Wendy Kopp: I was so excited, honestly, to live in New York. I’d always wanted to live in New York. So I literally moved in, roomed with a bunch of other women who I did not know. We were just renting a brownstone. And I had this tiny little room and two or three trash bags full of my clothes. One of these executives who I’d met after I turned in the thesis — I sent it out to randomly selected corporate executives who were quoted in magazine articles saying they wanted to improve education — and a few of them actually agreed to meet with me. One gave me a seed grant and another said I could use their spare office in Manhattan. So I would go. It was a lonely existence. I would just go every day into this office in Manhattan, and I would send out letters and try to get people to meet with me, just trying to build support for this idea.