Starting a Startup - Chris Penner, president and CEO of RemoTV ( Yale University Business and Management netcast):

1. There's no such thing as a finished product.
2. [when we were ready with the product] the market just wasn't there.

The first point indicates the need for a roadmap, both for invention and innovation. Any invention is a work in progress. The technology keeps going forward. Whatever epiphany you are having at the moment will be surpassed later, either by your own idea or by somebody else's. Therefore, it is very important to develop the skills and have the discipline necessary for pushing the initial concept as far as possible. Thus, the roadmap of invention, i.e. a sequence of ideas, a story of the evolution of your thought.

The second point brings up the importance of flexibility, i.e. an ability to turn the base concept into a specific product that addresses a particular, here-and-now, market need. Having a [road]map of ideas is extremely helpful in figuring out the scope for your future flexibility. It's like having a bag of tricks at a kids party: if they don't like the trick you are showing them at the moment, you can always pull out a new one.

3. Don't borrow funds for your startup from your close relatives!