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.

Programmers have not been professionals because they haven't really cared about quality.

You've got to say you are a step ahead of where you actually are to move to the step that you want to be at.

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.

People like the idea of innovation in the abstract, but when you present them with any specific innovation, they tend to reject it because it doesn't fit with what they already know.

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

Cofounders will endure so much together that their relationship is often compared to a marriage.