Ep 100 | 3 Critical Lessons Building Webflow | with Vlad Magdalin

Jul 30, 2024

Vlad Magdalin, the CEO and co-founder of Webflow, shares his inspiring journey from a Russian refugee to tech entrepreneur. He discusses the vital lessons learned from failures, including a notable rejection that taught him self-worth. Vlad reflects on the role of serendipity in his creative path and emphasizes resilience amid early challenges with Webflow. He also highlights the importance of valuing work, leadership dynamics, and community collaboration in web design, ultimately celebrating growth and gratitude as the platform continues to evolve.

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Intro

00:00 • 4min

Embracing Failure and Personal Connections

03:56 • 5min

Navigating Failure and Perseverance in Entrepreneurship

08:41 • 4min

Resilience in the Face of Rejection

13:05 • 11min

Exploring Serendipity in Creative Journeys

24:13 • 2min

Valuing Work and Navigating Leadership

26:18 • 21min

Celebrating Community and Collaboration in Web Design

47:18 • 2min

Empowering Growth with Webflow

49:10 • 13min

So, for the 100th episode, I decided to get the big guns in, fly to SF and do this bad boy in person with the CEO (at the time) and co-founder of Webflow, Vlad Magdalin.

Vlad came to US as a refugee with his parents from Russia.

He learnt graphic design almost by accident when he worked with his entrepreneurial dad asked him to convert catalogues from english to Russian.

This lead to a job with a company called Russian American media → deepened his interest in graphics and then 3D animation.

At college, he studied computer science but dropped out to go to the academy of art in San Francisco.

The technical aspect of sophisticated 3D and animation tools and feeling like he was getting superpowers really interested Vlad.

He dropped out of art school and got a job at a design agency.

Why can’t web designers design stuff and hit publish to be live on the web just like 3D - render something and it’s live on the screen

As you may have guessed, this spark was the catalyst for Webflow.
Webflow now has over 200,000 users and is over $100 million annual revenue.

And it was an easy ride with no failures whatsoever.

No no no dear Webflailer… it wasn’t quite this easy.

The failures that we’ll talk about today are:

1) Not valuing himself when he went back to freelancing – until a client rejected my invoice for $750 and said that to him the site is worth at least $5k

2) Stopping to work on Webflow in 2008 (for the 3rd time) when there was a trademark issue and I couldn’t use that name – combined with Weebly raising money

3) (Not sure if I can talk about this one publicly yet… noodling on it) Getting too caught up in the no-code hype and trying to do too much (e.g. Logic) before fully nailing the fundamentals (e.g. CMS)

WEBFLAIL FREEBIES
10 Step Process To Land Your First Webflow Clients: The Ultimate Guide:
https://www.webflail.com/resources/10-step-process-to-land-your-first-webflow-clients-the-ultimate-guide

LINKS FOR TORY
‍💻 See Website: https://www.doorwaycreative.com/
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toryhowell/

TRY OUT WEBFLOW
🚀https://webflow.grsm.io/webflail‍

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