokes fun at Jason).

 1. Don’t start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

11. NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm. A PR firm will call or email people in the publications, shows and websites you already watch, listen to and read. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them an email introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communications with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

These are all really good articles.  Really gives you a sense of what people are thinking an how they choose to begin their company.