Bootstrapping Webflow to $10M ARR, and scaling to a $4B Valuation with Vlad Magdalin (Co-founder & CEO)
Vlad Magdalin is the Co-founder and CEO of Webflow, software that empowers designers to build websites without code. Vlad started the company with his co-founders Sergie Magdalin and Bryant Chou in 2013, and has since raised roughly $335 million supported by investors like Accel, Khosla Ventures, YCombinator, Capital G, and Eric Bahn.
— — — —
Brought to you by Mercury, the bank built for startups. Join more than 100,000 startups and venture capital firms on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank.Sign-up now: https://bit.ly/46ImCuD
Disclaimer: Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.
— — — —
Topics discussed include:
• The history of web browsers, websites, and web design
• Why websites are the ultimate economic enablers
• How Webflow empowers anyone to design websites without code
• Why website design is a gateway into programming
• How the movement to CSS and web standards in the 2000’s and 2010’s created the opportunity for Webflow to build a product around responsive design
• Moving to the US with his parents and five siblings as refugees from the USSR at nine years old
• How losing half of their luggage and immigration documents in the move enabled his dad to buy the family’s first computer
• The first website Vlad ever designed for a Brad Pitt movie
• How his experience dropping out of a computer science degree to work in 3D animation at Pixar, then going back to school gave him the idea for Webflow
• Failing to build Webflow three times between 2005 and 2008
• Why the spouses and partners of founders are the unsung heroes of startups
• The moment he immediately quit his job and attempted Webflow for the fourth time
• Burning three months of runway on a Kickstarter that never went live
• Liquidating his retirement account, paying rent with credit cards, and selling and leasing back the family car’s to keep the business running
• Vlad’s exuberant optimism that kept him going for 10 years
• Failing to get into YC, and the crazy story behind getting accepted the second time
• The trajectory-altering customer and fundraising advice they got from Paul Graham
• The “Investing on Principle” contract they signed with Accel who led Webflow’s Series A
• Why Vlad thinks every startup founder should operate with the assumption they’ll never be able to raise money again
Referenced:
• Inventing on Principle (Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUv66718DII
• Inventing on Principle (Transcript): https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/inventing-on-principle-by-bret-victor
• The Infinite Game: https://simonsinek.com/books/the-infinite-game/
Where to find Vlad:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/callmevlad
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladmagdalin
Where to find Turner:
• Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io
Want to sponsor the show? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
EP 78: Vlad Magdalin (Co-Founder and CEO, Webflow): Finding Gratitude Amidst Business Chaos
Vlad Madgalin is the co-founder and CEO of Webflow, a platform with 3.5 million users that helps people develop websites and web applications. He shares Webflow’s journey as an integral player in the no-code movement, as well as why he's grateful for the opportunity to start this company in the United States.
Vlad tells many sincere stories including immigrating from Russia at age 9, starting Webflow four times before succeeding, going through a rollercoaster experience with YCombinator, and much more.
Show Notes:
Inventing on Principle Talk: https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?si=FQgWF4018HGpin7a
https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?si=FQgWF4018HGpin7a
(0:00) Intro
(1:56) Essentialism
(6:01) No one is a natural great manager
(15:01) The Freedman Doctrine
(22:42) Distinction between behavior and core values
(26:23) Two sides to any coin
(32:31) Choosing who to do business with
(38:31) Working remote
(44:57) Early days of Webflow
(57:07) Looking for silver bullets but finding lead bullets
(1:05:57) The YC interview and walking out of Oblivion
(1:10:01) Joining YC
(1:14:57) From Skype calls to brand ambassadors
(1:24:02) Product roadmap and development
(1:27:24) Graduation vs churn
(1:37:10) Taking your time raising money
(1:24:17) Big product market fit
(1:44:59) Pros and cons of venture capital
(1:52:10) Not a zero sum
(1:57:01) B2C versus B2B
(2:04:22) Immigrating from Russia
(2:11:24) Influence of Pixar
(2:15:07) Favorite interview question
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
SaaStr 438: Webflow CEO Vlad Magdalin on Building an Enduring Company, One Hard Lesson at a Time
Webflow, a no-code website builder, doubled its customer base last year, pushing the company's valuation to $2.1 billion. Webflow CEO Vlad Magdalin openly shares the struggles and triumphs they endured along the way to their success.
Video + blog post: https://www.saastr.com/webflow-ceo-vlad-magdalin-on-building-a-four-billion-dollar-company/
#144 – Putting People First as a Founder with Vlad Magdalin of Webflow
Vlad Magdalin (@callmevlad) might just be the most principled founder I've had on the podcast. "When it came to making hard decisions, I've leaned more on my morality rather than my business sense. That's what I regret the least." Sticking to his heart has paid off. Not only has he built a company that's changing and improving lives by the millions, but he's also grown it to millions in revenue and 155 employees. In this episode Vlad and I talk about the ups and downs of raising money from investors, the impact of building something that empowers your customers to create, and the compounding benefits of focusing on people and relationships over profit and product.
Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/144-vlad-magdalin-of-webflow
#33 - Pioneering The No-Code Movement
We're back with Season 3, brought you by Microsoft: The latest episode of My First Million, Shaan sits down with Vlad Magdalin (@callmevlad), Co-Founder & CEO of Webflow: a visual tool to build web apps. Vlad shares the several attempts in 6 years to get his no-code brainchild going. Persistence paid off as it quickly got to $20MM in revenue and raised a monster $72M Series A round led by Accel. He talks about the emotional rollercoaster of getting into Y-Combinator, the video that made him quit his high paying job immediately, kickstarter kicking him off their platform and the trick to get investors interested without changing anything.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Building Webflow, and the No-Code Movement (with Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder and CEO)
We're joined by Webflow's Co-Founder and CEO, Vlad Magdalin, talking about how he started the company (over a decade, trying three times), how to nail the timing of your startup, and the future of the "no-code movement."
Vlad took his company through YCombinator in 2013, and raised only $3m in the following six years, before closing a $72m Series A from Accel earlier this year. He gives his perspective on why now is the only time Webflow could have worked (not in 2009, the last time he tried to start it), what's changed in browser technology, and how he was inspired by one of the original designers of the iPhone software. Vlad also shares his wisdom for other founders and opportunities he thinks will be available for entrepreneurs in the next five years when robust "no-code" infrastructure is built out.
“The differentiator between No-Code and Low-Code is that Low-Code makes this implicit admission that in order to really finish a project, I’m going to need a developer. Or I am going to need to know how to take it across that last mile. In No-Code, the aspiration is that for the vast majority of cases, you will not that. Or, if you do, that one or a few developers that can create the No-Code version that abstracts away the Low-Code version and put it into the hands of millions.” -Vlad Magdalin, @callmevlad
Sponsors:
Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:
Acquired.fm
@AcquiredFM
Show Links:
Bret Victor – The Future of Programming (YouTube)
Bret Victor – Inventing on Principle (vimeo)
Paul Graham – Default Alive or Default Dead Essay
20VC: Webflow's Vlad Magdalin on The Journey To Breakeven and Raising A Monster $72m Series A, The Single Most Important Question To Ask When Determining Which Investor To Select & The Challenges of Founders Angel Investing
Vlad Magdalin is the Founder & CEO @ Webflow, the startup that allows you to build better business websites, faster, without coding. To date, Vlad has raised over $73m with Webflow from some dear friends of the show including Accel, Ron @ Rainfall, Brianne @ Work Life, Benjamin Ling and Y Combinator to name a few. Prior to founding Webflow, Vlad was a Senior Software Engineer @ Intuit. Before Intuit, Vlad co-founded Chatterfox, a web application allowing people to stay in touch with groups of friends, family, or co-workers.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Vlad made his way into the world of startups? How did the original idea to democratise the world of design and site creation with Webflow come about?
2.) Webflow has had an unorthodox funding path with their recent $73m Series A, how was it for Vlad raising the seed round with Webflow? What lessons did he learn from that raise? Why did they drive to be breakeven so much earlier than others might? Why did Vlad believe now was the right time to go big and raise the Series A?
3.) Vlad chose to partner with Accel, what advice does Vlad give to founders in determining which funding partner to choose? What makes for the best VC <> founder relationships? What is the optimal way to build those relationships? Where does Vlad believe that VCs can strategically move the needle? Where do many think VCs can really help but they most often cannot?
4.) What have been Vlads biggest lessons when it comes to successful board management? What advice would Vlad give Harry when it comes to joining boards as new board member? What does Vlad mean when he says, the best board members come to the board with the mindset of "servant leadership"? How do they show that in their actions? How can investors create an environment of trust at the board?
5.) Vlad AMA: Why does Vlad believe that it is a distraction for founders to be angel investing alongside their role as a founder? How does he believe this creates a wedge between them and the team? How has having kids impacted how he thinks about operating today? What have been the big takeaways from fatherhood?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Vlad's Fave Book: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Vlad on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.