How I Built A $4B Startup Called WebflowㅣWebflow, Vlad Magdalin
Summary
TLDRВлад Магдалин, генеральный директор и сооснователь Webflow, делится своей увлекательной историей о том, как он преследовал свою страстную идею создать визуальную платформу для разработки веб-сайтов, несмотря на многократные неудачи и сомнения других. Его непоколебимая убежденность в необходимости решения этой проблемы и стремление воплотить в жизнь свое видение вдохновляют. Магдалин подчеркивает важность преследования идей, которые действительно имеют для вас значение, а также сочетания предпринимательства с семейной жизнью. Его история демонстрирует силу решимости и преданности делу перед лицом трудностей.
Takeaways
- 😃 Решимость и уверенность в своей идее имеют решающее значение для успеха стартапа, даже когда другие сомневаются.
- 🤖 Вдохновение WebFlow черпалось из сферы 3D-анимации и желания создать похожий визуальный инструмент для веб-разработки.
- 🔁 Вебфлоу потребовалось несколько попыток, чтобы воплотить идею в жизнь из-за различных проблем на ранних стадиях.
- 💡 Видение потребности в лучшем решении и упорство в ее реализации были ключевыми движущими силами предпринимателя.
- 🤝 Поддержка первых клиентов и понимание их потребностей помогли WebFlow начать развиваться.
- 📈 Несмотря на скромные ожидания, WebFlow превратился в крупную компанию, обслуживающую более 200 000 клиентов.
- 👪 Совмещение стартапа и семейной жизни было сложным, но WebFlow культивировал рабочую среду, дружественную к сотрудникам с детьми.
- 🎯 Сфокусированность на справедливой миссии, людях и финансовой устойчивости - ключ к успеху компании.
- 🌍 Предприниматель был вдохновлен улучшить жизнь людей и принести пользу миру благодаря своей идее.
- 💼 Несмотря на трудности, предприниматель никогда не ставил финансовый успех выше реализации своего видения продукта.
Q & A
Какова была первоначальная идея Влада для Webflow?
-Первоначальная идея Влада заключалась в создании инструмента для веб-дизайна, похожего на инструменты для 3D-анимации, где креативщики могут напрямую манипулировать сложными интерфейсами и нажатием кнопки превращать свои творения в живой экран.
Как Влад относился к сомнениям других людей относительно жизнеспособности его идеи?
-Влад был на 100% уверен в успехе своей идеи, несмотря на сомнения инвесторов и других людей. Он игнорировал критику, считая, что они просто не понимают потенциал его идеи.
Сколько попыток предпринял Влад, прежде чем Webflow стал успешным?
-Влад предпринял четыре отдельные попытки, прежде чем Webflow стал успешным проектом.
Что побудило Влада в конечном итоге запустить Webflow?
-После просмотра видео «Inventing on Principle» Бретта Виктора в начале 2012 года Влад был вдохновлен его идеями и решил оставить свою работу, чтобы полностью сосредоточиться на Webflow.
Какую роль сыграл Hacker News в ранних этапах развития Webflow?
-Когда Влад разместил демо-версию Webflow на Hacker News в марте 2013 года, продукт получил неожиданно большой отклик от разработчиков, которые увидели потенциал в том, чтобы помочь дизайнерам создавать веб-сайты без их участия.
Как опыт Влада в качестве родителя повлиял на культуру компании Webflow?
-Поскольку у Влада уже были дети, когда он основал Webflow, это побудило его создать устойчивую рабочую среду с хорошими льготами, что привлекло в компанию много других сотрудников с семьями.
Какую ключевую роль сыграли клиенты в развитии Webflow?
-Webflow уделял большое внимание потребностям клиентов и стремился решать их проблемы ценным для них образом. Это клиентоориентированный подход был краеугольным камнем роста компании.
Какую философию использовал Влад для принятия решений в компании?
-Влад придерживался философии, изложенной в книге «The Infinite Game» Саймона Синека, которая подчеркивает важность продвижения справедливой миссии, приоритета людей в бизнес-решениях и получения дохода для продолжения этой работы.
Какой был изначальный масштаб видения Влада для Webflow?
-Изначально Влад думал, что Webflow будет небольшим продуктом, над которым работает команда из трех или четырех человек. Он не ожидал, что компания вырастет до нынешних масштабов.
Каков был главный мотивирующий фактор Влада при запуске Webflow?
-Главным мотивирующим фактором для Влада было желание воплотить в жизнь свою идею о визуальной разработке веб-сайтов, а не стремление к финансовому успеху.
Outlines
🚀 Истоки идеи и решимость создать Webflow
В этом абзаце рассказывается о том, как Влад Магдалин пришел к идее создать Webflow, визуальную платформу для создания веб-сайтов. Несмотря на сомнения окружающих и неудачи предыдущих попыток, он был полностью убежден в необходимости такого инструмента и ее жизнеспособности. Его опыт работы с 3D-анимацией вдохновил его на создание аналогичного инструмента для веб-разработки. Абзац описывает его настойчивость и непоколебимую уверенность в реализации этой идеи.
🔄 Преодоление неудач и вдохновение
В этом абзаце описываются несколько неудачных попыток запустить Webflow. Первые три попытки потерпели неудачу по разным причинам, таким как проблемы с товарным знаком, потеря сотрудников и финансирование конкурентов. Тем не менее, четвертая попытка оказалась успешной благодаря вдохновляющему видео «Inventing on Principle» и получению прав на товарный знак Webflow. Этот абзац подчеркивает настойчивость Влада в преследовании своей цели, несмотря на множественные препятствия и неудачи.
🏗️ Построение продукта и привлечение первых клиентов
Этот абзац описывает процесс создания первоначальной версии продукта Webflow и привлечения первых клиентов. После запуска на Hacker News продукт получил большой отклик от разработчиков, которые оценили его способность помогать дизайнерам создавать веб-сайты без участия разработчиков. Хотя из 30 000 заинтересованных людей лишь 40-50 стали платящими клиентами, команда Webflow сосредоточилась на удовлетворении потребностей этих первых клиентов, что постепенно привело к росту базы клиентов.
☸️ Философия ведения бизнеса и развития команды
В этом абзаце излагается философия Влада по ведению бизнеса и развитию команды. Его подход основан на книге «Бесконечная игра» Саймона Синека и включает три ключевых ответственности: продвижение справедливой миссии, приоритет людей в бизнес-решениях и получение дохода для поддержки первых двух целей. Влад подчеркивает важность клиентоориентированного подхода, найма и наделения сотрудников полномочиями для решения проблем клиентов.
👪 Сочетание создания стартапа и семейной жизни
В этом заключительном абзаце Влад дает совет о совмещении создания стартапа и семейной жизни. Он считает, что не существует идеального времени для начала стартапа или рождения детей, и призывает найти баланс между обоими. Опыт Влада как отца помог сформировать корпоративную культуру Webflow, ориентированную на устойчивость и благополучие сотрудников с семьями. Он рекомендует не выбирать между стартапом и детьми, а идти за своими истинными желаниями и потребностями в жизни.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Идея
💡Убежденность
💡Неудача
💡Упорство
💡Миссия
💡Клиентоориентированность
💡Команда
💡Видение
💡Страсть
💡Ценность
Highlights
Vlad was convinced he needed to build a visual web development platform like the tools used for 3D animation, despite facing doubt and failures from others, because he saw the current way of building websites as fundamentally broken.
The idea for a visual web development tool came to Vlad while he was in college, inspired by the sophisticated 3D animation tools at Pixar that allowed direct visual manipulation.
After multiple failed attempts spanning years, Vlad finally got approval to use the trademark 'Webflow' in late 2011, reigniting his determination to bring the idea to life.
Vlad's breakthrough moment came when Webflow's demo launch on Hacker News in 2013 resonated strongly with developers who saw its potential to streamline the design-to-code process.
Gaining traction and validation after the Hacker News launch was overwhelming for Vlad, who had nearly given up hope after running out of money on previous attempts.
Vlad approached building Webflow with a customer-centric mindset, continuously listening to users' needs and aiming to deliver valuable solutions, rather than following a rigid framework.
Vlad's primary motivation was to bring his idea into reality, not to make as much money as possible, because he already felt grateful for the opportunities his family found after immigrating to the US as refugees.
Vlad initially thought Webflow would be a small product built by a few people, but it grew much larger than anticipated as they focused on putting the idea into more people's hands.
Having kids early on shaped Webflow's culture towards sustainability, work-life balance, and attracting experienced professionals with families.
Vlad's advice is that there's never a perfect time to start a company or have kids, but you can find a way to balance both pursuits if they are truly important to you.
Webflow became like a 'third kid' for Vlad during the startup's early years, but he believes it's possible and rewarding to pursue both entrepreneurship and parenthood simultaneously.
Vlad encourages aspiring entrepreneurs not to let having kids become a mental block, as there's never a perfectly stable time – if you want both, go for it.
The key responsibilities for a business, according to Vlad, are: 1) Advancing a just mission that creates far more value for the world than for itself, 2) Prioritizing people inside and impacted by the business, and 3) Generating revenue to sustain the first two responsibilities.
Vlad was inspired by the video 'Inventing on Principle' in early 2012, which sparked his fourth and successful attempt at starting Webflow by posing questions about finding deep purpose in one's work.
Despite initial low conversion rates from Webflow's waitlist after launch, the team persisted by closely serving the needs of their first customers, slowly building their user base.
Transcripts
a lot of people assumed that it just
couldn't be created right because
somebody else tried especially one of
the biggest players in the space like
Adobe and macromedia they failed so
something must not be possible but in my
mind I was like 100% sure even when I
got a lot of Doubt from other people
like you talk to investors like oh this
will never work out I walked away from
that almost like just discounting it I
was like oh they don't know anything
like it's it's obviously going to work
to me it was just so obvious that it's
the current way that things work is
broken and it needs to be thick that I
was just 1,000% convinced that I need to
build that thing that specific
hi I'm Vlad magdalin I am the CEO and
one of the co-founders of webflow and we
create web platform to allow people to
create really professional websites
webflow is Visual Web development
platform that allows companies
Freelancers agencies to create really
really sophisticated websites we have
over 200,000 customers and the last
thing I think we shared publicly is were
over $100 million in Revenue kind of up
there in terms of important platforms
but we're still compared to things like
WordPress and larger platforms still
getting
started I sort of stumbled into it by
accident so I came to the United States
as a refugee with my parents and I
didn't really see myself becoming like a
designer or visual artist but my dad was
trying to make some of these like trying
to create some businesses on the side
and that kind of require he asked me
convert some cataloges from English to
Russian uh and that required learning
graphic design and that led to me
getting a job at this place called
Russian ameran media which is like
running this Russian Yellow Pages where
I was making ads business business cards
different things that was just like
rapping design for customers or for
clients that sort of snowball then led
to me wanting to learn 3D animation it
sort of Blossom the story was a little
bit complicated cuz first I was doing
graphic design and then when I first
started going to college I made the
decision to go study computer science
because that's what my brother was doing
that's sort of what I heard was like
lucrative career to follow so I started
doing that I did that for a year and I
had such a hard time doing that I like
really didn't enjoy it that I dropped
out and then moved up here to San
Francisco to go to the Academy of Art to
study 3D animation thing that that
really inspired me to do that was seeing
what Pixar was doing so this was 2001
2002 where Pixar was like blowing up
like they were making all these
Incredible movies and I was downloading
all these tutorials from the web
learning how to do 3D modeling 3D
effects and it just gave me this feeling
of like empowerment whatever story you
can imagine you can kind of like create
these scenes and translate them into 3D
space and then make a movie from that I
don't think I ever got like really far
to creating My Own Story end to end like
some people could like where they were
you know animating from the time that
they were a kid but what really spoke to
me was like this technical aspect of
like really sophisticated 3D animation
tools that were being used at 3D and
movie industry and trying to learn them
through all of these tutorials and sort
of like I felt like I was getting
superpowered I actually didn't finish I
dropped out of art school cuz I you know
was too expensive it I decided to go
back to study engineering to the school
I was going to before then I got a job
at a web design agency to sort of start
the payback student loan in that job I
was working with a design team creating
essentially web design in Photoshop and
I was like intern that was translating
those designs into HTML CSS basically
the web that's when you know one time I
had this flash of an idea that why can't
the way that 3D animation work where
creatives are doing all of the work in
the sophisticated software they pressing
a button it's going to live screen
without a translation layer why can't
something like that exist for web so
that was the initial inspiration for
like web flow has to be a thing like I
want to create something like 3D
animation tools for web design and I
think that that's was the even though
after that I got another job and started
working and into it it already like that
idea had already sparked in me that I
wanted to try to start this on the side
whether I was like Moonlighting or
working nights and weekends or trying to
find co-founders on the side like it was
that moment when I was still in college
before my first real job that I had this
inspiration like I have to build a
company around this or I have to build a
product that is kind of like 3D
animation tools but for and effectively
web Flow came it just took four
different attempts to make it happen
honestly I didn't know anything about
business didn't even think much about
how we were going to monetize it how I
was going to make money I just just saw
that something was clearly broken or
something that could be better and I
just had this very intense confidence
that if you were to if I was to build it
somebody would be willing to pay just
like the 3D animation software I was
using some of it I was paying for even
as a student I saw that like hey this
provides me enough value that going if
it was like a student Edition like it's
so valuable that I'm willing to pay for
it so I sort of had this thought that
I'll figure out how to monetize it later
but the most important thing was like
how do you actually create the tool that
solves the problem in a way that I was
imagining and I always thought that that
was like the first thing to focus on and
a lot of entrepreneurs have this if you
build it they will come mentality and
that's exactly what I had I was like
I'll figure out those details later I
just got to build this thing prove to
myself that it's possible and then we'll
try to prove to others that and I
honestly thought at that time that it
was going to be a company of one like I
thought I was just going to create it
and like maybe sell it to some folks to
use I never thought I was going to
become like a company with multiple
employees let alone hundreds so I was
very maybe naive about it like I didn't
know all the details that go into
building a company but the first thing
was like I need to solve this problem
for myself and I can see that it's kind
of broken and I wanted to create a
better
solution first time we wound things down
it sort of felt like not really a big
failure it felt more like hey I'm
getting married we're talking about
having a kid I have to get a real job I
will keep working on it nights and
weekends so it didn't really feel like a
failure at the time it ended up like
petering out so I just kind of forgot
about it for a year but then the second
time it was a combination of finding
another co-founder working on at nights
and weekends and then that sort of
petered out but I also didn't feel like
it was a big failure the third time
definitely felt uh there was a lot of
ups and downs where we got some funding
we actually got Incorporated we had two
other co-founders then the biggest thing
that happened like everything was on
track we had applied for a trademark
kind of towards the end after we had
pitch put together we applied for a
trademark that's sort of kind of what
you do to get permission to make sure
that you have all your duts in a row U
but then we got a response from the
government saying like there's already a
company that has this trademark and then
we got a notice from that company saying
like better not use it so we got really
discouraged but not discouraged enough
to like totally we started working on
rebranding the company so it was going
to be not webo but something called
marked up like HML markup but with some
missing vowels so we had sergy who ended
up being my co-founder created a new
logo and we're about to go live but then
that's when kind of Life took over and
it was like a slow trickle of like one
co-founder being uh demotivated and
leaving another co-founder sort of
saying like maybe this is I wouldn't be
willing to like Risk Everything to start
a company around this and a competitor
came out weely at the time I got like
$20 million in funding and I was like
crap it's over they already won like how
can you possibly catch up when we have
zero uh we're out of money and they you
know just got $20 million so it was like
maybe like giving up then but you know
maybe a year later the idea started to
come back around seeing how the
competitor was going in a different
direction and not building quite the
same thing that we would have built and
gaining more confidence in myself as an
engineer KN that I could like build
something independently started sort of
like thinking about bringing the idea
back again it was sort of a fluke think
an accident or something it's just like
great timing or or luck that it was 4
years later at the end of 2011 I had
already moved from Mountain View in this
in the Bay Area to Sacramento which at
that point had that second kid a
trademark certificate arrived to my
house that said congratulations you own
the trademark for web flow cuz I guess
something happened with that other
company where they let it expire or they
went out of business or whatever by that
time I was already working sort of still
working at my day job but working with
my brother Sergey who ended up being one
of my co-founders to build more websites
on the side and sort of like starting to
develop web flow that was like the
perfect sign of like okay maybe it's
meant to be uh now you can use the name
web flow again that's like started the
ball rolling again on like starting to
plan how we would like leave our jobs
get enough funding to start it again in
2012 it was 1,000% idea based and it's
not just 3D animation it's like game
design video editing film uh production
and compositing all of these industries
have a way to visually directly
manipulate very sophisticated like all
of these ways to do like hair simulation
and and rigid body simulation so it's
not basic sketching like in Photoshop
you're creating like entire systems that
are really sophisticated to do like
visual effects when I looked at web
design it was like it's so obvious that
something like that needs to exist and
some companies tried like Dream Weaver
and like Adobe tried many years ago but
I think because they failed early they
were just too early in the market a lot
of people assumed that it just couldn't
be created right cuz somebody else tried
especially one of the biggest players in
the space like Adobe and macromedia they
failed so something must not be possible
but in my mind coming from that 3D
background it was just obvious this
needs to exist so I was like 100% sure
even when I got a lot of Doubt from
other people like you talk to investors
like oh this will never work out I
walked away from that almost like just
discounting it I was like oh they don't
know anything like it's it's obviously
going to work sometimes that's bad cuz I
was wasn't looking at critical input and
it would have been helpful for me to be
more critical of like what might not
work but to me it was just so obvious
that it's the current way that things
work is broken and it needs to be thick
that I was just 1,000% convinced that I
need to build that thing that's specific
idea and I even told my wife and I
honestly thought this that if it wasn't
for this idea I'd have no interest in
starting a startup like it was
specifically to make this idea happen if
I didn't have that conviction I'd be
perfectly happy like working for Google
or Microsoft whoever but it was that
specific idea around upload that I I
just knew had to become a
reality unlike the previous session I
don't have any prizes to give out ideas
are very important to me I think that
bringing ideas into the world is one of
the most important things that people do
and I think that great ideas these
things take on lives of their own which
give meaning to our lives as people I
think a lot about how people create
ideas and how ideas grow what sorts of
tools create a healthy environment for
ideas to
grow this was late 2011 that I got this
approval to use a trademark and that got
my brain spinning around like okay
should I start this again the thing that
actually Sparks the fourth attempt where
I was like I'm 100% sure I saw this
video called inventing on principle
which I think every single founder
should see it's by this person named
Brett Victor and I saw that in early
2012 and when I saw that video and it
has to do with kind of the intersection
of art design and programming but
another part of it also like half of the
talk is about why do you do the work
that you do like what is the purpose
behind your professional Endeavors the
combination of both of those things like
something that he was talking about
being very similar to webo the visual
development visual manipulation land
asking this question of like are you
really fulfilled and do you a deep sense
of purpose from the work that you're
doing that after watching that video
literally the next morning I called my
boss and said I'm going to be starting a
company then started building kind of a
demo we didn't really have a product so
the first thing we thought of like okay
we only have really 3 months of Runway
of savings to fund our kind of family
expenses Etc so we're going to make a
Kickstarter video so we went all in kind
of got Incorporated started making a
Kickstarter video and started designing
the product what it would look like how
we would show it in the kickstarter
video so that other people could see
what it's going to become so they can
pledge and like give us some financial
support so that we can actually build
the product Etc uh it turned out that we
had completely miscalculated and by the
time we were almost done with the video
we found out that Kickstarter doesn't
allow hosted software so like the entire
thing we were building was not not
compatible with their terms of service
so we kind of had to start from scratch
that was basically money wasted started
building a demo and started applying to
YC once we had the first version of a
demo without any customers we applied
didn't get in that was like a really
discouraging very surprising I thought
we were like for sure going to at least
get an interview but but it was a kind
of a rude awakening to be like hey
you're too early like all you have is
sort of a demo you don't really have a
product yet or any users you just kept
building and kind of decided cuz the the
window to apply again is 6 months later
but by that point we were already like
running out of money so we just decided
all right we're going to go like super
lean save as much money as we can and
just keep it like try to build a product
that we can actually put into in front
of people so they can see exactly what
it looks like and get it closer to or
like would people be willing to pay for
it so those next 6 months were like
really really tough but also really fun
like we were trying to extend every
possible like credit card uh loan that
we could arrange borrowing money from
Friends selling cards converting them to
leases but it was also one of the most
motivational time as a company because
we were like do or that uh we were day
and night working on the design coding
like and building the actual application
by the time March 2013 came around we
had a demo to show all these designer
fors like Reddit dig at the time there
was like designer news and it didn't get
much traction but then we put on Hacker
News which is more of like in developer
community and we thought developers
would probably not care about this
because the entire tool kind of talks
about maybe replacing developer but it
really took off it's funny they actually
a lot of developers that saw us launch
on Hacker News really resonated with the
product because they saw how much it
could help the people they partner with
like the designers to get a bunch more
done without including them it's
actually one of the things that you know
I was a developer before where I would
take Photoshop files from a designer and
translate them to you know a CMS or
something like that it was some of the
most kind of tedious Med and boring work
a lot of developers are pulled into you
might have like an entire development
team working on product right and and
then the engineering team is pulled into
marketing projects to say like hey we
have this new landing page for a new
marketing campaign can a developer come
in and using this figma prototype build
the marketing page and code that's some
of the most kind of tedious work to do
that translation work cuz what
developers really want to be doing is
the more sophisticated thing right and
there's so much demand for those
developers on their time that they'd
rather be doing that so I think that's
why uh webflow resonated so well with
developers not only that they see that
the tool helped designers create by
themselves but also the way that they
created by themselves generated really
clean code CTIC code that was performant
and didn't have the types of issues that
other website Builders did that's when
we started getting our first Le in like
track and that you know with that we
applied to YC with that we got into that
program and then like that kind of gave
us a Lifeline to keep working on it and
the rest is kind of history from there
for a while I was really happy when we
initially launched the idea and started
collecting like a list of folks cuz
before we could actually sign people up
and it was just really overwhelming to
go from failed multiple times and then
we are definitely out of money and at
our last attempt in like the last draw
cuz if if that didn't work out like
there's probably no way that it would
have taken another 10 years for me to
feel confident again to try again for my
wife to feel comfortable taking another
Financial Risk Etc so it felt really
awesome to see that traction and that
validation when we actually launched for
real and convert try to convert that
list of I think it was like 30,000
people in our weight list to customers I
think only like 40 or 50 signed up so
out of like 30,000 40 or 50 we were like
shocked we thought that maybe we' built
something wrong or something how could
we go from tens of thousands of people
interested to only a handful only tens
actually paying for it that didn't feel
great but like over time we started to
like really pay attention to those folks
and get closer to them and serve their
needs and that's like slowly started to
build a base of more and more customers
being honest it wasn't a deep framework
it was customer centricity like how do
we keep delivering on our mission like
how do we keep listening to customers
and keep solving their problems in a way
that feels valuable to them how do we
build our team that can help us do that
there was a a little bit more of a
formal framework called I read this book
called The Infinite game by Simon Sy and
it had this structure of like the
responsibilities of each business are to
First Advance a just Mission so
something that or just cause something
that brings 10 times more value to the
world than it does to you for us that
was like always been the case for every
like $10 we make through our software
one of our users probably making like
$1,000 because using it to like sell
Advanced websites builds to clients Etc
and the second responsibility is to
prioritize people in your business
decisions so like how do you build up
your team how do you create an
environment of bringing in amazing
people that are empowered to solve these
problems for customers but not just
people in your company but also what uh
effect do your business decisions have
on people outside of the company how do
our decisions around how we structure
our business impact our users pack the
communities that we live in pack the
environment like really think through
that and only the only third the respons
posibility is to generate Revenue but
importantly not just make money but in
order to do the first two things for as
long as possible so to keep funding and
advancing your your mission that you
believe is like a good thing for the
world and to make sure that you like
factoring in how people along the way
and I've sort of thought about it like
that since the early days of like how do
we what decisions do we need to make to
keep advancing our mission to keep
bringing the power of web development to
more and more people honestly always
come down to finding people who like
really care about doing this like
bringing more more power into other
people's hands spending a lot of time
like trying to hire them and bringing
them in and empowering them to be
successful within the company Etc I
think the two biggest fact like really
thinking about customers and really
thinking about the team that is going to
get you there everything else is like
details there's a lot of like learning
and scale and things that we've had to
figure out a lot of mistakes that we
made but ultimately it's those two
things that are always at the center our
customers and the people who we build
bills for who our entire mission is
meant to serve and our team like how we
behave together like who comes together
to solve this problem for
customers well I think the thing that
motivated me the most was I wanted to
this idea to exist and the other thing
is because my family came here 9 years
old when we came here as a refugee
family we had we were on welfare for
like 3 years my dad was trying to like
make ends meet that experience showed me
that even like a more modest job was way
more than the kind of life that I would
have had Back in the USSR so I already
felt like I made it I didn't have like a
normal entry level for engineering job
but into it I didn't feel like I was
like trying to make a ton of money I was
just like trying to find ways to make
this idea that I have happen I think
that was the main motivating factor I
wasn't really trying to figure out which
path gets me the most sort of monetary
or financial outcome cuz I already felt
like my life is already so much better
than it would have been that was just
never a goal and I was always I think
after the idea came to me just chasing
how do I make it happen and not thinking
of that as a business vehicle I was just
thinking of like what do I need to do to
bring this to reality not to make as
much money as possible like I I
literally thought when we were starting
web flow even this fourth time that it
was going to be the three or four of us
building a small product and having more
and more customers but having this small
agency where it's we're all sitting
around one table and building this
product but it turned out to be much
bigger than we ever imagined um but that
wasn't by design it was just because we
were trying to make this idea and bring
it to life and then putting it into the
hands of more people and I just required
more and more
people the best advice is there's never
a great time to start a startup or have
kids but the other part of that advice
is like you always figure it out assumed
when we were getting started that I had
to hide the fact that I had kids from
like investors advisers like the general
assumption was that you can't do both
you can't be a parent and start a
startup I think it's fundamentally not
true and I'm glad to see that it's
becoming more of a trend where people
are just like not afraid to be doing
both at the same time you can totally
figure it out I would say it was
probably know the biggest factor in US
shaping our company culture the fact
that I already had kids to make sure
that we were working in a sustainable
way that we were creating like great
benefits we attracted a lot of other
people with families who were generally
tended to be more experienced kind of
fresh grads Etc it was definitely hard
but I think so many great companies have
been created by parents um and so many
great Founders have had kids along the
way and it just worked out the important
thing there is to make sure that you're
not choosing one over the other you like
then you find a way to balance both your
family and and your life's work it was
definitely my wife and I talked about
having a third kid after the startup
already happened and it felt for a while
that web flow was that third kid and
then by the time kids got a little older
we just decided not to have more kids
but there was a in the thick of it it
was like really hard to decide to have
more kids which I think was the right
decision but in a world where I had to
choose between having kids or starting a
startup definitely pick both uh because
both can be like so rewarding and so
fulfilling in many different ways I
think a lot of people have like this
mental block around if I already have
kids then it's not possible or if I
start a startup then I should never have
kids or until it's like stable it's
never going to be stable you know
there's never a a great time when
everything is figured out so go for what
you truly want and need in your life and
a lot of times that's both of
those
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