If you haven’t yet, you should take a look at Do More Faster, a book by Brad Feld and David Cohen about the experiences of early-stage investors and entrepreneurs.
I’ve even got a chapter in there myself, called “Don’t Plan, Prototype!” It’s essentially a couple of pages talking about the very early stages of NewsGator, from the sitting-around-scratching-my-head stage up to our first venture financing. I wrote it and slipped it into a stack of manuscripts David had laying around…somehow they didn’t notice, and it made it into the book. :)
Anyway, you can pre-order the book now at Amazon. Check it out!