20VC: Webflow's Vlad Magdalin on The Journey To Breakeven and Raising A Monster $72m Series A, The Single Most Important Question To Ask When Determining Which Investor To Select & The Challenges of Founders Angel Investing
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2019
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vlad Magdalin is the Founder & CEO @ Webflow, the startup that allows you to build better business websites, faster, without coding. To date, Vlad has raised over $73m with Webflow from some dear friends of the show including Accel, Ron @ Rainfall, Brianne @ Work Life, Benjamin Ling and Y Combinator to name a few. Prior to founding Webflow, Vlad was a Senior Software Engineer @ Intuit. Before Intuit, Vlad co-founded Chatterfox, a web application allowing people to stay in touch with groups of friends, family, or co-workers.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Vlad made his way into the world of startups? How did the original idea to democratise the world of design and site creation with Webflow come about?
2.) Webflow has had an unorthodox funding path with their recent $73m Series A, how was it for Vlad raising the seed round with Webflow? What lessons did he learn from that raise? Why did they drive to be breakeven so much earlier than others might? Why did Vlad believe now was the right time to go big and raise the Series A?
3.) Vlad chose to partner with Accel, what advice does Vlad give to founders in determining which funding partner to choose? What makes for the best VC
founder relationships? What is the optimal way to build those relationships? Where does Vlad believe that VCs can strategically move the needle? Where do many think VCs can really help but they most often cannot?
4.) What have been Vlads biggest lessons when it comes to successful board management? What advice would Vlad give Harry when it comes to joining boards as new board member? What does Vlad mean when he says, the best board members come to the board with the mindset of "servant leadership"? How do they show that in their actions? How can investors create an environment of trust at the board?
5.) Vlad AMA: Why does Vlad believe that it is a distraction for founders to be angel investing alongside their role as a founder? How does he believe this creates a wedge between them and the team? How has having kids impacted how he thinks about operating today? What have been the big takeaways from fatherhood?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Vlad’s Fave Book: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Vlad on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 20 minute VC and Founders Friday with me, Harry Stebbings, at H. Stebbings 1996 with 2Bs on Instagram. |
| 0:06.7 | And I could not be more excited for the show today, as we're featuring a startup that is totally taking our world by storm. |
| 0:11.9 | Plus, I'm also a massive fanboy of his Twitter at Call Me Vlad. |
| 0:15.7 | Now, that should give it away, but I'm thrilled to welcome Vlad Magdalene, found and CEO at Webflow. |
| 0:20.5 | The startup that allows you to build better business websites, faster without coding. |
| 0:25.1 | To date, Vlad has raised over $73 million with Webflow from some dear friends of the show, |
| 0:29.4 | including Excel, Ron at Rainfall, Brian at Work Life, Benjamin Ling, and Y Combinator, just to name a few. |
| 0:35.4 | And prior to founding Webflow, Flav was a senior software engineer |
| 0:38.3 | at Intuit. Before Intuit, Vlad co-founded Chatterfox, a web application allowing people to stay in touch |
| 0:44.2 | with groups of friends, family or co-workers. And I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Ron at Rainfall, |
| 0:49.5 | Excel, Eric Barn, Ben Ling, and Alex at Funders Club for some fantastic question suggestions today. |
| 0:55.1 | Mahito's on me for that. |
| 0:56.5 | I want to start today with a big shout out to my friends over at ActiveCampaign. |
| 0:59.7 | With their platform, you can create unique customer experiences that attract, nurture and |
| 1:04.1 | convert leads into customers into repeat customers. |
| 1:07.1 | Over 80,000 companies use Active Campaignampaign to hit their sales targets with intelligent |
| 1:11.3 | automations that send the right message to the right person using the right method |
| 1:15.3 | at the right time. If you already have sales and marketing tools you love, keep them. Active |
| 1:19.6 | Campaign will work with them and give you automations to make them even better. Active |
| 1:23.6 | Campaign is the first customer experience automation platform, helping you provide |
| 1:27.4 | personalize and optimize customer experiences. You can get your second month free and two free one-on-ones |
| 1:32.9 | when you go to activecampaign.com forward slash 20VC. That's activecampaign.com forward slash |
... |
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