Starting a startup is a process of trial and error. What guided the founders through this process was their empathy for the users. They never lost sight of making things that people would want.

Innovations seem inevitable in retrospect, but at the time it's an uphill battle.

The media often glamorizes successful founders and makes their paths seem easier than they actually were.

The one thing we learned over 5 years is that nothing works better than just improving your product.

Pick a big enough project, something that's really hard, something that over the years you can work on.

Finding a technical cofounder would have been difficult for me. I was an English major and didn't know any computer programmers.

Finding a programmer to work with if you don't already know one will be a challenge. Merely judging if a programmer is exceptional vs. competent will be very hard if you are not one yourself. When you do find someone, work together informally for a while to test your compatibility.