Life is indeed short, and having children has made this abundantly clear to me. Time is a continuous quantity, yet when you consider that you only have 52 weekends with your 2-year-old or can experience only eight Christmases while they are still enchanted by the magic, it becomes evident that life's moments are finite and precious.
The most effective startup ideas are often born out of your own needs—what do you wish existed for you? Apple and the iPhone are prime examples, stemming from personal desires of their creators. Our venture, Viaweb, contrasted this by targeting a broader user base we weren't part of. However, successful startups tend to align more with the personal-need origin.
In 2006, after their first startup, Kiko, was rendered obsolete by Google, Justin Kan and Emmett Shear sold what remained of their company on eBay for $258,000. Unsure of their next move, they sought advice from Paul Graham, who helped them devise a plan to create Justin.tv. Today, Justin.tv is the web's largest portal for live video, boasting 31 million users per month and backed by $7.2 million in venture capital.