Bil Gross, CEO of Ideal labs, gives this informative and interesting talk: Learning From Failure 20 Years of Entrepreneurial Lessons in 20 Minutes at LeWeb 2011. Bill started doing business selling candy at age 12 to buy machine tools and has not stopped since. I list the 12 lessons below (spoiler alert), but this should not stop you from viewing his presentation to hear the basis for these lessons.

1. Market power rules
2. Master the demo
3. Pursue your passion
4. Focus, focus, focus
5. Recognize your strengths
6. Don't over build
7. Survive until the market is ready
8. Test, test, test
9. Stick with it
10. Find essential partners
11. Harness your users passion
12. All true passes through 3 phases
    1. it's ridiculed
    2. it's violently opposed
    3. it's accepted as self-evident