It means that the focus of a new, small, or early-stage company should be on being established before growing big fast. The bonfire can represent a big highly visible company or it can be the fire sale when a company goes under.
I was working on some corporate development courses and when I came up with this. I'm sure a map will result from this but I don't have anything just yet. 
(The picture is the result of a guy who was trying to get rid of bees on his swing set --oops! Picture links to the story.) After working with a number of companies I have frequently seen the problems when they focus on how rich they are going to be instead of how stable, and profitable, they can be.
I was also checking on Guy Kawasaki's blog for today "Ten Questions with Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Chief Creative Officer of skinnyCorp/Threadless." In it Kalmikoff said of Jeff Bezos, "I’d like to think that he just kept his mind in his business and concentrated on making it the best Amazon it could be, rather than striving to make it 'another whatever.'”
That is exactly what I think the phrase "Basics Before the Bonfire" means.
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