Sam Altman (the president of Y Combinator) is currently teaching a class at Stanford titled How to Start a Startup. A lot of the advice is actionable for anybody that is starting a business. Some, such as raising money from angels or venture capital firms, is more geared toward starting a business in the Silicon Valley sense.
All of the classes are free to view online and I would recommend it to anybody thinking of starting a product based business. The speakers are a who’s who of Silicon Valley and provide some amazing insights.
Welcome, and Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part I
Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part II
Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing
Business Strategy and Monopoly Theory
How to Build Products Users Love, Part I
Company Culture and Building a Team, Part I
Company Culture and Building a Team, Part II
How to Design Hardware Products