You've already known for a long time that, to be successful nowadays, a startup needs to:

1. Be covered by Techcrunch. Or ReadWriteWeb if you can't get coverage from TC (be careful, unlike TC, they often know what they're talking about). Or Mashable if your startup features kittens in some way.
2. Be fluent in buzz lingo. Some company targeting a mobile large-scale network of real-time big-data social location checkins is a sure winner (they fall into Fred Wilson's investment thesis). Add a kitty in there and you'll make it onto Mashable.
3. Power your launch with Launchrock (hey, you may be a web startup, but coding a one-page form with a twitter share button is for experts!)

Ok so we all know the above. But there's something new. And the very evidence of it struck me yesterday while reading this piece on Business Insider. In essence, it seems that there was more to the already dodgy story of twitter's creation. Ever heard of Noah Glass ? Me neither. He's the guy who was the strongest advocate for twitter within Odeo (the then-startup of Ev, Jack & Biz), managed the team to build the first prototype, and even came up with the twitter name. So what happened ? Well it's simple, once twitter was prototyped, Mr Williams convinced the Odeo shareholders that Oddeo (and twitter) were basically not going to make it, bought the whole lot back from them, and fired Mr Glass. The rest is history (including the CEO dance between Jack, Ev & Biz). Yeah I know, it's really nice.

Same for Square (Jack's new venture), where the inventor of the device to swipe cards was actually not listed as... an inventor in the patent.

Same for Facebook. I've stopped counting how many people were apparently screwed by Zuk in the process of "creating" Facebook. Anyway you'd trust a 20-something in a hoodie ?

So ladies and gentlemen, enough waiting, here is the 4th item on my little guide to startup success:

Be Evil. Screw people as much as you can. Secretly hate your co-founders. Screw your investors. Manipulate people. When your startup makes it big you'll cough a few millions to make them shut up. Those bastards.

I just hope my co-founders won't be reading this so that I can screw them big time. Success doesn't wait!