I also wanted to add this quote by PG that founders do not need to identify with their users: http://www.paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html

  One of the things that will surprise you if you build
  something popular is that you won't know your users. 
  Reddit now has almost half a million unique visitors a
  month. Who are all those people? They have no idea. 
  No web  startup does. And since you don't know your 
  users, it's dangerous to guess what they'll like. 
  Better to release something and let them tell you.