I recently finished reading Founders at Work (absolutely brilliant!) and was wondering about the early stages of startups that aren't as big as or weren't as successful as the startups included in the book. For eg, Peldi has a post about it here (http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/10/14/personal-whats-your-story-why-start-balsamiq/). Similarly, I'm sure it will be really helpful for aspiring entrepreneurs to get insights from the early days of smaller, more normal startups (mom and pop shops on the internet). Hope it makes sense. Thanks.
I'm quite a bit down the long tail from Peldi, but if you're still interested, I have a quick summary post on my blog that I update from time to time.<p><a href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/" rel="nofollow">http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/</a>
Well if you listen to the Venture Voice podcast or the start up success podcast then you will encounter a tons of start ups that are not huge yet are successful to some degree.
a link: <a href="http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/10/14/personal-whats-your-story-why-start-balsamiq/" rel="nofollow">http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/10/14/personal-whats-your-...</a>