Paul Graham's recipe for a startup.

I took some time this weekend to read Paul Graham's essay entitled How to Start a Startup.

Paul writes, "You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed."

So if these are the three main ingredients for a startup, just how tasty is cup of droidworks soup? Grab your spoon!

First off, do we have good people at droidworks?

Since I represent 50% of droidworks current work force, I can't answer that objectively. I can tell you about my partner though. This guy, my friend, is a freak of nature, he's one of Lugosi's atomic supermen in the flesh. I've lost count of how many languages he knows, twenty, thirty? And when I say he knows them, I mean he knows them. Problems that might take me a few days to solve only take him a couple hours. Or better yet, he can often point out that the problem that I think needs solving is really just a side-effect of a bad design decision. Correct the design flaw, and the problem evaporates. We've also got a new guy ramping up that is showing some promise as well. So if I can manage half as well as my guys can code, then we've got this one aced.

Secondly, are we making something that customers will want?

That's the big question, and we must assume the answer is yes. We are our own customers in the sense that the apps we are developing are apps that we want to use. Will the public agree with us? Only time will tell. Speaking of our apps, you can simply google SocialTones which should point you to several posts on Alexander Muse's Texas Startup Blog. The other app, Geomata is something that I'd rather show you than tell you about, and hopefully we'll be able to release our prototype "real soon now".

Finally, are we spending as little money as possible?

This ones easy, we're entirely self-funded so far, although Architel has mentioned kicking in a little bit of seed money for devices to develop on as SocialTones ramps up. Currently we're just leveraging our existing hardware and free time to get this thing off the ground, and we're making good progress. We're still building our prototypes, and we get along fine with a $30/month linode server.

I'm still a complete novice when it comes to funding. Do I even need it? How much do I need? How soon do I need it? How far along should the prototype be? These are all questions that I'll be trying to answer as we charge along. The best case scenario would be that SocialTones is wildly successful and provides enough capital to eliminate any need for VC funding.

If Paul knows what he's talking about, then I really think we are off to a great start. There are probably things that I should be worrying about that I'm not even aware of, so feel free to send me advice or even scathing criticism. Getting feedback is one of the main reasons for starting this blog.