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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