Trying to just startup a simple angular app via Yeoman, using steps in this guide http://www.sitepoint.com/kickstart-your-angularjs-development-with-yeoman-grunt-and-bower/
I just encountered the same problem today, managed to resolve it with the answers here.
Basically I needed to update npm to latest version, by using this command (the npm which came with Node-v0.10.29 package was outdated)
npm update npm -g
or
sudo npm update npm -g (i used this command on my mac)
Then type this command
npm --version (it should show 1.5.0-alpha-4 or later version)
Then type the grunt serve command
grunt serve
If you still have issues, then try running these commands
npm install
or
sudo npm install (i used this command on my mac)
Then try grunt serve command again,
grunt serve
This time, it worked for me.
If it didn't, then try this command
bower install (i did not have to use this command)