Step by step list for a tech startup

I think the FIRST thing is to have something to sell, provide or promote... Your tools would need to match those goals.

A "I don't have to think, just follow this cookbook recipe" to startups obviously doesn't exist. Every startup is obviously unique.

That said, good advice can be more or less actionable right away.

Bob Walsh's StartUpToDo has, among other things, a collection of relevant "cookbook recipes" for startups. The content is commercial, i.e. payment required.

Bob Walsh has also written a book with reasonably hands-on suggestions, called "The Web Startup Success Guide".

Rob Wallings has a startup guide for micro-entrepreneurs, i.e. people who want to build a site, but not necessarily hire a team and grow large. It has practical advice on search engine marketing, website design, A/B testing and more.

Although Jesper Mortensen provided a great answer, I thought I would provide some additional input from Seth Godin's blog post, Every successful case is a special case.

It's easy to dismiss strategies or plans or people who succeed by pointing out how they have something special, something irreproducible, some sort of advantage that makes their success special.

Special as in, "not available to me."

They went to Harvard, they're public, they're not public, they have a great fundraising team, they have a powerful partner, they didn't go to Harvard, they already have a reputation, they have no reputation to risk...

This is silly, as all success is special. That's what makes it success. We don't consider breathing a success, since, fortunately, we all can breathe.

The trick is learning about what the special cases have in common, in understanding how maybe, just maybe, you have some of the very same attributes that others have used in a new way.

Take a look at

Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible