The Peel with Turner Novak

Bootstrapping Webflow to $10M ARR, and scaling to a $4B Valuation with Vlad Magdalin (Co-founder & CEO)

Oct 10, 2023

Vlad Magdalin, Co-founder and CEO of Webflow, discusses the history of web design, empowering non-engineers with Webflow, the evolution of technology in web design, his journey as a refugee to the US, and the challenges and adaptations in building a successful startup.

01:21:04

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Episode guests

Vlad Magdalin

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Webflow empowers designers to create websites without code.

Vlad's refugee background influenced Webflow's genesis.

Visual design innovation in Webflow simplifies web development.

Strategic partnerships and a mission-driven approach drive Webflow's growth.

Deep dives

Origins as a Refugee and Starting Web Design

Vlad Magdalen, the co-founder of Webflow, shares his journey as a refugee from the USSR, moving to the US with his family due to religious persecution. Starting from humble beginnings, Vlad learned design through jobs like creating PVC pipe catalogs and Russian yellow page ads. His interest in 3D animation led him to start websites, including one for the movie 'Snatch' for a class project.

Introduction

4min

Empowering Website Creation with Webflow

18min

Evolution of Technology and Web Design with Webflow

15min

Challenges and Adaptations: A Refugee Family's Journey to Success in America

5min

Journey from Graphic Design to Web Development

10min

The Role of Support in Entrepreneurial Success

4min

Navigating Financial Struggles and Startup Challenges

22min

Strategic Business Growth and Learning from Industry Leaders

3min

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.

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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