Specifically, I'm wondering where they got their inventory from at the beginning.
Did they buy from a local store and just pack/ship it out themselves?
Or did they negotiate with the manufacturers at the start? If this, then how did they convince the manufacturer to work with them when they had zero customers and thus no purchasing power to entice the manufacturers?

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.

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[Jchat] More APL (was: No More APL) Morten Kromberg mkrom at dyalog.com Wed May 27 20:15:50 HKT 2009

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I have no doubt that J is growing faster in terms of numbers of users who "take a look at it" and enjoy playing with it. It's free and the training materials are excellent. The discussion forum is much livelier than ours, though PART of that may be because our users are busy making money and don't necessarily want to (or have time to) talk about how they do it ;-)

I can only easily measure our revenues, which have tripled since 2005, while the number of employees has gone from about 5 to about 15 (maintaining reasonable profitability). Our existing customers are generally buying more licenses and we have some new customers as well (sadly mostly through gaining APL marketshare at the moment) - but we're only just getting into some real marketing again...

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Last week @robfitz asked me on short notice to join a panel at #foundersexchange about what first time founders shouldn’t do. I quickly took a moment to write down some suggestions into my moleskine to prepare myself. Things I witnessed in our company and things I noticed in other startups.

That “some suggestions” became a full page and that full page became a monster that had almost no free white space left. It was so full of stuff we did, it was ludicrous. It was dark like the night and microscribbled as if I hated that poor moleskine page.

My message at the panel was simple: “Don’t be a first time founder…” – or at least not the kind of first time founder I used to be ;)

After a gentle push by Rob and Sal I decided to share those first time founder mistakes we did publicly. I hope you can learn a thing or or two (to avoid) from this. If you have been through your first startup maybe you see yourself in some of them as well :)

There has been an explosion of incubators in the last few years. Most of them suck. Some suck so bad that the net value created by the program is probably negative. I’m not going to name names. This is just about results.

Let’s start with a story. There are minor variations, but I’ve seen it played out in real time more than once in the last few years. The story goes like this. An incubator has a class of companies, they give them a little cash, they have a weekly session with a mentor or whatever, time goes by, demo day, no one gets funding, fail, fail, FAIL.

Videos from 2011 and other years' Startup Schools

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Note that the knowledge for each level is cumulative; being at level n implies that you also know everything from the levels lower than n.

So, you’ve decided upon, or are thinking about, a career in the restaurant industry, either as a chef, or proprietor, or perhaps both. As someone who has lived that life for a little over twenty years, my advice to you is both heartfelt and simple: DON’T.

Here’s what I’d do in the beginning:

Whats more amazing is that Eric lays out the first steps for you to start shaping up your business to really make money and WE'VE GOT IT ALL. But be careful once you start watching it you might not finish because, like me, you will have to get back to work implementing all the good stuff Eric is talking about.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for an easy way to make a big PR splash.  If you are a local business that only serves a specific geographic area, then your local newspaper is still probably your best option for some free publicity.  On the other hand, if you offer a product or service that is available in multiple locations or via the Internet, then you must consider the following websites in which to submit your company to, and gain free publicity.

So you have a new startup company and want some coverage. This post will give you 36 places where you can submit your startup for reviews, mentions or at least some backlinks.

Business Plan. Write it down. Read it and review it monthly. Change it if necessary.Get an LLC, Inc, or what ever.Get Insurance and more than enough insurance. If you have a home office most insurance only covers $5000 worth of business stuff. That's not much when you add stuff up.Write stuff down. Have a daily/weekly task list.Set goals. Then create steps to achieve those goals.Figure out your money makers. Nothing is worse than wasting time on some thing that will make you little money.Don't be afraid to get rid of bad clients or customers. They will end up costing your company money. Be nice but firm. Tell them things like "I'm sorry my business can't fulfill your needs."Stick to what you are good at. Don't over extend your services. If you are an ice cream shop, don't try to be an upscale restaurant. If that is what you want to turn into later down the road once going, great, make a plan to do that.Create a proper image for your company. Spend the money on a good web site. Business cards, etc. Nothing is worse than looking like a fly by night company.Be professional. You can have your fun. And business can be very fun. Just don't act like a tool.Know your customer base and market. If you want to cater to the well off. You better have a business that acts like it and what they would expect. Opening a fancy high end computer store in a run down neighborhood is stupid.