[DaniFong]

"If you want to get a bootstrapped startup off the ground...somewhere in the early days...you'll have to break #1."

This is baloney and has a higher chance of making great cofounders and hackers (like, for example, Marc Andreessen: http://pmarca-archive.posterous.com/how-to-hire-the-best-peo...) run for the hills rather than work with you. If investors or business partners catch you seriously lying once you are basically permanently blacklisted. You might be able to eke out some kind of business from that black hole, but it is not easy.

"Third and final criterion: ethics.

Ethics are hard to test for.

But watch for any whiff of less than stellar ethics in any candidate's background or references.

And avoid, avoid, avoid." - pmarca

[vaksel]

is this the same Marc Andreessen that has invested in Digg, where Kevin Rose reported on a site without saying that he actually owns it?

Or maybe it's the same Marc Andreessen that sits on the board of Facebook which did a ton of unethical things to get off the ground?

The bottom line is that if you can think of a successful business...somewhere in it's early days they've done something that would be considered unethical in order to gain traction. The guys who played by the rules when they had nothing are no longer around.

Granted there are probably a few companies that actually survived...but chances are they got extremely lucky.