Today, we will be breaking down Wix. Founded in 2006, Wix was created to make building websites easier. Fifteen years later, the Wix platform boasts over 180 million registered users and 4.5 million premium subscribers worldwide.

In this breakdown, we will explore how the company helped to lay the rails for small businesses to get on the internet. We cover the development strategies that linked Wix to the creator economy. We touch on the evolution of the freemium business model, and we analyze what differentiates Wix as a one-stop-shop from an increasingly competitive market.

For this episode, I am joined by Dave Ambrose. Dave is a seed-stage software investor focused on the skills and knowledge economy. Dave focused on the digital creator economy well before it was a widely adopted investment thesis - and as a former co-founder and operator - he is an expert on web-based businesses.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:52] - [First question] - The customer journey on Wix

[00:05:44] - How a businesses relationship with Wix progresses

[00:09:24] - Revenue model for Wix 

[00:10:08] - The addition of the app marketplace to the Wix platform

[00:13:06] - Their customer acquisition strategy

[00:14:10] - A business that creates the rails for other businesses

[00:16:52] - The stickiness of their customer base

[00:18:47] - First major turning point - when Wix started charging customers

[00:20:39] - Second major turning point - shift to mobile browsing and getting away from Flash

[00:23:50] - The full landscape for website builders

[00:28:13] - How the companies he invests in build their web presence and the challenges of building on Wix

[00:30:52] - The Wix vs WordPress battle

[00:33:41] - Wix’s horizontal integration strategy

[00:37:14] - Being the rails for small businesses to get onto the internet

[00:41:49] - What other business operators can learn from Wix

[00:45:21] - What investors can learn from Wix