How to get from weekend idea to funded startup

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This title is a bit misleading, because the discussion does not really talk much about going from weekend idea to funded startup, but it is still worth a watch. Here are some of the highlights that I took from this session:

Seth/SCVNGR.com: Started with an idea, hacked it together on a server sitting under his bed in college. Started solo. Founders looking for founding partners can be successful, BUT if you want to get it to a stage where you know what you are doing first, that works too. Get started, find what you are weak at and hire those people. When he got funding, he got angel/incubator funding of $35k for 6% of the company. Then they wanted to raise $750K and convinced a VC to go for this (small) funding round. They have since raised $20 million, and he attributes this partially to getting a VC involved early (even though for a small amount).

Joe/Excite: They borrowed $15,000 total to set up in their garage. By getting started, they found that opportunities lead to opportunities in unpredictable ways (so get started). The data suggests that there is a positive outcome the more founders you have the better (up to four). If the founding team has worked together in the past (gone to battle), that is a good sign. Another indicator of success: do you know your startup's domain? What investors say is important is team, but what investors really look at is product and market.

Paul/FriendFeed: I was interested in startups when I moved to Silicon Valley, but I did not know what to do...he ended up joining some random startup named Google. I do not think his experience is repeatable. Target 2-3 founders for your startup. More founders may indicate a degree of fear and uncertainty in the group. BUT, Dropbox's founder was a single founder and ended up finding his cofounder in Y-Combinator.