out of it.
I think it’s really important that you have a realization of what’s important.
You can’t stress over things that you can’t necessarily control. Even though we
can control the success of the company to a certain extent, you have to be grateful
for what you’ve got. We were able to buy a house. We never thought we’d be
able to buy a house. That’s a huge thing.
Four years ago, I never thought we’d have the stuff we have now—not
material, but a company and a house and have friends...

other people in my class who were class clowns, they weren’t girls. It was me
and a bunch of boys. I think there’s that same sort of personality that makes you
want to do something like start a company, and you can’t do something like that
without wanting to be exposed.
I’ve kind of retreated a bit. I want to be exposed less now. But I’m more
confident in what I’ve done. I’ve always identified more with guys at school and
I’ve always been competitive with them. If you try to figure out the...

to them.
There aren’t that many women in technology and maybe it doesn’t really
matter. I mean, why aren’t there more men in design?
Livingston: Looking back in your whole experience, what would you say is the
most surprising thing?
Trott: There’s the whole, “I can’t believe we have a company that has 100 people.”
The surprising thing is that there’s going to be someone here now that I don’t
know personally. It’s not just to a point where I’m not good friends with them,
like other employees; it’s like, “I don’t...

person, so if I have a choice of complimenting a person or making a joke, I’ll
make a joke. I’m like that dad that won’t hug. It’s really pathetic.
Livingston: How did it feel to get famous so quickly?
Trott: It’s weird because—and I’m not comparing myself to a celebrity—when
people want to be celebrities or actors and they say that “this is the thing I want
most,” then they get to that point and they realize, “I feel the same way.” I feel
the same way that I really did 4 years ago....

be torn apart or written about. I got a lot of that and that’s kind of why I stopped
blogging—because people were critical of me.
There was one post where I made a joke about wanting a banjo, and it was
like, “Ben, he’s such a tyrant, he won’t let me have a banjo.” I don’t have any
instruments, and why should I buy a $300 banjo?
He was right, but I was trying to make him seem like this villain. The point
of the joke was, “Boy, she’s really stupid about wanting something...