Most of the interest didn't come from wanting to build a company, but rather out of the work I was doing as web developer. I was building these interesting apps and tools for myself, and I felt like it would be interesting to try and take that to the next logical step.

Putting a price onto my product and trying to sell it. It was really hard for me to go from building things to selling them. I still remember how nervous I was the first time I tried to pitch my product to a potential buyer. We literally had to go door-to-door, and by the end of my first block it started feeling way more relaxed.

The ability to do things. When you start out, you are often a company of one or two people. Everyone needs to be able to pull more than their weight. Things like business plans and strategy meetings can be useful, but more often than not they're distractions. I've found that getting on the phone, designing your product, or building something tends to be a far better use of your time.

The first time we brought additional people into the company. We partnered with our university to set up a co-op program, and we were lucky enough to get two killer interns. They brought a ton of energy to the company, and made it feel like less of a hobby and more of a real business.