Jessica Livingston, cofounder of YC - (shortened version) : “All too often, I've seen founders build some initially mediocre product, announce it to the world, find that users never show up, and not know what to do next. As well as not getting any users, the startup never gets the feedback it needs to improve the product. So why wouldn't all founders start by engaging with users individually? Because it's hard and demoralizing. It gives you a kind of harsh feedback. You try to convince someone to use what you've built, and they won't. These conversations are painful, but necessary.”