EP 78: Vlad Magdalin (Co-Founder and CEO, Webflow): Finding Gratitude Amidst Business Chaos
The Logan Bartlett Show
Starting the Journey
The speaker reflects on their decision to finally take the leap and start their own company after years of talking about it. They discuss the early days, the financial struggles, and the importance of discipline in business.
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
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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.
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