Sandy Jen and her friends tried two previous business ideas (each one called Meebo), but neither felt right. Then they hit on a vision to make instant messaging services like AOL’s AIM accessible on a web page — instead of forcing users to download software. It felt so right that Sandy quit her job to pursue it full time. Her co-founder’s credit card bankrolled the idea and they were off.

In this interview you’ll hear how they got their first passionate users, why their previous ideas didn’t last, and how they failed (and failed) until they finally hit on a winning version of the Meebo bar.