Li Jin and Nathan Baschez interview Joseph Cohen. Joseph is the founder and CEO of Universe -- a new kind of website creation tool. It’s a mobile-only, no-code website builder that allows anyone to create a website through a grid-like drag-and-drop interface and it powers over 500,000 websites around the globe. Universe was a graduate of Y Combinator’s Winter 2018 class and has raised $17.3M from investors like BoxGroup, General Catalyst and GV. 

This is Joe’s second startup. He started his first company Lore (which was an online classroom platform) while he was in college at Penn and later sold it to Noodle. He’s a self-taught designer and proponent of the open web. In this interview, we are going to talk to Joseph about: 

• How the function of personal websites has changed in the age of social media
• If Universe is an example of disruption or if they are creating an entirely new market
• How Universe started as an extended Instagram bio
• The decision to add commerce functionality
• The most surprising use case for Universe
• And more!

Related links:
everything.substack.com
meansofcreation.substack.com
joe.onuniverse.com/

Show theme music: Compassion by Stefan Kartenberg