So what kind of personality traits will mark your startup firm for success?

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But many entrepreneurs--including Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg--do turn to family and friends for startup funds.

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To solve this problem, Voice Genesis' Chief Executive Mark Marriott started his company in October 2001 and seeded his startup with capital from the sale of his previous venture--a software e-commerce company called Brave New World that was sold to VA Linux Systems in 1997.

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Mark Cuban, 46, hit it big when he sold his startup Broadcast.com to Yahoo!

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In my recent conversation with Mark Suster on This Week In VC, I discussed some of the historical reasons why the Santa Barbara startup community is so vibrant.

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The Startup Act 2.0 originated by Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) and now joined by Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will be the hot topic Jan. 2013.

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