Although I don't consider myself a blogger i like to read a lot of blogs and my old friend Jason Calacanis wrote a great entry on saving money with your startup. I don't agree with all of it but a lot of if is right on.
More to my tastes was an entry from Dave Winer where he discusses the virtues of GREAT PRODUCTS. And that with great products success is more or less guaranteed.
Imho, having started two companies -- one that failed and one that succeeded, and watched dozens of others over 30 years, the difference is the ones that succeed have a hot product that lots of people want, and the ones that fail don't. I don't think whether you savor every penny makes much of a difference, in fact if you pinch them too hard your people are going to hate you, and they have to love the founder, just as the customers must and the press and even the competitors.
When I think about the people who had runaway successes that made them fortunes the ones that had great products and were admired by many were the ones that really hit it out of the park. I can't think of anyone who had a great product and failed because they didn't watch every penny.
posted by Michael Diamant