I've had more than one startup die. Lessons learned: "there is no substitute for being overcapitalized", "don't subcontract to psychopathic younger brother", "don't share the idea with anyone with the ability to mess up your plans and run with the ball on their own", "don't partner with people that aren't competent". Psychopaths have it right! They run their agenda under everybody's noses, they never disclose it, and nobody notices what they are doing until it's too late, if ever. Doing things that way just avoids sooooo very much interference from people.
the Kolos , Wesabe, and HelloParking ones are interesting. kolos is actually kind of funny. the most depressing ones are when somebody executes on an idea and the world says "that's nice but we don't really need that."