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.

The road ahead, vast and untraveled.

This blog is the story of a couple friends with a little inspiration, a lot of enthusiasm, and probably a pinch of insanity. We now live in an era of unparalleled technological advancements. We've spent our youths marveling at the things man has built, and dreaming of the things yet unbuilt.

And so begins our enterprise, to build a few of the yet unbuilt things.

We're insane enough to launch a startup, despite the fact that we don't have MBA's or any experience running a company. But why let that stop us? There comes a time when you're coding your ten thousandth marketing approved web page, and you realize that you're not going to gain fulfillment working at a corporate dinosaur.

So, a little about our venture. We want to write cool applications for mobile devices. There are currently an estimated 3.3 billion cell phones in the world. The cell phone is the most ubiquitous personal computing device in existence. That's a huge market, and we want it to be our playground.

There have been a number of obstacles for the mobile applications: variations in device capabilities, carriers locking out functionality, a lack of standardization, etc. The promise for mobile computing is great, but getting there isn't as easy as it could be, especially for a small time player.

Enter Android, the OHA's platform for mobile devices. The promise of Android is to break down these boundaries. A standard platform, an open platform, where every application on the device is replaceable.

We have two projects underway, the first is for the Android Developer Challenge, and with the deadline just weeks away, every scrap of my free time is dedicated to getting Geomata ready for public scrutiny.

Our other project is SocialTones, which we're very excited about. SocialTones is an idea that Alexander Muse cooked up while skiing in Colorado. We loved the idea and formed a partnership with his company, Architel. It's now being actively developed, and we intend to enter it into the Android Developer Challenge II, after a few actual android devices hit the market.

It's going to be a mad, busy, coffee fueled year, and I'll do my best to post here at least once a week. Many decisions lie ahead, and I'm looking forward to finding out just how far this road can take us.